Helen Parker-Drabble

A Counselling Background: A Family Historian Turned Geneatherapist.

I am a former counsellor, a genealogist, and a family historian. For my series, Who Do I Think You Were?® I bring the three fields together to become a ‘geneatherapist.’

As a geneatherapist, my mission is to benefit present and future generations by:

1. exploring common experiences that affected your ancestors
2. introducing you to current and historical theories of mental health, psychology, and neuroscience
3. helping you deepen your understanding of your ancestors
4. offering an example of family history writing to encourage you to leave your legacy.

Fascinated by psychological theory and the stories we develop to make sense of ourselves and our family, my original quest was to understand my Victorian grandfather, Walter Parker, born in 1885 in the English village of Upwell on the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border.

During my research, a transgenerational legacy of loss, trauma, anxiety, and depression unravelled. It revealed repeated patterns of behaviour that I too had unwittingly passed on.
Family history does not survive unless it is in print. So, I pondered how to share what I had learnt. Inspired by the few trailblazers, I set out to write an engaging and accessible series. One that could encourage others to pass on what they have painstakingly discovered.

'The author notes that she set out to write a book about her family history that was both “engaging and accessible”, and she has certainly succeeded in this aim. The information provided is thoroughly researched but always presented with a light touch. Those who love family history will enjoy this book and take from it some excellent ideas about how they might present their own family stories. I recommend it with pleasure.'

- Emeritus Professor of Psychology Susan Moore, Australia

'Who Do I Think You Were?' A Victorian's Inheritance

Family History, Social History, Psychology 

Anxiety. Addiction. Depression.

We associate these words with the challenges of modern life. Rarely do we consider how these conditions shaped past generations. Using archival sources, testimonies, and her grandfather Walter Parker’s experiences, the author not only paints a vivid picture of life in an English Victorian village, but she also draws upon psychological theory to explore the lives of her working-class ancestors.

What did your forebears inherit from their parents? Which psychological characteristics did your ancestors hand down?

Helen, a former counselor, turns geneatherapist. Her mission is to use historical and current understanding of mental health, psychology, and neuroscience to deepen your understanding of your ancestors and benefit present and future generations.

A Victorian’s Inheritance can help you find answers.​

Victorian Recipe Book: A Handwritten Book of Family Receipts

Historic cooking

Taste the past at Mary Allott's Table

Immerse yourself in middle-class Victorian Sheffield with Mary Allott's nee Hopkinson's meticulously kept recipe book started in 1860. Compiled amidst the turmoil of a life challenged by the abandonment of her spouse, this collection stands as a beacon of Mary's inner fortitude as she expressed her creativity and dedicated herself to her family's nourishment and well-being.

Born in 1833 in the town of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Mary grew up in Sheffield, where the hardship of an unhappy marriage marked Mary's life as her husband's reckless actions threatened the stability of their home. Despite immoral conduct and desertion, Mary found purpose in the pages of her household receipts, and unwittingly gave us a glimpse into women's lives.

Now, for the first time, this facsimile of a primary historical source offers a rare, unfiltered look at 19th-century recipes, inviting us to explore the flavours of the Victorian age. Through the replication of Mary's original recipes, you can connect with the past in the most intimate way—through the ingredients and aromas that once filled Mary's kitchen.​