Medical matters
What do you know about the health of your ancestors? In the case of my Perrett family, I know that great-great-grandfather Charles William Perrett died from a stroke in 1918. His daughter Sarah Mabel suffered the same fate in 1961 and – while preparing for her funeral – another daughter, Ella, had a heart attack and also died. Two of their siblings – Charles Oliver John and my great-grandmother, Clarissa, had Type 2 diabetes and another, Maria Louise, ended her life in a mental hospital, though her cause of death is recorded as pernicious anaemia. The children were perhaps rather lucky to have survived infancy, given that their father did not believe in vaccination and was fined on at least one occasion for failing to have them vaccinated!
This I know from death certificates, newspaper reports and family stories, but where can we look to find out more?
If you’re looking for hospital records, try searching the National Archives Hospital Records Database here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/ – this will tell you which hospital records exist for a particular town, where they are held and for which dates (it’s a good idea to double-check with record offices before you visit – many records are closed for 100 years to maintain patient confidentiality). When I searched for ‘Bridgwater’ I found that records from Bridgwater General Hospital and the Mary Stanley Maternity Home can be found at Somerset Heritage Centre.
Ancestry has some hospital records available, some of which are surprisingly detailed. For example:
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Stockton State Hospital (California) – Cecilia Parrott committed from San Joaquin in August 1884. Age 38, housewife, evidence of insanity. Incoherence in language, loss of memory, irritable in temper. The disease has been gradually increasing for many years. She imagines that she has been defrauded. Has had epilepsy since 15 years of age and gradually growing worse. Discharged May 1888 |
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James Parratt, police officer, of Crooksbury, Deal, admitted to Brookwood Asylum, Woking on 16th November 1868, aged 50 – melancholia |
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Eli Parratt, child, of Farnham, admitted to Brookwood Asylum, Woking on 25th August 1893, aged 4 – “idiot” |
Another place to look for details of your family medical history is military records. At the very least, these will usually provide you with details of an ancestor’s height and weight, hair colour, eye colour and other basic details.
In some cases – particularly if an individual was wounded or discharged – more information can be found. Take the example of David Perrett, a labourer from Manningford Abbas, Wiltshire, who signed up to serve in the Army on 4th September 1914.
From his pension records we learn that David was 5ft 2.5ins tall and weighed 121lbs, with 6/6 (perfect) vision in both eyes and 5 vaccination marks on his left arm. He was discharged on 8th October 1914, his records stating that he had extreme hammer toes on both feet, chronic rheumatism and was generally unfit.
Another example – Godfrey Parrott of Alton, Hampshire, signed up aged 18 in 1891. He was 5ft 4ins tall and weighed 119lbs, with three moles between his shoulders on his back. He suffered a contusion of his spine in January 1893 and a contusion of his left arm in April 1897.
He served until 1915, when he was hospitalised with vomiting and swelling in his feet and back after being in the trenches for 28 days. He was noted to have chronic nephritis and was discharged in July 1915.
Observations on his condition at this time state: “He is pale and anaemic persistently losing flesh, weak heart sounds and oedema of back and feet. There is a copious amount of albumen in his urine. Was operated on in 1913 for duodenal ulceration. Has some dilatation of colon”. Sadly, Godfrey died the year after he was discharged.
The library at the Wellcome Collection in London houses a wealth of documents relating to medical matters. You can browse their digital collection here: http://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/ . Whilst this may not contain a great deal of information pertaining to specific individuals, it can be helpful to put the health of your ancestors into some sort of context.
It is also useful to know about disease epidemics that may have affected your family, particularly if you have a spate of deaths around the same date. My great-great-great-aunt, Hannah Browning Payne (nee Hoyal), for example, lost three little girls under the age of 5 in the space of a week in 1876 when an outbreak of diphtheria hit Cleveland, Ohio. Major epidemics are listed online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics however you can also search newspapers to see if more localised outbreaks were reported.
One interesting website is the Historical Hospital Admission Records Project (HHARP) – www.hharp.org – which has records from children’s hospital in London and Glasgow. P*rr*tt entries on their database include:
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January 1866 – 3 year old Thomas Parrott (outside London) – eczema |
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July 1880 – 5 year old William Parrott of London – starvation |
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August 1882 – 10 year old Ada Parrott (outside London) – synovitis, knee |
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September 1885 – 9 year old George Parrott of Pancras – abscess thigh |
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March 1890 – 9 year old Oliver Parrett of Southwark – sinus hip |
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June 1892 – 8 year old Elsie Perrott of Islington – catarrh, erythema |
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October 1894 – 3 year old Annie Perrett of Lewisham – stricture of the rectum |
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January 1898 – 3 year old Alfred Perrott of Bethnal Green – typhoid fever (admitted again with the same problem in March 1898) |
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March 1898 – 3 year old Bertie Perrott of Southwark – cleft palate, diphtheria |
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May 1898 – 3 year old Daisy Perrott of Hackney – lithaemia (admitted again in May 1906 with nephritis) |
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January 1902 – 2 year old Alfred Parrett of Holborn – meningitis |
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July 1906 – 1 year old William Parrott (outside London) – tubercular meningitis |
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September 1906 – 5 year old William Parrott of Kensington – tubercular hips (admitted again with the same problem in November 1906, April 1907, August 1907 and June 1912, with arthritis in April 1912 and with ankylosis of the hip in November 1915) |
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February 1908 – 2 year old Ivy Perrett of Pancras – bronchopneumonia |
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November 1909 – 1 year old Violet Perrett (outside London) – meningitis |
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October 1910 – 9 year old Ernest Parrott (outside London) – eczema |
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December 1910 – 8 year old Bessie Parritt of Pancras – chorea |
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February 1912 – 3 year old Arnold Perrett of Islington – tuberculosis |
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February 1912 – 11 year old Madeline Perrett of Camberwell – chorea |
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April 1912 – 5 year old Louie Parrott of Kensington – wasting (admitted again in May 1912 with marasmus) |
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September 1913 – 0 year old Bessie Perrett – cleft palate / harelip |
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September 1913 – 5 year old Violet Parratt (outside London) – otitis media (admitted again with the same problem in January 1914) |
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September 1913 – 4 year old James Perrott of Lambeth – appendicitis |
Some of these childhood illnesses – in the days before the NHS – provide an indication of the family’s social circumstances. It is sad to read of children with conditions such as starvation and wasting.
So what do you know about your ancestors and their medical history? Is there a condition that runs in the family? Have you come across any useful resources that might be of interest to other members? Please do let us know!