How I found photographs of David Scott Ritchie Sr

The record relating to my great-grandfather's admission to the London County Asylum provided much more information than I had hoped to gather as a beginner genealogist. It also confirmed the fact that this was indeed my relative, as it referenced a 7-year-old son and a sister-in-law whom I already knew to be a member of my great-grandmother's family. The question that still troubled me, though, was whether David Ritchie Sr was my Grandad's biological father. Since my mother always joked about her father having royal blood, and since I love a good mystery, the next obvious step was to find a photograph that would settle the matter once and for all.

I asked professional genealogist Judy Lester to help me with this. She replied, saying, "The best chance of a photograph for David Scott Ritchie senior would be the Patient Casebook for Hanwell. This is closed to public access under the 100-year privacy rule. Although the required information is older than that, the volume contains other entries written within the last 100 years. So I cannot access it for you."

She added, however, that the London Metropolitan Archives staff will sometimes access "closed" files and will extract and send a transcript or copy of any data found. This is a "discretionary" service. Nevertheless, she wrote to ask them what their policy would be in this case, and whether they would charge their standard research fee.

To our mutual surprise, the LMA said the casebook for David Ritchie had been wrongly catalogued as Closed to Access, and it should be open for inspection. Judy said she would try to order it up and see if there was a photograph or any medical case-notes that might be of interest.

Feeling hopeful, I asked Judy to go ahead and report on what the casebook contained. Her fee for this work was worth every cent. As previously mentioned, I am visually impaired and cannot read text from images. Judy very kindly describes what she finds and, in the case of documents, transcribes them for me. Her next email read as follows:

"Two photographs of David Scott Ritchie are attached. They are both head-and-shoulders, pasted into the case-book side-by-side. One was taken on 12 June 1909, a week after he was admitted. The other (better quality) was taken on 16 February 1911. The dates are written underneath.

"You will obviously want a family member to describe these to you and compare them with photos that you will have of your grandfather. To my eye, he looks young, timid and nervous in 1909, perhaps not surprisingly in view of the circumstances. By 1911 he looks noticeably older, perhaps more settled and more confident. He has a moustache and beard in both photos, much thicker in 1911.

"The medical notes in the case-book are extensive. They are a treasure-trove of information about his state of health and mind. I haven't done much more than glance at them, but I see that he was discharged to the care of his wife for a trial month, early in 1911. But he wasn't happy, felt that he needed to return to Hanwell, and did so before the month was out. The second photo will have been taken at that time."

No doubt, dear reader, you are itching to see the pictures, but you will have to wait. They are copyright protected and I need to obtain permission before I can publish them here. You will also have to wait to hear what my family thought of them. Was this man my blood relative or was he not? Be sure to read the next exciting instalment!

Photo credit: "London Metropolitan Archives. A day well spent here." by Andrea Vail.