Sunday, January 8, 2012

Were your ancestors mad in 1911?

The 1911 census is now available in its complete form - with the final column, headed infirmity,  being visible on the images (available on FindMyPast.co.uk). This means that you can now learn whether any of your ancestors were totally blind, totally deaf, lunatic or imbecile. I decided to see if it would add anything we didn't know to The Patients at Harpenden Hall, Harpenden, 1851-1901 who were still alive in 1911. There were no surprises but in the process I found that Gertrude Anna Otton Halse was probably the G. H. aged 54, born Stoke Newington at London County Council The Manor Asylum at Epsom Surrey in 1911.

4 comments:

  1. So did I and the entry states she had been a lunatic for 33 years raising the question of where she was cared for at the time of the 1881 census. If this cannot be established we may have the wrong body at Epsom. Anthony

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  2. In 1881 Gertrude Ann Halse aged 24 was a boarder at Matlock Bank, Matlock, Derbyshire, an establishment run by Edmund Dobson whose profession was hydropathist (hydrotherapist in modern parlance). We may assume she was taking the cure perhaps occasioned by symptoms that had debuted within the last three years. Anthony

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  3. Thank again Antony. Obviously going to Matlock for the waters did not cure her problems, but I am sure that it was a therapy that would have been considered by a desparate family

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  4. Not sure the Victorians would have seen hydropathy as a desperate measure as it was recommended for "nervous disorders," a euphemism for mental illness that still was current in my youth. Seven years ago I stayed at Noboribetsu Onsen (Hot Springs) in northern Japan in a vast hotel that could easily rival the Victorian establishments at Matlock. Of the seven types of spring on offer, one was "Radiocative spring...the main elements are radon and thoron...Especially the sedative action of the water is good for nervous aches, rheumatism, and menopausal disorders." Anthony

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