Coverage - Mental Health Records
Between 1858 and 1921 there were 132,002 patients committed to Scottish mental health institutions, some for a short visit, others for most of their life. These people were largely forgotten about, so our mission is to tell their story so their modern-day family can understand them, even if their contemporaries could not.
This is an index of the MC2 and MC7 series of records, held at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh. The title of the series of records catalogued 'MC2' is "Notices of Admissions by the Superintendent of Mental Institutions". The title of the series of records catalogued 'MC7 is "General Register of Lunatics in Asylums". Although the volumes commence in 1858, the first volume begins with records of all patients who were in Scottish asylums on 1 January 1858, including records of patients admitted as far back as the year 1807. These volumes are much less detailed than the "Notices of Admissions", but do contain the date of admission and the date of transfer or death, making it possible to trace a patient through time. We have indexed the full name (including maiden or alternative surnames where these appear in the register), admission date, institution name and date of death (when the patient died in the institution). The index covers admission dates from 1807 through to 10 June 1921, which represents all volumes of the 'General Register' currently open for public inspection. We have also added detailed index data from the admission forms themselves (MC2 series) for a number of months and years.
The Mental Health Records index now contains 207,343 entries.
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