As far as I know I'm English on my mum's side, but her maiden name was Thompson, which is Campbell of Argyll, so maybe way back...Unfortunately I know nothing about my great-grandfather of that name except that he was an engine driver, drank, and played the concertina. His daughter-in-law whom he came to live with (my gran) wouldn't let him play it when she was around as she thought it was "common". My mum says playing it was the only time she had ever seen him at peace.

My dad was born on the Ormeau Road in Belfast in 1912 and left at 3 weeks old, He was raised in Scotland (Edinburgh area), where there may have been some ancestral family connection, although his mum hailed from Newtownards in Ireland, and his dad, we believe, from Limerick. His surname was French (Norton-Chappelle) and was said to have arisen from shipwrecked sailors marrying into the local community (there was a wreck in the late 18th century on the SW coast) although my dad always said that it went back to the time of the Armada.

I just call myself half-Irish these days. I was told of other bits and bats: some not an ancestral issue, but my Irish granny's uncles seemed all to head for Oz and NZ, and one of her sisters went to live in Canada at the start of the 20th century. I only have my dad's word that his father was from Limerick, although I know he was previously married, and had some daughters. I can't dig any deeper because my dad's been gone for 15 years. One day, maybe.

Andrea