Genealogy Chat

Hi Jane, If you google 'southampton Asylum' and 'portsmouth asylum' their is much information about these places. On the Portsmouth one there is a link to the reocrds office which may be of use to you. UD usually means urban district. Audrey

Urban District - sort of borough council Maureen

I became interested in family research when I realised that my great grandfather Gwylim Owen disappeared during WW1 and that there were so many versions of what happened that it was clear nobody actually knew. I know that Gwilym had periods of mental health problems, I'm not sure how this manifested, whether through depression or something else - it seems he suffered a head injury when in his teens. He lived a hard life as a miner, married and had two children. Then around 1915 he vanishes from the family. I've been looking for him for a long time and, as a result have traced parts of my family back to the 17th Century, discovered unknown previous marriages, realised just how poor my family was and how lucky I am to have been born when I was and, like most people who get into this, what a wonderful mongrel race we are (my grandmother's 'just off the boat from Ireland' protestations turned out to be almost 100 years out as her family lived in Wales since the early 19th Century and includes a touch of Brummie and London). Last week I decided to try for a death certificate for someone called Gwilyn who died in Portsmouth. It arrived this morning. 'Gwilyn' died in Lunatic Asylum Kingston UD (not sure about UD) of bronchopneumonia. His occupation is listed as 'of the workhouse Southampton UD (again not sure I'm reading the UD properly) Labourer I can't find any record of this asylum in Kingston. I don't understand why a man who apparently enlisted in the army (they appear to have accepted him even knowing of his problems) in South Wales would end up in Southampton. I know that the name isn't exactly right but I suspect it is just written wrongly. I just have a feeling this is him and feel so very sad. Can anyone help me with where these institutions were, what they were used for or how I could find out more? Thank you.