Reading Family History Through a Psychological Lens Many of us have an ancestor who seemed remote in family stories, someone who never talked about their childhood, or a grandparent who parented in ways that seemed unusually strict or emotionally distant. This talk explores how childhood separations shaped not only individual lives but family patterns across generations.

In July 1937, Helen's father Harry was taken from his mother's arms at a Sheffield hospital appointment. He was two and a half. Seven years of childhood admissions followed, with one parent allowed to visit for an hour a month. Drawing on Harry's own testimony, on the accounts of other survivors, and on the research that eventually explained what such separations did to children, Helen shows how the same records can be read for the person as well as the dates: what happened to them, how it might have shaped them, and what they may have passed on.

Audiences leave with a quick-start handout on accessing older British medical and hospital records, and a fresh set of questions to put to the ancestors those records describe. A fuller free online guide, with template letters for writing to archives, is available on Helen's website.

For in-person events, signed copies of Helen's books, 'Yet' and 'A Victorian's Inheritance', are available on request.

Suitable for family history societies, U3As, and WIs. Approximately 45 minutes plus 15 minutes for questions.