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Asylum and Hospital Records

Web Sites for Genealogists - An Australian gateway site for tracing your family history by Cora Num

Asylums 
National
Monash University – History of Adoption Project. This site includes a bibliography, Australian adoption records information for Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. There are also links to relevant government and community contacts.

New South Wales
Sydney Benevolent Asylum Index to Admissions and Discharges 1857-1900 by Heather Garnsey & Martyn Killion. The asylum was established in 1818 as a philanthropic organisation to care for the needy of Sydney. It served a vital role caring for the poor, abandoned, destitute and sick. This free online database indexes 78,000 names plus there is a free search service available to check for any additional information. 

State Records of New South Wales online guides include:
• Archives In Brief 59 - Child care and protection
• Archives In Brief 66 - Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children
• Archives In Brief 85 - Mental health facilities - Patient records
• Archives In Brief 86 - Infirm and destitute asylums - Inmate records
• Archives In Brief 87 - Liverpool State Hospital and Home - Inmate records

State Records New South Wales, Indexes Online, Child Welfare include: 
• Mittagong Farm Home for Boys (1907-1921) which lists names, birth date, age in years and months, committal date and remarks. There is also a list of boys transferred from the training ship Sobraon, June 1911, when it was abolished.
• Orphan schools (1817-1886). An index to records of Orphan Schools run by the NSW colonial government.
• Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children (1852-1915). A search returns page and entry number, names, alias, age, date and references.
Photocopies of the records can be ordered online, for a fee, using SRNSW’s Copy Service. 


Queensland
Judy Webster's Genealogy Advice for Australia, especially Queensland. There are indexes to mental asylum patients including people suffering from epilepsy, depression and alcoholism. Look here for people who 'vanished'. There are separate indexes to several different series of records about mental asylum inmates (case books, Public Curator insanity files, Supreme Court insanity files, Colonial Secretary's Office in-letters, Annual Reports, etc.)   

Queensland State Archives online guides include:
• Brief Guide 26 - Dunwich and Eventide Records
• Brief Guide 39 - Insanity / Mental Asylum Records

South Australia
State Records of South Australia offers online name searching using ArchivesSearch . Records available include ledgers of children boarded out (1862-1913); registers of admissions to the Industrial School (1886-1922) and (1884-1893).

SA Link-Up Resources includes Finding Your Own Way. An Online directory to childrens’ homes and institution records in South Australia.

State Records of South Australia offers online name searching using ArchivesSearch . Records available include ledgers of children boarded out (1862-1913); registers of admissions to the Industrial School (1886-1922) and (1884-1893).

Tasmania
LINC Tasmania - Digital Tasmania is a project to digitise Tasmania's archival and heritage collections. A significant amount of material has been digitised and is available online for free. Original records include:
• Launceston Benevolent Asylum - Register of Admissions and Discharges (1898-1915)
• Launceston Benevolent Asylum - Report book of inspector on cases for which aid from Society had been sought, with index. (1
869-1878)

Cascades Female Factory Historic Site, Register of Boys (1884-1896) from the Boys' Training School (Reformatory) which operated at Cascades (Tas) 1869-1879 and 1884-1896.

Victoria
Public Record Office Victoria, Mental Health digitised records include asylum records for: Ararat, Ballarat, Ballart/Sunbury, Beechworth, Bendigo receiving ward, Collingwood, Kew, Royal Park Hospital, Sunnyside Licensed House and Yarra Bend. A digitised copy of the Alphabetical Lists of Patients in Asylums 1849-1885 is also available.

Public Record Office of Victoria online guides include:
• PROV Guide 59 - Mental Health Records
• PROV Guide 60 - Adoption, Wardship and Related Records

State Library of Victoria's Databases Online include the Darragh Index to the Melbourne German Sick and Relief Society membership 1861-1924. This Society also known as Deutscher Krankenverein, was founded in 1861. It provided sickness and death benefits to members and also supported members and others who were needy or out of work.

Pathways is a resource for people who as children were in out-of-home 'care' in Victoria, including people known as 'care' leavers, Forgotten Australians, foster children, wards of the state, adopted children, 'Homies', child migrants, and members of the Stolen Generations. Use this site to find information, including documents and images, about institutions, organisations that managed children's institutions, policies, public figures and legislation. There is no personal information available.

Western Australia
State Records Office of Western Australia collection guide Hospitals and Health Records covers Mental Health Institutions. 

Hospitals
New South Wales
State Records of New South Wales online guides include:
• Archives In Brief 88 - Crown Street Women's Hospital.

Queensland
Queensland State Archives online indexes include:
• Brisbane Hospital Registers of Deaths 1899-1913
• Brisbane Hospital Admission Registers 1872-1887
• Consumptive Patients 1897-1902
• Mackay Hospital Admissions 1891-1908

Judy Webster's Genealogy Advice for Australia, especially Queensland. This site contains a variety of online name indexes to Queensland Records including hospital admission registers. 

Moreton Bay and Peel Island History  by Peter Ludlow. This site features local history information for Moreton Bay including Peel Island's Quarantine and Leprosy Stations.

Deaths at Toowoomba Hospital 1889. Compiled by T Foenander from lists published in the Darling Downs Gazette. The Links section at the bottom of the page takes you to similar lists for 1890, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1906 and 1908.

Tasmania
LINC Tasmania - Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office - online guides include:
• Brief guide 001 - Patient records, Royal Derwent Hospital.

LINC Tasmania - Digital Tasmania is a project to digitise Tasmania's archival and heritage collections. A significant amount of material has been digitised and is available online for free. Original records include:
• Launceston General Hospital -  Nurses' register of training and employment, (1891-1912) 
• Royal Derwent Hospital -  Alphabetical monthly register of patients and attendants, with details of diet (1841-1842)

Victoria
Indexes to Deaths in the Melbourne Hospital (1867-1880); Alfred Hospital and Melbourne Benevolent Asylum (1872-1877) by T Foenander. Includes name, age at death, native place, ship of arrival and death details. These indexes were compiled from lists published in the Argus newspaper.

Deaths at Alfred Hospital and Melbourne Benevolent Asylum (1872-1879) by T Foenander. Includes name, age at death, native place, ship of arrival and death details. These indexes were compiled from lists published in the Argus newspaper.

Index to Royal Women's Hospital (formerly Melbourne Lying-In Hospital ) Midwifery Book no 1 (1856-1876). This index facilitates access to the Royal Women's Hospital (Victoria) digitised Midwifery Book (1856-1876) which is freely available on The Royal Women’s Hospital site

Western Australia
State Records Office of Western Australia collection guide Hospitals and Health Records covers Hospital Records, Mental Health Institutions, Doctors and Nurses, Dentists, Local Boards of Health, Royal Commissions of Inquiry, Other Health Related Records plus further information. 

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© Cora Num 1997-2012. Last updated 1 January 2012