Hospital admissions, particularly when longer-term care is needed - for example, where a patient has been admitted to an asylum for either a short period or indeed, many years - can yield basic information collected at the time of admission, such as age, occupation, marital status, religious affiliation and number of children, as well as an outline of how they came to be admitted.

Admissions of this kind may be one explanation as to why a relative may be difficult to trace, though explaining gaps in the census is not the sole reason as to why these records are useful. In many cases records will include much more detail about the patient, their character, appearance, medication and malaise. Later records will also often include a photograph.