Helen Parker-Drabble
I’m a family historian with a twist: I uncover hidden stories from the past and use my counselling training to explore how our ancestors’ experiences might have shaped them. By showing you how I combine psychology with family history, you can deepen your understanding of your ancestors, living family and the legacies that get left behind.
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, through my writing I offer 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 and yourself
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 past,
Shed light on your living relatives and
Help you see how your family’s legacy may have shaped who you are.
Featured Book: A Victorian’s Inheritance
Anxiety. Addiction. Depression. We often think of these experiences as distinctly modern, yet their roots often stretch back to previous generations. In A Victorian’s Inheritance, Helen Parker-Drabble sheds light on how such conditions may have shaped different branches of our family.
Using her Victorian grandfather’s life as an example, Helen Parker-Drabble constructs a vivid portrait of daily life for her working-class ancestors. But she goes beyond recreating the past by drawing on theories of psychology, epigenetics and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. What psychological inheritance did her grandfather Walter receive from his parents and their forebears?
Blending social, local and family history with insights from modern science, Helen Parker-Drabble offers genealogists and family historians an innovative lens through which to view their ancestry. Her work invites us to reflect not only on the lives of those who came before us, but on our families’ psychological inheritance and the legacies that are passed on.
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
- Forgotten history: A child’s experience of bovine tuberculosis
In 1937, two-and-a-half-year-old Harry Drabble was separated from his mother after being diagnosed with bovine tuberculosis, enduring traumatic hospital treatment for over two years. This isolation and neglect affected him emotionally and socially, mirroring the experiences of thousands of children during this dark period in British history. - How Understanding Psychological Legacies Can Improve Mental Health and Family Dynamics
Understand how attachment theory and ACEs reveal your ancestors’ emotional struggles and triumphs. - Discover How Depression, Addiction, and Trauma Pass Through Generations: Blending Family History with Psychology and Science
Discover How Anxiety, Addiction, and Trauma Pass Through Generations - Consider Psychological Legacies in Family Trees
In A Victorian’s Inheritance, I use historical records and psychological theories to investigate the transgenerational effects of trauma and addiction on my grandfather, Walter Parker, who was born in 1885.… Read more: Consider Psychological Legacies in Family Trees - You can leave a legacy: Sharing Your History When You Have No Direct Descendants
As a family historian, I know the deep sense of purpose that comes from uncovering the stories of our ancestors , but what happens when we have no direct descendants… Read more: You can leave a legacy: Sharing Your History When You Have No Direct Descendants - The possible psychological dangers of exploring our family history & how we can mitigate them
Researching our family history can be a life-changing, affirming experience and has the potential to improve our mental health, but it can also come with potential psychological risks. I am… Read more: The possible psychological dangers of exploring our family history & how we can mitigate them - The Emotional Benefits of Understanding Our Family History
First, we need to remember that this absorbing hobby is not compulsory and we can choose who and what we research and how. Above all, we need to look after… Read more: The Emotional Benefits of Understanding Our Family History - An Alcoholic in the Family: Unravelling the Intergenerational Impact
In this chapter of A Victorian’s Inheritance, I shed light on the intergenerational impact of addiction and the lasting consequences it can have on individuals and families. Join me as… Read more: An Alcoholic in the Family: Unravelling the Intergenerational Impact - Taste the past at Mary Allott’s Table
Now available to buy Immerse yourself in middle-class Victorian England with Mary Allott’s meticulously kept recipe book. Compiled amidst the turmoil of a life challenged by the abandonment of her… Read more: Taste the past at Mary Allott’s Table - On the BBC! A family history audio Factual Tale – ‘Buried Letters’
Buried Letters A short award-winning family history audio factual tale based on Chloris Drabble. On completion of her nursing qualification in 1917 Chloris left nursing in the Huddersfield Infirmary to join the Scottish Women’s 7th Field Hospital at Lake Ostrovo in Macedonia, where she fell in love with a Serbian interpreter and was irrevocably changed.