In the forty or so years I've been researching my family history, it's been fascinating to see how various relations of my ancestors upped stakes from their native heath - in my family's case, from Norfolk and Lancashire in the UK - to North America. I discovered that one distant immigrant to the US joined the Union side in the Civil War and became a corporal helping to run mule trains. Other relatives moved to near Salt Lake City and became Mormons. Others moved to Ontario, near Toronto.

I was reminded of all these interesting facts at the Brighton Acoustic Session last night, where the guest act was 'Rattle On The Stovepipe', one of the members of which is Dave Arthur. (Dave and his then wife, Toni, were well-known folk acts in the 1960s and 1970s and beyond). Dave has travelled extensively in the US and done a lot of research into the songs of several regions and their backgrounds.

He reminded us that, contrary to what we see and hear in most period films that come out of Hollywood, etc., America in the 19th century was a place filled with immigrants - and therefore with accents which were not modern American. There were English men and women, Scottish, Irish, German, Scandinavian, etc. - each talking with their own native language and accent. Apparently, the dead at the Alamo had two British men in their numbers. An outlaw could have been German - a sheriff could have been Scottish.

I do recall John Cleese playing an English sheriff in the film "Silverado"…

I'd love to hear where US 'Catters ancestors originated - and perhaps how they might have spoken.