How to trace... ancestors in lunatic asylums

While it can be a shock to discover that an ancestor spent time in an asylum, it can be a very rewarding trail for the family researcher, explains Jenny Thomas

It can come as a terrible shock for genealogists to find an ancestor who spent time in a lunatic asylum. The very words can conjure dark and foreboding images, many of them acquired from novels, films and a general knowledge of the harshness of life at the time. However, an ancestor in a lunatic asylum can also provide an excellent opportunity for research, including the incentive to discover what their life might actually have been like, free of the stereotypes that so readily spring to mind.

Martin Freeman’s 3 x great grandmother, Sarah Meldrum, spent the last 20 years of her life in the Northumberland County Lunatic Asylum at Morpeth. The Who Do You Think You Are? researchers were not only able to discover when and why Sarah was admitted, but unearthed all kinds of other details about how Sarah might have lived and been treated, and how she would have occupied her time. They were even able to unearth a picture of the building, which still stands today.

Here are some ideas about where you might begin your search for a family member who spent time in a lunatic asylum.