Have you noticed repeated health conditions in your family tree? Anxiety appearing across multiple generations? Depression that seems to run in the family? Epigenetics might explain why—and offer hope for breaking these cycles.
This article explores epigenetics, physiological and psychological inheritance, and why understanding these concepts transforms how family historians research and interpret ancestral experiences.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Epigenetics explains nature and nurture interaction: External forces like environment and life experiences trigger on-off mechanisms in genes, affecting not just individuals but children and grandchildren across generations
- Ancestral trauma shapes unknown descendants: Physiological and psychological trauma experienced by ancestors can influence living family members who have no knowledge of the original events, making this crucial for family historians
- Common genes link mental health conditions: International research identified shared genes increasing risk for ADHD, autism, bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia—offering hope for more effective treatments
- Poverty leaves biological marks: Northwestern University research found living in poverty creates susceptibility to insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, immune problems, and nervous system issues that can transmit across generations
- Epigenetic effects can be reversed: DNA does not dictate fate; positive life experiences and environmental enrichment at the right time can correct alterations induced by ancestral trauma
- Family historians can identify patterns: Recognising repeated health conditions, mental health struggles, and trauma responses in family trees helps understand what ancestors experienced and what descendants may have inherited inherited
What Is Epigenetics?
Epigenetics explains the interaction between nature (our genes) and nurture (our environment).
It’s the study of how external forces—environment, life experiences, trauma, poverty, stress—trigger on-off mechanisms in our genes. Think of DNA as a piano keyboard: the keys (genes) are always there, but epigenetics determines which keys get played, creating different melodies (gene expression) based on life experiences.
Epigenetics is involved in every aspect of life. The idea that an individual’s experience might alter the cells and behaviour of their children and grandchildren is now widely accepted by the scientific community. Such experiences are of great interest to family historians seeking to understand how ancestral adversity shaped descendants.
Why Physiological and Psychological Inheritance Matter
Physiological effects are those affecting the human body—metabolism, immune function, cardiovascular health, nervous system function.
Psychological effects relate to the mind and emotion—anxiety, depression, PTSD, attachment patterns, stress response.
Both can transmit across generations through epigenetic mechanisms.
The Impact on Family Historians
Physiological and psychological trauma can affect not only the person directly involved but succeeding generations. Therefore, ancestral trauma can influence and shape a descendant who has no knowledge of it happening.
This has profound implications:
For family historians wanting deep understanding of forebears: Recognising that your great-grandmother’s Victorian workhouse placement wasn’t just a sad historical fact—it potentially altered her gene expression in ways affecting her children, grandchildren, and you.
For living relatives struggling with mental health issues: Understanding that anxiety, depression, or trauma responses might have epigenetic roots in ancestral experiences contextualises current struggles and suggests treatment approaches.
For breaking intergenerational patterns: Awareness of inherited vulnerabilities empowers conscious choices—therapy, environmental enrichment, stable relationships—that can reverse harmful epigenetic changes and create different legacies for future generations.
The Research: Unpicking Cause and Effect
Understanding epigenetic transmission presents challenges for researchers. Many human studies are necessarily small due to ethical constraints (you can’t deliberately traumatise people to study effects). However, several larger populations are providing meaningful evidence.
Children in Pakistani Orphanages
Physician and neuroscientist Dr Ali Jawaid studies children living in SOS Children’s Villages orphanages in Multan, Lahore, and Islamabad in Pakistan.
The University of Zurich notes these orphanages provide the best possible shelter, healthcare, and education. ‘But despite that, these children experience symptoms similar to PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]’, as well as anxiety and depression.
The disturbing implication: Jawaid is investigating whether emotional trauma of separation from parents triggers subtle biological alterations—’changes so lasting that the children might even pass them to their own offspring’.
For family historians: This research suggests Victorian children placed in workhouses, orphanages, or sent into domestic service may have experienced similar trauma. Despite some institutions providing adequate physical care, the separation trauma potentially created epigenetic changes affecting multiple subsequent generations.
Common Genes Linking Mental Health Conditions
Ground-breaking international research uncovered a common set of genes that increase risk for heritable conditions such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia.
The study’s lead author Dr Anke Hammerschlag said: ‘Our findings are an important first step towards the development of new drugs which may be effective for a wide range of patients, regardless of their exact diagnosis.’
Although we should always view revolutionary research with caution, new knowledge should ‘bring us closer to the development of more effective personalised medicine’.
For family historians: If you notice recurring mental health struggles across your family tree—’melancholia’ (Victorian term for depression), ‘nervous conditions’, asylum commitments, suicides—this research suggests both genetic and epigenetic factors may be operating. Understanding these patterns helps descendants access appropriate treatment.
Poverty’s Biological Impact
In a recent study conducted at Northwestern University, Dr Thomas McDade led a team of scientists investigating the effect poverty can have on a person’s genome. (A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes.)
McDade’s team found that living in poverty can leave a person susceptible to:
- Insulin resistance
- Chronic inflammation
- Problems with the immune system
- Skeletal growth issues
- Nervous system dysfunction
For family historians: Census records showing ‘pauper’ status, workhouse admission, or living in notorious slum areas aren’t just socioeconomic data—they indicate your ancestors experienced chronic stress that potentially created biological changes affecting descendants’ health.
Victorian poverty wasn’t just about lacking money—it created toxic stress environments altering gene expression across generations. If your family tree shows generations of poverty followed by recurring health issues (diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune conditions), epigenetics might explain the connection.
Epigenetics: Not Limited to Psychological Impact
Jawaid’s research extends beyond psychological effects to disturbing biological possibilities. The emotional trauma of parental separation potentially triggers subtle biological alterations—’changes so lasting that the children might even pass them to their own offspring’.
This means:
Victorian workhouse children separated from parents at young ages potentially developed epigenetic changes affecting their descendants’ stress response, attachment patterns, and mental health—even though those descendants never experienced workhouses themselves.
Children of immigrants experiencing displacement trauma potentially passed biological vulnerability to stress and anxiety to descendants born in stable circumstances.
War orphans, evacuees and those in long term hospitals experiencing separation trauma potentially transmitted heightened stress reactivity to children and grandchildren who never experienced war or separation.
For family historians: Childhood separation, institutionalization, and displacement weren’t just psychologically traumatic—they were biologically altering events whose effects potentially persist in living descendants.
Have You Noticed Repeated Health Conditions in Your Family?
When researching your family tree, pay attention to patterns:
Mental health patterns:
- Multiple generations experiencing ‘nervous breakdowns’
- Recurring depression, anxiety, or ‘melancholia’
- Several family members institutionalised in asylums
- Repeated addiction across generations
Physical health patterns:
- Diabetes appearing across multiple generations
- Heart disease in family lines
- Autoimmune conditions recurring
- ‘Weak constitution’ or ‘delicate health’ descriptions
- Early deaths from similar causes
Behavioural patterns:
- Attachment difficulties (strained parent-child relationships)
- Difficulty with intimacy or trust
- Heightened stress reactivity
- Substance abuse patterns
These patterns might indicate:
Genetic factors: Some conditions have strong genetic components
Epigenetic factors: Ancestral trauma, poverty, or stress created biological changes transmitting across generations
Environmental factors: Families often share environments, behaviors, and stressors
Combination: Most likely, genetic predisposition, epigenetic modifications, and environmental factors all contribute
The key insight: If you notice patterns that seem disproportionate to individual life experiences, investigate what ancestors experienced. Their adversity might have created biological vulnerabilities affecting descendants.
Frequently Asked Questions About Epigenetics and Family History
What is epigenetics and why does it matter to family historians?
Epigenetics is the study of how external forces—environment, life experiences, trauma, poverty, stress—trigger on-off mechanisms in genes without changing the DNA sequence itself. Think of DNA as hardware and epigenetics as software that determines which genes are activated or silenced.
Why family historians should care:
Explains mysterious family patterns: If multiple generations in your family tree struggle with anxiety, depression, or specific health conditions, epigenetics helps explain why—beyond simple genetic inheritance.
Reveals invisible ancestral trauma: Your great-grandmother’s experience of childhood separation, poverty, or violence could be affecting your health and mental wellbeing now, even though you never knew about her trauma.
Connects historical events to family health: Victorian workhouse placement, wartime separation, immigration trauma, poverty, abuse, long term stays in hospital—these historical experiences created biological changes that transmitted through generations.
Provides hope for breaking cycles: Unlike fixed DNA, epigenetic changes can be reversed through positive experiences, therapy, and environmental enrichment—meaning family patterns aren’t destiny.
Adds depth to genealogy: Understanding epigenetics transforms family history from documenting names and dates to comprehending how ancestors’ experiences literally shaped descendants’ biology and psychology.
Example: If census records show your ancestor in a Victorian workhouse at age 5, epigenetics suggests this childhood trauma didn’t just affect them psychologically—it potentially altered their gene expression in ways that affected their children, grandchildren, and you.
How does trauma transmit across generations through epigenetics?
Trauma transmission operates through epigenetic mechanisms that alter gene expression without changing DNA sequence:
The biological process:
Trauma exposure triggers stress response: Severe or prolonged stress (abuse, poverty, separation, violence, war) activates the body’s stress systems, flooding it with cortisol and other hormones.
Stress hormones affect gene expression: These hormones attach chemical tags (methyl groups) to DNA, switching certain genes on or off. This is called DNA methylation—a key epigenetic mechanism.
Changes occur in reproductive cells: Crucially, these epigenetic changes can occur in sperm and egg cells, meaning they’re passed to offspring at conception.
Children inherit altered gene expression: The next generation is born with some genes already switched on or off based on parents’ trauma experiences, making them more vulnerable to stress, anxiety, or specific health conditions.
Patterns can repeat: If the traumatised child grows up in continued stress (often the case when parents have unresolved trauma), their own gene expression changes, potentially passing even more pronounced effects to grandchildren.
Research examples:
Bereavement—particularly repeated or unresolved grief—represents a significant epigenetic transmission pathway: Research published in Biological Psychiatry (O’Connor et al., 2014) found that complicated grief creates distinct gene expression patterns involving upregulation of pro-inflammatory genes and altered immune function. A population study of 2.6 million pregnancies (Class et al., 2011) demonstrated that maternal bereavement during pregnancy affects offspring through epigenetic changes in stress response systems, with effects varying by timing of loss. Childhood parental death creates lasting biological alterations including changes to the HPA axis (stress response system) and immune function (Luecken & Roubinov, 2012). For Victorian families experiencing repeated child deaths, maternal mortality, and epidemic losses without grief support, these cumulative bereavements potentially created profound epigenetic changes affecting multiple subsequent generations.
Holocaust survivors’ descendants: Studies of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors found epigenetic changes related to stress hormone regulation, making them more susceptible to PTSD and anxiety—despite never experiencing the Holocaust themselves.
Dutch Hunger Winter (1944-1945): Children conceived during this famine (when pregnant mothers starved under Nazi blockade) showed epigenetic changes affecting metabolism. Their own children (the grandchildren) also showed these effects—higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease decades later.
Pakistani orphanage study: Dr Ali Jawaid’s research at SOS Children’s Villages found that despite excellent care, food, and education, orphaned children showed PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and depression. Researchers are investigating whether separation trauma creates epigenetic changes these children might pass to their own offspring.
Victorian workhouse children: Children institutionalised in Victorian workhouses experienced severe separation trauma, harsh conditions, and emotional neglect. Epigenetics suggests these experiences created biological changes affecting their descendants—potentially explaining patterns of anxiety, depression, or attachment difficulties in later generations.
Long-term hospitalisation as a child: Children being treated in hospitals for tuberculosis (pulmonary and bovine) experienced severe separation trauma, harsh conditions, and emotional neglect. Epigenetics suggests these experiences also created biological changes affecting their descendants and potentially explaining patterns of anxiety, depression, or attachment difficulties in later generations.
Important nuance: Not all trauma transmits epigenetically, and not all descendants are affected. Severity, timing, duration of trauma, and protective factors (diet, exercise, supportive relationships, later positive experiences) all influence outcomes. Both nutrition and physical activity demonstrate powerful capacity to modify epigenetic markers inherited from ancestors. A 2018 study published in Nutrients found that Mediterranean-style dietary patterns—rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and omega-3 fatty acids—can alter DNA methylation patterns associated with inflammation and stress response. Complementing this, research from the University of Copenhagen published in Cell Metabolism demonstrated that regular exercise creates beneficial epigenetic modifications affecting metabolism, immune function, and stress regulation. Together, these findings suggest that descendants who inherited epigenetic vulnerabilities from ancestors who experienced Victorian poverty, malnutrition, or chronic stress might reverse some effects through conscious dietary and exercise choices.
Can you inherit anxiety, depression, or PTSD from ancestors?
Not exactly in the way you inherit eye colour, but there is inheritance of vulnerability or predisposition through both genetic and epigenetic mechanisms.
What the research shows:
Genetic component: Ground-breaking international research identified common genes increasing risk for ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia. Having these genes doesn’t guarantee you’ll develop these conditions—but increases susceptibility.
Epigenetic component: If your ancestors experienced severe trauma, their epigenetic changes potentially affect how your stress-response genes function, making you more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, or PTSD when facing stress.
What you actually inherit:
Not the condition itself: You don’t inherit depression or PTSD as a disease. Your ancestors’s trauma doesn’t directly give you their exact symptoms.
Increased vulnerability: You inherit biological sensitivity—a nervous system more reactive to stress, stress hormones that respond more intensely, or difficulty regulating emotions under pressure.
Lower threshold for activation: Stressors that wouldn’t trigger anxiety in someone without this inheritance might trigger it in you because your stress-response system is already primed.
Example scenarios:
Scenario 1: Victorian childhood separation
- Your great-great-grandmother was placed in a workhouse at age 5 (1870s)
- Severe separation trauma altered her stress-response gene expression
- Her children inherited these epigenetic changes
- Subsequent generations show heightened separation anxiety, attachment difficulties, or anxiety disorders
- You experience intense anxiety when separated from loved ones—beyond what your life experiences alone would explain
Scenario 2: Wartime trauma
- Your grandfather experienced WWII combat trauma
- PTSD altered his gene expression related to fear and stress
- Your parent inherited vulnerability to anxiety
- You have a heightened startle response and difficulty with loud noises despite no personal trauma exposure
The hopeful part:
Predisposition isn’t destiny: Having inherited vulnerability doesn’t mean you’ll definitely develop these conditions. Protective factors matter enormously:
- Diet
- Exercise
- Secure childhood attachments
- Stable, nurturing environment
- Therapy addressing intergenerational patterns
- Positive life experiences
- Social support networks
Epigenetic changes can reverse: Unlike fixed DNA, epigenetic modifications can be altered through positive experiences, therapy, and environmental enrichment—potentially within your lifetime.
Dr Thomas McDade’s research at Northwestern University shows environmental factors profoundly influence gene expression. Poverty creates epigenetic changes, but escaping poverty and accessing enrichment can reverse some effects.
For family historians: If you’re experiencing anxiety, depression, or trauma responses that seem disproportionate to your life experiences, researching your family tree for patterns of trauma, separation, poverty, or loss might reveal the source—and understanding the source can be the first step toward healing.
What health conditions can be passed down epigenetically?
Research has identified numerous health conditions influenced by epigenetic inheritance, particularly those related to stress, metabolism, and immune function:
Mental health conditions:
Anxiety disorders: Children and grandchildren of trauma survivors show increased rates of generalised anxiety, panic disorder, and social anxiety.
Depression: Parental depression (especially maternal depression during pregnancy) creates epigenetic changes affecting offspring’s mood regulation.
PTSD vulnerability: Children of Holocaust survivors, war veterans, and abuse survivors show heightened PTSD risk even without direct trauma exposure.
Attention and developmental disorders: Shared genetic and epigenetic factors contribute to ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and learning disabilities.
Psychotic disorders: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have both genetic and epigenetic components, with environmental factors (stress, trauma, poverty) influencing expression.
Physical health conditions:
Metabolic disorders:
- Type 2 diabetes
- Obesity
- Metabolic syndrome
- Insulin resistance
The Dutch Hunger Winter studies showed that children and grandchildren of famine survivors had altered metabolism affecting weight and diabetes risk decades later.
Cardiovascular conditions:
- Heart disease
- Hypertension
- Stroke risk
Northwestern University research found poverty creates epigenetic changes affecting cardiovascular health across generations.
Immune system dysfunction:
- Chronic inflammation
- Autoimmune disorders
- Weakened immune response
- Increased infection susceptibility
Skeletal and growth issues:
- Bone density problems
- Growth delays
- Developmental concerns
Nervous system conditions:
- Altered stress response
- Dysregulated nervous system
- Chronic pain syndromes
Addiction vulnerability: Parental addiction and trauma create epigenetic changes affecting offspring’s addiction risk, impulse control, and reward-seeking behaviour.
Important context for family historians:
Look for patterns: If you notice repeated conditions across multiple generations—three generations of diabetes, recurring anxiety, multiple family members with autoimmune conditions—epigenetics might explain it.
Consider historical context:
- Victorian ancestors in workhouses → separation trauma, malnutrition
- Industrial workers → poverty, dangerous conditions, chronic stress
- War generations → PTSD, violence exposure, loss
- Immigration experiences → displacement trauma, discrimination, poverty
- Agricultural labourers → seasonal starvation, poverty, harsh conditions
Census clues:
- Children in institutions (workhouses, orphanages, industrial schools)
- ‘Pauper’ status indicating extreme poverty
- Frequent moves suggesting instability
- Missing family members suggesting loss or separation
- Occupations indicating poverty or dangerous work
Medical history patterns: If family members repeatedly experience:
- ‘Nervous conditions’ (historical term for anxiety/depression)
- ‘Weak constitution’
- ‘Delicate health’
- Early death from ‘consumption’ (tuberculosis—linked to poverty and stress)
- ‘Melancholia’ (historical term for depression)
These weren’t just individual health issues—they might reflect epigenetic changes from ancestral trauma or poverty.
Can epigenetic changes be reversed or healed?
Yes—this is perhaps the most hopeful aspect of epigenetics research.
Unlike DNA sequence (which is fixed), epigenetic modifications can change throughout life based on experiences and environment. This means inherited trauma patterns aren’t permanent destiny.
How reversal works:
Positive experiences alter gene expression: Just as trauma can switch genes off or on in harmful ways, positive experiences can reverse these changes:
- Secure, nurturing relationships
- Therapy (especially trauma-focused approaches)
- Reduced stress exposure
- Stable, safe environment
- Social support and connection
- Meaningful activities and purpose
Environmental enrichment: Professor Isabelle Mansuy at University of Zürich found that ‘environmental enrichment, at the right time, could eventually help correct some of the alterations which are induced by trauma.’
What ‘environmental enrichment’ means:
- Stimulating, positive experiences
- Learning opportunities
- Social engagement
- Physical activity
- Creative expression
- Nature exposure
- Stable, predictable routines
Timing matters: Early intervention is most effective. Childhood and adolescence are particularly plastic periods when epigenetic changes happen most readily—both harmful and healing ones.
Real-world examples:
Adoption from adverse conditions: Children adopted from orphanages into nurturing families show reversal of stress-related epigenetic changes over time, though early severe deprivation can leave lasting marks.
Poverty intervention programmes: Northwestern University research suggests that programmes lifting families out of poverty can begin reversing epigenetic changes related to chronic stress, inflammation, and immune dysfunction.
Therapy and mental health treatment: Trauma-focused therapy, attachment-based therapy, and other treatments can alter gene expression related to stress response and emotion regulation.
Generational healing: If you break the cycle—through therapy, stable relationships, conscious parenting—your children may not inherit the epigenetic vulnerabilities you inherited. You can be the generation that heals.
What this means for family historians:
Understanding creates possibilities: Recognizing that your anxiety, depression, or health struggles might stem from great-grandmother’s Victorian workhouse trauma doesn’t excuse them—but it contextualizes them and opens healing pathways.
You can break intergenerational patterns:
- Seek trauma-informed therapy
- Create stable, nurturing environment for children
- Address your own trauma rather than transmitting it
- Build secure attachments
- Access environmental enrichment
Research your family’s experiences: Identifying what ancestors endured helps you:
- Understand your inherited vulnerabilities
- Develop appropriate interventions
- Feel compassion for yourself and ancestors
- Make informed choices about healing
Professor David Moore’s research (The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics) emphasizes that DNA does not dictate fate. Lived experiences—including positive therapeutic and environmental interventions—can reverse harmful epigenetic effects.
The hopeful truth: Ancestral trauma affected you, but it doesn’t define your future. With understanding, support, and intervention, you can heal patterns that persisted for generations and create different legacies for descendants.
How can family historians use epigenetics in their research?
Epigenetics transforms genealogy from documenting facts to understanding how ancestors’ experiences shaped living descendants. Here’s how to integrate this perspective:
Step 1: Look for trauma and adversity patterns
In census records:
- Children in workhouses, orphanages, industrial schools
- ‘Pauper’ or ‘inmate’ status
- Frequent household changes across censuses
- Children living with relatives (suggesting parental death or inability to care)
- Multiple young children with widowed parent
In vital records:
- Child deaths (creating parental grief and trauma)
- Maternal death in childbirth or through illness (creating childhood loss)
- Young parental deaths (creating orphans)
- Short marriage duration before death
Pay particular attention to patterns of repeated loss and bereavement:
When researching your family tree, pay particular attention to patterns of repeated loss and bereavement. Families experiencing multiple child deaths, maternal mortality, or epidemic losses faced not just emotional trauma but biological changes—research shows complicated grief creates distinct epigenetic modifications affecting immune function and stress response (O’Connor et al., 2014). Victorian ancestors who endured repeated, unresolved bereavements without psychological support potentially passed these grief-related vulnerabilities to descendants, helping explain why some family lines show heightened anxiety, depression, or difficulties with loss across multiple generations.
Look for bereavement patterns such as:
- Multiple children dying in infancy or childhood within same family
- Mothers experiencing serial bereavements with short intervals between losses
- Maternal death in childbirth (creating compound trauma for surviving children)
- Epidemic losses (multiple family members dying—cholera, typhoid, scarlet fever, tuberculosis)
- Patterns of repeated loss across generations (each generation experiencing early deaths)
In other records:
- Poor Law records (extreme poverty)
- Hospital/asylum records (mental illness, long-term care)
- Criminal records (family dysfunction, poverty-driven crime)
- Emigration records (forced displacement, separation)
- Military records (war trauma, injury, death)
Step 2: Identify repeated health patterns
Create a family health timeline:
- Mental health conditions (anxiety, depression, ‘nervous conditions’)
- Addiction (alcoholism mentioned in records)
- Chronic illnesses appearing across generations
- Early deaths from similar causes
- ‘Weak constitution’ or ‘delicate health’ descriptions
Look for patterns like:
- Three generations with ‘melancholia’ (depression)
- Recurring ‘nervous breakdowns’
- Multiple family members with diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune conditions
- Addiction appearing in multiple generations
- Anxiety or attachment difficulties across family lines
Step 3: Connect historical events to biological impact
Map major adversities:
- 1840s Irish Famine → starvation, displacement, loss
- Victorian industrialization → child labour, poverty, dangerous conditions
- World Wars → combat trauma, bereavement, displacement
- Economic depressions → unemployment, poverty, instability
- Epidemics (cholera, tuberculosis, Spanish flu) → death, quarantine, fear
- Home children or child migrants →separation, child labour, poverty, displacement, loss
Consider epigenetic impact: If your ancestor experienced the UK 1840s famine as a child, epigenetics suggests this didn’t just affect them—it potentially altered their descendants’ metabolism, stress response, and health for generations.
Step 4: Document with epigenetic awareness
Traditional entry: ‘Mary Smith, born 1850, lived in Sheffield, five children, died 1920.’
Epigenetically-informed entry: ‘Mary Smith (1850-1920) entered workhouse at age 5 following her father’s death (1855), experiencing severe childhood separation trauma. Census records show she remained institutionalised until age 14. This early adversity potentially created epigenetic changes affecting stress response and attachment—patterns visible in descendants showing recurring anxiety and relationship difficulties. Her daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter Margaret both experienced documented “nervous conditions,” suggesting possible intergenerational transmission of trauma-related vulnerability. However, Mary’s maintenance of family connections (evidenced by letters) and her children’s educational achievement demonstrate resilience alongside adversity.’
Step 5: Research descendants’ experiences
Look for correlations:
- Do descendants of workhouse children show more anxiety/depression?
- Do descendants of famine survivors have metabolic issues?
- Do descendants of war veterans have PTSD vulnerability?
- Do descendants of extreme poverty have health conditions linked to early-life stress?
- Do descendants of Home children and child migrants show mor of the above?
Step 6: Apply findings to understanding living family
For yourself: If you struggle with anxiety and research reveals three generations of separation trauma, this contextualises your experience and suggests trauma-focused therapy might be particularly effective.
For family members: Understanding that a relative’s depression might have epigenetic roots in ancestral trauma creates compassion and suggests treatment approaches.
For descendants: Documenting these patterns helps future generations understand their inheritance and make informed health and mental health choices.
Step 7: Share findings sensitively
Do:
- Present epigenetics as possibility, not certainty
- Emphasize both adversity AND resilience
- Note that epigenetic effects can be reversed
- Provide context about historical circumstances
- Offer hope through understanding
Don’t:
- Blame ancestors for ‘passing on’ trauma
- Suggest conditions are inevitable
- Pathologise entire family lines
- Share sensitive health information publicly without consent
- Make deterministic claims
Tools and resources:
Research databases:
- Census records (showing living conditions, institutions)
- Poor Law records (poverty, workhouses)
- Hospital/asylum records (physical and mental health)
- Military records (war trauma)
- Newspapers (accidents, tragedies, social conditions)
Scientific resources:
- Research articles on epigenetics and specific conditions
- Studies on historical populations (Dutch Hunger Winter, Holocaust survivors, Home children/child migrants)
- Current epigenetics research on poverty, trauma, stress
For family historians, epigenetics provides:
- Framework for understanding mysterious family patterns
- Compassion for ancestors’ struggles and descendants’ challenges
- Hope through recognizing patterns can be reversed
- Deeper, more meaningful family histories
Your family tree isn’t just names and dates—it’s a biological and psychological inheritance spanning generations, with each ancestor’s experiences literally shaping who you are today.
Hope: Epigenetic Changes Can Be Reversed
Thankfully, DNA does not dictate our fate. Professor David Moore’s research (The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics) shows that epigenetic effects can be reversed through lived experiences.
This is revolutionary: Unlike your fixed DNA sequence (you can’t change having blue eyes or your blood type), epigenetic modifications can change throughout your life based on experiences and environment.
Professor Isabelle Mansuy of the University of Zürich suggests life experience can be healing as well as hurtful at the molecular level:
‘Environmental enrichment, at the right time, could eventually help correct some of the alterations that are induced by trauma.’
What ‘Environmental Enrichment’ Means
For children:
- Stable, nurturing caregivers
- Secure attachment relationships
- Stimulating learning environments
- Play and creative expression
- Safe, predictable routines
- Social connection and community
For adults:
- Trauma-focused therapy
- Supportive relationships
- Reduced chronic stress
- Meaningful activities and purpose
- Physical activity and nature exposure
- Social engagement
The Possibility of Healing Across Generations
If environmental enrichment can reverse trauma-induced epigenetic changes, the possibility of understanding which positive experiences are needed for better outcomes for our children and grandchildren is optimistic and exciting.
This means:
You can break intergenerational patterns: Even if you inherited epigenetic vulnerabilities from ancestors’ trauma, conscious choices and positive experiences can reverse some effects—preventing transmission to your children.
Therapy works at a biological level: Effective trauma therapy doesn’t just change thoughts and feelings—it potentially alters gene expression related to stress response and emotion regulation.
Your family’s story doesn’t end with trauma: Understanding ancestral adversity explains current vulnerabilities whilst empowering healing choices that create different futures.
Hope for living descendants: Family members struggling with mental health conditions or health issues potentially linked to ancestral trauma can access treatment knowing that biology isn’t destiny—epigenetic changes can be reversed.
What This Means for Family Historians
Integrating epigenetics into family history research transforms genealogy from documenting names and dates to understanding how ancestors’ experiences literally shaped descendants’ biology and psychology.
Practical Applications
When researching census records: Don’t just note that great-grandmother was in a workhouse—consider the trauma implications and potential epigenetic effects on her descendants.
When finding patterns of mental illness: Rather than seeing family history of ‘nervous conditions’ as a shameful secret, recognise it as evidence of ancestral trauma transmission—and oan pportunity for healing.
When interviewing living relatives: Sensitively ask about health conditions, mental health struggles, and behavioural patterns that seem to run in the family. These might indicate epigenetic inheritance worth investigating.
When documenting findings: Include adversity (for example poverty, trauma, separation) alongside births, marriages, and deaths. These experiences shaped descendants biologically, not just emotionally.
When sharing family history: Frame discoveries with compassion and hope. Yes, ancestors endured trauma that affected descendants—but understanding creates possibilities for healing and breaking cycles.
Connecting to Other Family History Topics
Understanding epigenetics enriches other aspects of family history research:
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): Epigenetics explains HOW childhood adversity transmits across generations biologically
Attachment and trauma: Attachment wounds create epigenetic changes affecting descendants’ relationship patterns
Family estrangement: Estrangement patterns might reflect inherited trauma responses and attachment difficulties
Psychological inheritance: Epigenetics is the biological mechanism underlying psychological inheritance across generations
Victorian Families and Epigenetic Inheritance
Victorian England created conditions ripe for trauma-induced epigenetic changes:
Childhood separation:
- Workhouse placements
- Orphanages and foundling hospitals
- Children sent into domestic service age 10-12
- Industrial school institutionalisations
- Sending children to relatives due to poverty
Extreme poverty:
- Malnutrition affecting development
- Overcrowded, unsanitary housing
- Chronic stress from survival struggles
- Child labour in dangerous conditions
High mortality:
- Childhood death rates creating parental grief
- Maternal death in childbirth creating childhood loss
- Epidemic diseases (cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis)
- Infant mortality (1 in 6 children died before age 1)
Limited support:
- No social safety net
- Stigma around poverty and mental illness
- Harsh Poor Law system
- No psychological understanding or treatment
For Victorian descendants:
If your ancestors lived through these conditions, epigenetics suggests they potentially passed biological vulnerabilities to stress, anxiety, depression, and health conditions to their descendants—including you.
But understanding this offers hope: you can access therapy, create stable environments, and make conscious choices that reverse these patterns and create different legacies for future generations.
Moving Forward: From Understanding to Healing
Epigenetics reveals that we inherit more than names and DNA from ancestors—we inherit their experiences encoded in our biology. But unlike fixed genetic inheritance, epigenetic changes can be reversed.
For family historians, this means:
Your research isn’t just documenting the past—it’s illuminating present struggles and creating possibilities for future healing. Understanding that great-grandmother’s workhouse trauma affects your anxiety today doesn’t excuse it—but contextualises it and suggests appropriate interventions.
For living descendants, this means:
Family patterns of anxiety, depression, or health struggles aren’t character flaws or inevitable destiny—they’re potentially inherited biological vulnerabilities that can be addressed through therapy, environmental enrichment, and conscious choices.
For future generations, this means:
Your generation can break the cycle. Through understanding, therapy, and creating nurturing environments, you can reverse trauma-induced epigenetic changes and pass different biological and psychological inheritance to your children and grandchildren.
The possibility of understanding which positive experiences are needed for better outcomes for our children and grandchildren is an optimistic and exciting one.
Discover More About Psychological Inheritance
The next article in this series, Dissociation in Our Family Tree, explores how trauma creates dissociative responses that can transmit across generations.
Maugeri, A. and Barchitta, M. (2020). ‘How dietary factors affect DNA methylation: Lesson from epidemiological studies’. Nutrients, 12(4), 1038. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041038
Arpón, A., Riezu-Boj, J.I., Milagro, F.I., Marti, A., Razquin, C., Martínez-González, M.A., Corella, D., Estruch, R., Casas, R., Fitó, M., Ros, E., Salas-Salvadó, J. and Martínez, J.A. (2017). ‘Adherence to Mediterranean diet is associated with methylation changes in inflammation-related genes in peripheral blood cells’. Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry, 73(3), pp.445-455. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13105-017-0552-6
Barres, R., Yan, J., Egan, B., Treebak, J.T., Rasmussen, M., Fritz, T., Caidahl, K., Krook, A., O’Gorman, D.J. and Zierath, J.R. (2012). ‘Acute exercise remodels promoter methylation in human skeletal muscle’. Cell Metabolism, 15(3), pp.405-411. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2012.01.001
Denham, J., O’Brien, B.J. and Charchar, F.J. (2016). ‘Telomere length maintenance and cardio-metabolic disease prevention through exercise training’. Sports Medicine, 46(9), pp.1213-1237. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0482-4
About A Victorian’s Inheritance
A window into Victorian lives—and what it means for ours
What psychological inheritance have you received from your ancestors?
We inherit more than heirlooms. The struggles, triumphs, and even traumas of our forebears can be handed down through generations, shaping who we are.
In A Victorian’s Inheritance, family historian and former counsellor Helen Parker-Drabble brings to life the working-class world of her Victorian grandfather, uncovering how his mother’s hardships, bereavements and alcoholism in 19th-century England left their indelible mark on him. Through a unique blend of family history, social analysis, and a groundbreaking approach, she reveals how addiction, grief, and mental health challenges can influence future generations.
This deeply personal yet relatable book invites you to reflect on your own family’s untold stories. Whether you’re an avid genealogist, a lover of Victorian history, or simply curious about how your ancestors’ lives have shaped your own, A Victorian’s Inheritance will inspire you to discover the hidden legacies of your family—and better understand yourself and your relations.
Read the first two chapters free
About the Book
A Victorian’s Inheritance by Helen Parker-Drabble is an accessible exploration of the life, times, and psychological inheritance of Walter Parker, a Victorian working-class youth growing up at the Tank Yard in the English village of Thorney, on the 11th Duke of Bedford’s forgotten estate.
This is not the story of just one man, but of an era. The information and theories introduced—including epigenetics, transgenerational trauma, and psychological inheritance—can help connect us to our ancestors. They can inspire us to be more mindful of the psychological legacy we leave behind.
About the Author
Helen Parker-Drabble is an author and ‘geneatherapist’ who combines genealogical research with psychological insights to understand how historical events shaped family patterns across generations.
A former counsellor with a Diploma in Counselling, Helen developed the geneatherapy methodology—an integrative approach that applies psychological theory, including attachment theory and trauma research, to family history. According to the online Cambridge dictionary, one of the definitions of therapy is it is a ‘treatment that helps someone feel better or grow stronger’. So as a geneatherapist, Helen explores mental health, mental illness, and psychology through different eras, in the hope that by exploring what impacted our ancestors, we help the present generation.
Helen is a life-long explorer of social history and weaver of factual family tales. Fascinated by psychological theory and the stories we develop to make sense of ourselves and our family, Helen’s original quest was to understand her Victorian grandfather, Walter Parker, born in 1885 in Upwell on the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border.
Helen is the author of A Victorian’s Inheritance (exploring her grandfather Walter Parker’s psychological inheritance from his alcoholic mother in Victorian England) and ‘Yet’: A Story of Triumph Over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability (telling her father Harry Drabble’s story of institutionalisation due to bovine tuberculosis in 1930s Sheffield).
Family history doesn’t survive unless it’s in print, which is why Helen set out to write engaging and accessible biographies that not only explore working-class Victorian life but could motivate and encourage other family historians struggling to pass on what they have painstakingly discovered. The result, in part, is an exploration of the transgenerational legacy of loss, trauma, anxiety and depression.
Through her writing, speaking, and research, Helen helps individuals understand the psychological inheritance they’ve received from their ancestors and empowers them to transform patterns for future generations.
Helen’s books:
- ‘Yet’: A Story of Triumph Over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability
- A Victorian’s Inheritance
Epigenetics reveals that ancestral trauma shapes us—but also that we have power to heal. Understanding how your ancestors’ experiences altered their genes helps you make informed choices about breaking cycles and creating different legacies for future generations.
References and Further Reading
Curry, A. (2019). ‘Parents’ emotional trauma may change their children’s biology. Studies in mice show how’. Science. Available at: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/parents-emotional-trauma-may-change-their-children-s-biology-studies-mice-show-how
Erick, T. of Brown University (2014). ‘Epigenetics: How Nurture Shapes Our Nature’. Footnote: Showcasing Research with the Power to Change Our World. Available at: http://footnote.co/epigenetics-reveals-how-environment-shapes-gene-expression/
Hammerschlag, A., de Leeuw, C., Middeldorp, C. and Polderman, T. (2019). ‘Synaptic and brain-expressed gene sets relate to the shared genetic risk across five psychiatric disorders’. Psychological Medicine, pp.1-11. Available at: http://www.cambridge.org
Hilary Hurd Anyaso, Northwestern Now (2019). ‘Poverty leaves a mark on our genes’. Northwestern University, 5 April 2019.
Moore, D. (2017). The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics. Oxford University Press.
Complicated Grief & Gene Expression:
O’Connor, M.F., Schultze-Florey, C.R., Irwin, M.R., Arevalo, J.M. and Cole, S.W. (2014). ‘Divergent gene expression profiles in monocytes of human subjects experiencing chronic grief versus depression’. Biological Psychiatry, 76(2), pp.147-154. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.12.014
Maternal Bereavement & Pregnancy:
Class, Q.A., Lichtenstein, P., Långström, N. and D’Onofrio, B.M. (2011). ‘Timing of prenatal maternal exposure to severe life events and adverse pregnancy outcomes: a population study of 2.6 million pregnancies’. Psychosomatic Medicine, 73(3), pp.234-241. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e318214672d
Childhood Bereavement:
Luecken, L.J. and Roubinov, D.S. (2012). ‘Pathways to lifespan health following childhood parental death’. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6(3), pp.243-257. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00422.x
Cumulative Bereavement:
Newson, R.S., Boelen, P.A., Hek, K., Hofman, A. and Tiemeier, H. (2011). ‘The prevalence and characteristics of complicated grief in older adults’. Journal of Affective Disorders, 132(1-2), pp.231-238. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.02.021