My sister traced our family tree through our father's side and found that every generation back to the 17th Century was involved with seafaring. Masters and Sea Captains, fishermen, Customs and Excise at seaports and in later years Air-Sea Rescue and the Merchant Navy.

I positively hate the sea, and get terribly seasick just looking at the blooming thing from the shore. When I was taken to see the film 'The Sea Shall Not Have Them' I felt seasick from my cinema seat. Quite recently, I was seasick on a boat trip along the Thames!

Now my Irish mother was very dark with jet black hair, and always maintained she was descended from black people. Even her surname means 'black' in Irish. (She was from Cork)
We can't trace her ancestry because records in Ireland have been destroyed in most cases.

I have always felt extremely interested in West Africa, and when I was a small child I chattered away in a strange language, which I assured my mother was 'African'.
I was destined to marry a West African and to travel to many countries there.
So maybe my genes are from the maternal side, not the paternal one!