Now I wonder if thats why I cant find him.....did ballarat have a lunatic asylum and a benevolent asylum? Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place?
@clair.de.lune wrote:"My great grandfather was named after this uncle, but then shortly after his birth his parents became "displeased" with the uncle and changed their sons name. This was about the time he entered the asylum."
Oh my!
lol, I know! I found this out from the transcripts of my great grandfathers bigamy trial.
See, I love this family, so many treasures to find....asylums, bigamy, ned kelly.....lol
@clair.de.lune wrote:
@punch*drunk wrote:Now I wonder if thats why I cant find him.....did ballarat have a lunatic asylum and a benevolent asylum? Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place?
Well I just googled I think it did!
Yep, thats what i thought. It wasnt till I copy & pasted that Trove article that i even took notice of the word benevolent on there. Oh well. at least i'm on the right track now 🙂
Records for the Benevolent Asylum are held in Ballarat, not digitised 😞
I dunno, I think PROV has some kind of office or something there, maybe part of the historical society?
If you're bored one day you can go check it out for me 🙂 I doubt he'd be too hard to find, George Kirkham entered the asylum in December 1903. Must have been discharged at some point because he ended up in Salvation Army home in Pakenham and died in 1910.
I also found a newspaper article of a "vagrant" arrested in the FTG are with that name, I think that was probably him. He cant have been in the asylum for too long.
Now i'm stepping away from the computer, i cant believe I've wasted half the day already!
