Search for your ancestors in these discharge and transfer registers, indexes to admissions, patient notes, or medical journals from St James Hospital between 1878 and 1918. At that time, the hospital was known as the Portsmouth Lunatic Asylum.

Each result will give you a transcript of the vital facts and an image of the original hospital document. Each transcript can vary, but most will include the following:

  • Name
  • Age
  • Birth year
  • Birth date
  • Admission year
  • Admission date
  • Death year
  • Residence
  • Institution name
  • Place
  • County and country

Images

The images may give you even more information about your ancestor and why he/she was a patient at St James Hospital. The information you will find in the original records depends on the age of the record and the type of document. The registration records’ standards changed and the amount of detail recorded differed through the years. Below are some of the details the original record may reveal.

  • Marital status
  • Occupation
  • Denomination
  • Condition
  • Previous treatment
  • Name and address of a relative
  • Whether a criminal
  • Poor law union
  • History of insanity in the family
  • In some cases, you will find a portrait of your ancestor
  • Details about improvements or changes