Family History Enquiries

Information on Patients

To find out more about an ancestor who was a patient in one of the hospitals, we require the following details:

• The hospital name
• The name of the individual concerned (maiden name and married name if relevant)
• Approximate date of admission
• Birth and death dates of individual (if known)

Access to patient’s medical records is governed by several statutes, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Freedom of Information Act. Usually records will be available for general access 100 years after the death of the individual concerned. The following are the only hospitals for which any patient records survive before 1920:

• Brackley Cottage Hospital
• Horton General Hospital
• Littlemore Hospital
• Oxford Eye Hospital
• Radcliffe Infirmary
• Warneford Hospital

Information on Hospital Staff

To find out more about an ancestor who was employed by the Oxfordshire hospitals, we require the following details:

• The hospital name
• The name of the individual concerned (maiden name and married name if relevant)
• Approximate date/dates of employment

The appointments of senior staff are usually recorded in minute books, but early nurses and all junior staff are harder to trace.

For members of staff who were members of hospital committees, it is likely that the dates of their membership are recorded and possibly minutes of their participation in meetings. Staff are occasionally also mentioned in account books and details are included if any disciplinary or dismissal action was taken.

Last updated: 29 August, 2018