AMERICAN George Calvert spent 36 years making trips to Lancashire to trace his family tree - then discovered his relatives were originally from Yorkshire!

"My Burnley area cousins are still having difficulty coming to terms with that,'' he joked.

Mr Calvert is back in the Red Rose county from Alabama to continue his labour of love.

His wife Joan, a teacher, is with him. She originates from Manchester and her grandparents are from Bolton.

Mr Calvert has traced the Calvert line back to 1751 in the White Rose county when they were lead miners in Swaledale, but so far has been unable to establish a link with Lord Calvert, who was given the charter for Newfoundland and later for Maryland. "So far that is proving a tough nut to crack.'' said George, who will be 60 next month.

His grandparents George and Annie Calvert emigrated along with many other weavers from Burnley to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1910.

He grew up hearing all about Burnley Football Club and now has a Burnley banner in his Alabama home. "All I ever heard about as a youngster was Burnley, Burnley, Burnley,'' said George.

His research has resulted in books tracing the family history of the Calverts and the families they married into, the Inghams, Browns and Wilkinsons.

This week he has been back to the area taking photographs of the churches and cemeteries so that he can put photographs with the names.

Back home he has also kept in touch with the day-to-day happenings in Burnley and Pendle through reading the Lancashire Evening Telegraph on the Internet.

Mr Calvert, who retired after 30 years with the IBM Corporation, said: "It has been a real boon to me.

"It has given me a great deal of insight into what is going on every day in the Burnley and nearby area. I enjoy the news items, letters and business reports.

"It brings East Lancashire a little closer to me although I reside some 4,900 miles away.''

He added: "I have been enjoying reading the Telegraph each night before signing off the Internet and going to bed."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.