visitors since May 6 1997
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE PROCEEDING:
Unfortunately two people offering assistance here have now asked for
their names to be removed as they found themselves having to handle too
many general enquiries, not specific to the look ups they were offering.
Please take care to read what is on offer before firing off enquiries.
PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER: Neither the site
provider or the look-up volunteers are experts in the field of medical genealogy.
Please restrict your requests directed at volunteers to the look
up items they are offering to investigate and read the information provided
here before asking the site provider any questions.
Last updated May 20th 2004: Disclaimer above and German section.
Thanks to Dr. Graham McMahon, Frank Lake, Dennis Stoker, Carmel Reynolds,
Kerrie Rafter, Arthur Teschler, John Hawkins, Kyle Betit, Dermot Dunne,
Ivor Lee, Barbara Wanless, Margaret Lipscomb, Iain Kerr and Hugh Casement
for their contributions - keep them coming!
Caroline Moss-Gibbons of The Royal College of Physicians reports: Munk's Roll (more correctly the "Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London", colloquially known as Munk's Roll after it's first editor - William Munk) is now available on the College Internet site. Either browse through the publications pages or go straight there. The current volume is online, previous volumes are available for sale from Publications Department or for reference (and copying) in the College Library. We (the Library) offer a charged-for photocopying service for people unable to visit in person. There is also a cumulative index covering the entirety of Munk's Roll, back to the founding fathers in 1518. This index tells you which volume the person you want appears in, and, particularly useful - it gives the person's dates, very helpful if there are more than one Dr Smith's.... It is intended that in time (resources and manpower are the limiting factors of course) that all of Munk's Roll will appear on the site. This will be many years down the line, but we are starting by 'cherry-picking' those physicians we get most enquiries about, eg William Harvey, Thomas Linacre, John Radcliffe, Richard Mead etc etc. The Royal College of Physicians of London, 11 St Andrew's Place, LONDON NW1 4LE Tel: +44(0)20 7935 1174 Fax: +44(0)20 7487 5218 e-mail: info@rcplondon.ac.uk
The printed volumes (at many large libraries) are: William Munk's
'Roll of the Royal College of Physicians' Vols. I-III 1518-1825, Vols
IV-VII (posthumous) 1826-1983. There is a set at the Guildhall
Library Manuscripts Collection and the Society
of Genealogists have Vols. I-IV.
Frank Lake put me on to this source after finding a reference to it at the WH Kellogg Health Sciences Library, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. For Canadians the shelf reference is: W22 Fa1 M96........Munk's Roll, London 1878. This is the Web Page where it was found - but it is not a transcript - you will still have to go there!
Began in 1845 and has appeared annually ever since. The earliest volumes are not often very informative, giving only name and address, but as time progressed more details appeared - qualifications, posts held (including Army and Navy) and publications. This was a commercial enterprise and a fee was payable, so some doctors are missing from its pages.
Other Books and Authors: The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine | About Dr Roy Porter - the author of many medical social histories | Dr Roy Porter's Reviews in History | Reviews in History Main Page.
Kyle J. Betit reports: an important resource for doctors in Britain and Ireland is P. J. and R.V. Wallis, Eighteenth Century Medics (subscriptions, licenses, apprenticeships) 2nd Edition (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Project for Historical Bibliography, 1988). This index is largely to the information from subscription lists of books published in the eighteenth century including medical treatises and other works.
There is a copy of the above work at the Mercer Library who also list the following (in their free brochure) 'Tracing Medical Ancestors' - available from Mary O'Doherty, the Archivist at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland ,123 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland.
The Navy List began in 1782 - full sets at The
Public Record Office, part sets at the The
Society of Genealogists. Here is the modern equivalent: The Navy List 1995.
For further reading try N.A.M. Rodger's Naval Records for Genealogists
(1988) and W.R. O'Byrne's Navy Biographical Dictionary (1849)
.
Having covered the available printed sources, reference to service registers
in the The Public Record Office
under ADM 104/12-30 and the index in ADM 104/11 can flesh out the details.
Further information is available under ADM 22 (usually full-pay registers)
and ADM 24 (usually half-pay registers). Medical Officers records of full-pay
are found in ADM 24.
Go to: Oriental
and India Office Collections of the British Library.
A good starting point would be two books available there and at the main
British Library:
An Alphabetical List of the Medical Officers of the Indian Army 1764-1838
by Edward Dodwell and James S. Miles (1839) - includes Prince of Wales Island
(now Penang, Malaysia)
Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930 by D.G. Crawford (1930)
There are two Directories which should also prove useful: The East
India Register (1808-1844)
The Indian Army and Civil Service List (1870 onwards)
Here are other sites that may be of assistance: British
Ancestors in India | A Brief History of the East
India Company | More About The
East India Company
The above leads to the thought that there may be Civil Service Registers for others in the Colonial Office Medical Service. Further advices to follow, but it might be worth investigating the collections at the School of Oriental and African Studies Library (London)
The Mercer Library holds the records of The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland their collection includes an index of the Kirkpatrick Archive of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland - a collection of newspaper cuttings and earlier material about Irish Doctors up to 1954.
To locate an international Medical School or University Website try the MedWeb Regions Index.
France - Paris
After Napoleon had been defeated (1815) and the French monarchy restored,
it was considered safe enough to study medicine in Paris, although there
was still some unrest in the capital. Medical Students' dossiers can be
found at the Archives
Nationales, 60 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, 75614 Paris-Cedex 03.
Dissertations are preserved at the Bibliothèque Interunversitaire
de Médecine, 12 Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, 75270 Paris-Cedex
06. I have not been able to find a web site for them. It is worth
noting that copies are often also deposited in the British
Library and the American Surgeon-General's catalogue.
Holland - Leiden
The archives are at Witte Singel 27 2nd Floor, Dousa Archives, Leiden,
Netherlands. Archivist: Sylvia Vermetten.
Founded in 1575, this University admitted students from all over Europe,
regardless of religion. In 1932 R.W. Innes-Smith extracted and published
a list of all the English-speaking students from 1575-1875. Available at
the British Library.
There is a second book, published by the List and Index Society in 1882
- "English Speaking Students who have graduated at Leiden University"
by Edward Peacock. Despite the title, it just has their matriculation details,
as not all the students necessarily graduated from there, choosing to complete
their education elsewhere. Innes-Smith wrote his book as a biography, following
students' later University education and careers. English speakers also
included men born in America, the West Indies and India. Often towns of
origin are mentioned, including London, Norwich and Liverpool, or at least
the country - England, Scotland or Ireland. The language of the original
records was Latin, the most common appellation being "Anglus".
The University itself published "Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno
Bataviae" at its tercentenary in 1875, and it is from here that both
English authors found their information. All matriculating students over
the 300 years of the University's existence are listed; giving their names,
country of birth, date of inscription, age and the faculty entered for study.
In addition to these printed works, the archives still have the original
applications all the way back to the beginning. At the turn of the 20th
Century the application format changed to a standard printed form and contained
personal details (place of origin, address in Leiden, religion, education)
and the course(s) entered; from the 1930s these include a photograph.
Germany - Giessen
I received the following message from Kerrie
Rafter on May 8 1997 .... My ancestor was a doctor in Jersey. James
William SYMONS was listed as having obtained a Doctorate in medicine and
surgery from the University of Giessen in Germany in 1843. I haven't been
able to locate any records to prove this but the information was given to
me from the Medical Directory so I assume it was correct. .... and have
since located the Website of the University
of Justus-Liebig Giessen.
After posting an enquiry about this at the Newsgroup soc.genealogy.german
- the following correspondence with Arthur
Teschler ensued on May 9 1997 ... Giessen University received the title
Justus-Liebig-Universitaet as late as 1957 after his famous professor Justus
von Liebig who taught agricultural chemistry 1824-52. So Giessen University
would be the correct name for 1843.
From the 'Dekanatsbuch der Med. Fakult"at, Giessen' (Sig Med C1
Bd 4) 3 January 1843: Symons, James William von der Insel Jersey, aus"ubender
Wundarzt und Apotheker daselbst mit Befugnis zu einer inneren Praxis, schrieb
Dissertation 'On Diseases of Urinary Organs', wurde in absentia promoviert
in Med. Chir. und Geburtshilfe. Nota: Nur handschriftlich eingereicht. Translation:
Symons, James William of Jersey Island, active surgeon and chemist there
with the license for an office for internal medicine has written a thesis
'On Diseases of Urinary Organs' and was awarded a doctorate in Medical Surgery
and Midwifery in his absence. Note: thesis submitted handwritten only.
According to our archivist Eva-Marie
Felschow doing a thesis "in absence" was not uncommon for
Giessen in the first half of the last century. Some "doctors"
didn't even submit a thesis. Buying a title apparently was possible. This
was not necessarily the case for J.W. Symons. It means that he was not a
student in Giessen, but received his doctorate here.
Germany - Leipzig
The Faculty of Medicine is one of the oldest faculties of the University of Leipzig, which was founded in 1409 (see left).
They have a Website and the address of their Archives and Library is The Medical-Historic Collection of the University of Leipzig, Augustusplatz 10/11, 04109 Leipzig, GERMANY.
This came by e-mail on April 23 1998: Margaret Lipscomb reports that more information about the Directory of Deceased American Physicians 1804-1929 can be found here and that the USUHS - Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences is worth investigating, especially their Resources for Medical History Papers pages.
Here is the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM)- History of Medicine Division Website. Their collection includes dictionaries of medical biography, medical directories, and obituary indexes, primarily from the 19th century.
Margaret's message included this summary of useful reading material. There are seven 19th century biographical dictionaries of American physicians. The early ones; Thatcher, Williams, and Gross include relatively few individuals. But the ones from the end of the century are much more eclectic and depended heavily on who responded to requests to biographical information. The Kelly and Burrage describes more than 2,000 American physicians; mostly 19th century who in the words of Howard Kelly, "Have done the noteworthy".
James Thacher, American Medical Biography 1828 reprinted New York: Milford House,1967) | Stephen Williams, American Medical Biography, 1845 reprinted New York: Milford House, 1967) | Samuel D. Gross, ed., The Lives of Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons of the Nineteenth Century (1861) | Atkinson, William B. The Physicians And Surgeons Of The United States. Philadelphia, Robson, 1878. p. 788 | Stone, Richard F., editor. Biography Of Eminent American Physicians And Surgeons. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. Indianapolis, Hollenbeck, 1898. p. 857, (the first edition was briefer, published in 1894) | Watson, Irving A., editor. Physicians And Surgeons Of America...A Collection Of Biographical Sketches Of The Regular Medical Profession. Concord, New Hampshire, Republican Press Association, 1896. p. 843. | Kelly, Howard A., and Walter L. Burrage. Dictionary Of American Medical Biography; Lives Of Eminent Physicians Of The United States And Canada, From The Earliest Times. New York, Appleton, 1928. p. 1,364 | Over 17,000 American physicians are briefly listed in Holloway, Lisabeth M., Ernest N. Feind, and George N. Holloway. Medical Obituaries: American Physician's Biographical Notices In Selected Medical Journals Before 1907. New York, Garland, 1981. p. 513. | Directory Of Deceased American Physicians, 1804-1929: a genealogical guide to over 149,000 medical practitioners providing brief biographical sketches drawn from the American Medical Association's Deceased Physician Masterfile, 2 vols. Chicago, IL, AMA 1993).
Link to the Texas Medical Association List of Directories.
The records of the Society are at the Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2P 2EJ and their forms are very detailed. A list of all apothaceries from 1715-1840 (on microfilm) has been published by the The Society of Genealogists - see Published Sources.
Marie Sampson has this List of Apothecaries (1815-1840) on fiche and is willing to consult it for enquirers. Please give her a reasonable amount of time to reply as she has to take the fiche to her local library in order to read it.
See also Guildhall Library page about Sources for Tracing Apothecaries, Surgeons, Physicians and other Medical Practitioners
After the "Glorious Revolution" of 1689 William and Mary ascended
the British throne, but their rule was always under threat from the Jacobites,
supporters of the deposed Catholic King James. In 1695 an Act of Association
was passed through Parliament calling for "all men of importance"
to sign an Oath swearing alleigance to the Protestant Succession.
The Barber-Surgeons Company of London have their own Roll at The Public Record Office under reference
number C213 171 17.
From Carmel Reynolds:
Some universities, e.g. Oxford, show their qualifications differently. Doctors
are BM BCh, and the higher degree is DM. Dont' forget the Royal College
of Physicians, one each in London and Edinburgh of which one can be a Member
or Fellow (I worked as a secretary for someone who had all these qualifications).
Also, it will be elementary to you, but some people don't know the difference
between a Ph.D. and a medical doctor. They all hold the same title. Also,
judging from 19th century books which I read, not all medical doctors were
called doctors. I don't know what the degrees in those times were, but they
seemed to be very different from the 20th Century. May 7 1997.
From Dennis Stoker:
I enjoyed your homepage on this subject, especially as I am a doctor myself.
Obviously you can go on expanding the data ad infinitum, but I offer two
points about the lesser diplomas. Firstly the LSA became the LMSSA (licenciate
in Medicine and Surgery of the Society of Apothecaries) before it disappeared
sometime in the 1950s I think.
Also do not forget the one time registrable degree of DAH (Diploma of
Apothecaries Hall, Dublin). This was considered an easy exam and was
probably caricatured by Richard Gordon in one of his Doctor in the House
books, where the exam was sat in a taxi as the examiner and the candidate
were on their way to the station. May 14 1997.
From Dee Cook: further
to Dennis Stoker's item on the LSA, this qualification was altered from
LSA (Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries) to LMSSA (Licentiate in
Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery of the Society of Apothecaries) by virtue
of the Apothecaries' Act of 1907. It is still awarded today (together with
LRCP Lond, LRCS Eng, LRCP Edin, LRCS Edin and LRCPS Glas) after examination
bythe United Examining Board. All the variants of the MB BS (current and
recent) are shown in Annex 1 to the Medical Register and those for Europe
are shown in Annex 2. 20 May 1999.