Helen Parker-Drabble
A former counsellor exploring family history through a psychological lens.
I’m a family historian with a twist: I uncover hidden stories using my counselling training to explore how our ancestors’ experiences might have shaped them. By combining psychology with my family history, I show you how to deepen your understanding of your ancestors, living family and the legacies that are left behind.
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Series title: Who Do I Think You Were?®
Author of A Victorian’s Inheritance and
‘Yet’: A Story of Triumph Over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability will be available from libraries and my web shop soon. Scroll down for more about this latest release.
Have you asked, ‘Who Do I ThinkYou Were?®’ of your ancestors?
Uncover the hidden stories of your family’s past and gain insights into your own and your ancestors psyche.
Geneatherapy: A New Approach to Family History
As a self-styled geneatherapist, my writing offers a blend of:
- Psychological analysis across generations
- Genealogy and family history research
- Social and local historical context
- Cutting-edge insights from epigenetics and neuroscience
Discover Your Family’s Psychological Inheritance
My innovative approach can help you:
- Build empathy for past generations, yourself and living family
- Understand the mental health challenges your ancestors faced
- Explore how events and circumstances might have shaped your family’s psychology
- Gain insights into your own behaviours and patterns
Are you ready to explore who you think your ancestor’s were? Reading about my family could help you:
- Discover your family’s psychological pas
- Shed light on your living relatives and
- Help you understand how your family’s legacy may have shaped who you are.
Featured Book
‘Yet’: A Story of Triumph over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability
“No one believed me. ‘Children couldn’t have been treated like that.’ But we were.”
—Harry Drabble
“No one believed me. ‘Children couldn’t have been treated like that.’ But we were.”
—Harry Drabble
In 1937, two-year-old Harry Drabble was diagnosed with bovine tuberculosis after drinking unpasteurised milk. Torn from his mother’s arms, he spent much of his childhood confined to Sheffield’s King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for Crippled Children, enduring emotional neglect and years of isolation while immobilised in bed.
Told through Harry’s unflinching words and his daughter Helen Parker-Drabble’s meticulous research, this poignant memoir reveals the shocking inadequacies of early 20th-century healthcare while celebrating one boy’s extraordinary resilience.
Harry’s life was defined by a simple yet transformative mantra: ‘I can’t… yet.’ Told he would never work, find love, or support a family, Harry refused to give in to those predictions. He taught himself to read and mastered the violin while living with physical challenges, earned professional qualifications despite limited schooling, and went on to create the loving family he was told was out of reach. This father-daughter collaboration offers a rare glimpse into a forgotten chapter of British medical history, ensuring the forgotten children institutionalised during the early to mid 20th century are seen, heard and remembered. Yet is both a tribute to Harry’s indomitable spirit and a timeless reminder of the power of hope, perseverance, and the word ‘yet.’
Read the first two chapters here
‘Yet’ will be available in libraries and bookstores soon.
Books
A Victorian’s Inheritance
See your ancestors in a new way with this enlightening exploration of family, English village life, and psychology.
A facsimile reproduction of a Victorian Recipe Book: A Handwritten Book of Family Receipts started by Mrs C. A. Allott of Sheffield, (England), 1860
Discover English middle-class housewifery through this rare, unfiltered copy of 19th-century handwritten domestic recipes.
How Key Psychological Theories Can Enrich Our Understanding of Our Ancestors
Consider the profound impact of attachment and adversity on generations of your family through the lens of the Parker family in this 14,000 word article published online in A Special Issue Article From The Online Genealogy Journal “Focus On Family Historians: How Ancestor Research Affects Self-Understanding And Well-Being”.
Latest Articles
- When Your Mother-in-Law Testifies Against You: Mary Allott’s 1875 Victorian Divorce Trial
Imagine finally fighting for freedom from the husband who abandoned you sixteen years ago and petitioning a court for a divorce. You’ve hired a solicitor. Gathered evidence. Risked public scandal.… Read more: When Your Mother-in-Law Testifies Against You: Mary Allott’s 1875 Victorian Divorce Trial - LGBTQ+ Family History: Researching Hidden Estrangement and Reclaiming Erased Ancestors
Content Warning: This article discusses LGBTQ+ discrimination, forced family separation, institutionalisation, and historical persecution. Content includes: Criminalisation of homosexuality and forced institutionalisation Conversion therapy and medical ‘treatments’ now recognised as… Read more: LGBTQ+ Family History: Researching Hidden Estrangement and Reclaiming Erased Ancestors - ‘Improperly Married’: The Victorian Women the Law Forgot
Victorian England had no language for women like Mary Allott. Improperly married Victorian women existed in law, but their situation had no name and no remedy. Not quite wives. Not… Read more: ‘Improperly Married’: The Victorian Women the Law Forgot - Mary Allott Fought Back: Victorian Divorce Court 1875
In 1875, Mary Allott sat in a Sheffield office facing a pivotal moment. She was an improperly married woman about to testify in the Victorian divorce court 1875—a system designed… Read more: Mary Allott Fought Back: Victorian Divorce Court 1875 - The Recipe Book That Sustained a Life: Mary Allott’s Victorian Story of Abandonment, Scandal, and Survival
In February 1860, a young woman with a newborn opened a blank notebook with an A-Z index and began to write. Mary Allott, née Hopkinson, was about twenty-four years old,… Read more: The Recipe Book That Sustained a Life: Mary Allott’s Victorian Story of Abandonment, Scandal, and Survival - A video introduction to ‘Yet’
Have you ever wondered about the hidden stories that shaped our families and communities? The ones often left untold, buried under stigma and silence? In my latest video, I share… Read more: A video introduction to ‘Yet’ - What We Inherit Beyond Genes: Uncovering Our Emotional Ancestry
Sometimes, the patterns we repeat in relationships have less to do with conscious choices and more to do with heritage. Some families keep their distance emotionally, while others feel entangled… Read more: What We Inherit Beyond Genes: Uncovering Our Emotional Ancestry - British Society for the History of Medicine Reviews Yet — A Moving Story of Childhood Illness, Resilience, and Hope
I was moved to tears to see ‘Yet’: A Story of Triumph over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability reviewed by the British Society for the History of Medicine (BSHM). Seeing my father… Read more: British Society for the History of Medicine Reviews Yet — A Moving Story of Childhood Illness, Resilience, and Hope - 12 Powerful Themes from ‘Yet’: A Story of Triumph over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability
Discover Yet: A Story of Triumph over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability—a deeply moving disability memoir exploring resilience, trauma recovery, and the power of the human spirit. Inspired by my father Harry’s experiences, this book traces his journey through childhood separation, disability, and social exclusion in post-war Britain. Blending social history with psychological insight, Yet reveals how love, creativity, and perseverance can transform even the harshest beginnings. Through its twelve powerful themes—ranging from overcoming adversity and healing family bonds to the role of music and advocacy—it invites readers to reflect on courage, compassion, and hope. Perfect for anyone drawn to inspirational life stories, British social history, or the long-term effects of trauma, this memoir celebrates what it truly means to endure—and to thrive. - Dear Dad
Writing Dad’s book has kept him close since his death in 2022, but I’m entering another phase of my grief. I miss our conversations so much that I decided to… Read more: Dear Dad