Tracing Your Ancestors in Lunatic Asylums is a resource and history guide and part of a series for family historians produced by Pen & Sword. Due out 19th Jan 2020, it's 208 pages and will be available in paperback format.

I have always been interested in the personal and family side of history rather than the huge overarching wars and migrations. As a healthcare professional, medical and medical care history has been an interest of mine as well. Most of the content of this book is a well annotated discussion of the care and treatment of people who were institutionalized for mental health problems (as they were defined and understood at the time).

There are numerous case studies included here. They are often heartbreaking; the reality of daily life for many people suffering from mental illness was brutal (and short). The chapter are arranged roughly chronologically with descriptions of care and housing prior to 1800, nineteenth century and 20th century. These are followed by descriptions of the medical understanding of different illnesses, the setup and running of mental institutions of the time, different types of institutions (for the dangerous/criminally ill, developmentally disabled, as well as the treatment of mental illness in the armed forces). There is also a chapter covering different potential sources of information for the researcher trying to uncover information about a relative who might have received care for mental illness in the relatively distant past.

The appendices include an alphabetical glossary, links lists (slanted toward sources in the UK), a bibliography as well as links to modern day memorial and living history museums to visit.

As a history of mental illness and treatment in the British Isles, this book is superlative. I would say it's of moderately limited use to genealogists searching for specific information on family members. It is a poignant testimony to the often heartbreaking realities of mental heathcare in the past.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I am currently working on tracing my family history and thought this book may be useful. It provided a great insite into asylums in the 1800’s and what their patients had to endure. It is far more about historical accounts than tracing your ancestors but an informative read al the same.

This is absolutely fascinating and I've learned so much from it.
Written about Victorian lunatic Asylums it's a wealth of information.
Great detail is given is given about asylums,daily diets,beliefs of how the patients should be cared for and tracing ancestors in asylums. Now these are asylums in the UK, none are listed for this time period in the US.
Real life heartbreaking cases are presented detailing daily life on the inside and how different mental illnesses were treated including things today we'd never institutionalize a person for like dementia. Mental illnesses were so misunderstood back then, still are to a degree but people would be left to languish in there for a lifetime.
It went on to explain different types of mental illnesses and how they were treated.
Different types of institution are described such as private madhouses, county lunatic asylums, facilities for idiots and imbeciles, and military mental hospitals.

Expected publication: January 19th 2020 by Pen and Sword Family History.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you.
All opinions expressed are my own.

I was disappointed with this book. If you’re looking for a genealogy research book keep looking. All the information provided in the book was related to the United Kingdom so if you have relatives there this may be helpful.

This book has the subtitle “A guide for Family historians” so before reviewing this I have to confess to being a local history researcher who will occasionally wander into genealogical research. With no real specialist expertise I looked at this volume to throw some light on medical records that could be accessed easily. This was not really the book for me as it started a not particularly coherent review of mental health provision by period and it then too took until page 147 before the author offered us a chapter on “Sources”.
At that stage various source types were presented in greater or lesser detail – some with access to specific contact details or the relevant online links. But the extent of contact sources was again variable. Presumably there was an assumption that readers might know of the principle of local and national records offices and archives. But to this reader the level of knowledge already held by the projected readers that the author was recognising and aiming to support was unclear. The key issue when searching medical records is that due to confidentiality under GDP access is restricted by the “hundred year rule” and the author failed to clearly explain how that operated and records still accessed for some individuals.
Expect before the sources a review of the type and nature of institutions that were used to house the mentally ill or incapacitated. Higgs’ first chapters are presented in broad brush date order. Each included institution types and the legislation under which they might operate. Differences would be drawn between provision an England, Ireland and Scotland – albeit with varying amounts of detail. Along the way there would be descriptions of terminology or classifications used. There might be references in places to evolving medical understanding or practices. Overall this meant that although basic information might be the chapters seemed at best a hard read and worst garbled.
Perhaps the key information needed might be in there somewhere but not obviously with the correct level of detail., Because basic principles of funding and therefore access to treatment places was not made clear in advance, rules and exceptions were introduced at seemingly odd places in the text. In the absence of specialist facilities – or insufficient places (recognised) vulnerable people would be housed and treated elsewhere. There was no clear explanation of what work houses and poor houses were and where their records might (or not) be available either causing further confusion, Overall I suspect that it would have been hard to follow the various period chapters without a strong previous understanding of overall welfare provision and where it might be located.
Throughout the texts – which might already include case or institution examples there are a large number of “Case histories” of individual patients that have been derived from medical or other records. It should be said that it was not always obvious why these samples were selected or located in the specific chapters. So their interest would lie more in them as historic information rather than for the application they had to the book’s intention. The book was interspersed with a number of photos and images of various institutions – these might be of interest if they were family applicable to a reader.
Overall, I felt that the author had not clearly identified who her target readers might be some genealogists have a very impressive understanding of record sources. Her resume of the background to institution provision was not as assured as it might have been and her selected samples of cases and places – albeit with an attempt to give wider national coverage - seemed flaky. But the impression left was that as she had written the broad format of this book she had forgotten it should lead to the requirement to understand the relevant records and where to access them. So I would describe this book as disappointing – recognising that with much of the information included presented in a more systematic way the book might be of real use to genealogists learning their way.

This was more of a book on the history and workings of asylums than it was a guide on tracing your ancestors in asylums. The title does it a disservice, as it's a very interesting book that a lot of people probably won't pick up because of it.

Really liked this book! It was extremely informative to a degree you don't see enough when it comes to the era of asylums!
I can't say too much because it is a historical read, so a lot just has to be left to you to read yourself. But if the subject matter interests you, you really need to check it out!

Higgs provides a highly readable discussion on the institutionalization of British Isles persons suffering from a variety of mental disorders.The majority of institutions discussed are in England, Scotland, or Wales. Higgs shows how attitudes toward the mentally ill evolved over time. The narrative includes several case studies of individuals, providing a list of sources used in each sketch. Near the end she discusses record availability, providing a few examples. As a genealogist, I wish this section had been expanded to include additional record images. Genealogists with family members spending time in an asylum in the United Kingdom will find this book helpful to their research. This review is based on an advance review copy provided through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

Mehr als nur ein einfacher Leitfaden, um Verwandte zu finden. Das Buch bezieht sich leider nicht auf eine internationale Ebene, ist trotzdem lehrreich und hilfreich, da sich einige Inhalte durchaus übertragen lassen.

Was unable to download, but I am a huge fan of tracing my lineage and have actually been working to do so, so anything that gives you more information or help on how to do it tends to be worth the read. Ill give it a 3 because its a fascinating subject forme.

This book will be of enormous benefit to residents of Great Britain and perhaps other European nation's. It was not beneficial to me in my country, but I'm glad I could peruse it.

This is a very informative, straight forward book which explores the history of mental asylums and many of the people who were held in them.

Not only does it include bios about several people who stayed in these places but it also explains how and why asylums were used. For example I had no idea if you had the slightest bit of a learning disability you could be sent away to one. The conditions and situations these people were subjected to are appalling and it makes you think if it got any better at all.

There are also resources that instruct as the title suggest...Attempting to trace ancestors in these asylums. It's very helpful and the entire thing is interesting albeit sad.

All in all, this is a pretty good guide if you would like to learn more about lunatic asylums. My one complaint is the writing is somewhat dry but overall it's not a bad read :)

Thanks very much to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy of my ARC.

Tracing Your Ancestors in Lunatic Asylums
A Guide for Family Historians
By Michelle Higgs

If you are looking for a book about mental illnesses and how they were handled in the British Isles in the 1800’s and early 1900’s then this is the book for you. Michelle has done extensive research on the various places that received patients with all kinds of mental problems. She describes case studies, treatment, for all kinds of patients. It was informative but not what I was expecting when I chose this book to read.

I read 150 pages before I ever came upon anything that remotely referred to how to trace your ancestors who were in Asylums. Everything was about Britain, Scotland, Ireland etc and nothing about any other country. The title and subtitled refer to this books as being a handbook on how to find more information about your ancestors. There were some good sites listed but I was really disappointed with the title of this book.
I would not recommend this book if you are looking for genealogy research assistance.

#TracingYourAncestors InLunaticAsylums#NetGalley

Unfortunately despite contacting customers support was unable to download this .Very disappointing as I love this series of books , so I can only imagine if it’s as good as the others it will be well worth the read!