Ananova:

Researchers have discovered why the entire population of a tiny Pacific island speaks with a West Country accent.

It's because they're all descended from one Gloucestershire man, William Marsters, a carpenter and barrelmaker who settled there in 1863.

Researchers had long been puzzled by the strong rural drawl spoken by the 63 inhabitants of Palmerston Atoll, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Now linguists have matched their accent to that of their very distant cousins 12,000 miles away in Gloucestershire.

Mr Marsters had four wives, 17 children and 54 grandchildren on Palmerston Atoll, one of the smallest and most remote of the Cook Islands, before his death in 1899.

John Roberts, a former BBC journalist, is researching his story and wants to contact anyone who thinks they may be related to Mr Marsters to solve the mystery of his origins.

"It is an absolutely fascinating story," said Mr Roberts, 53, from Warrington, Cheshire. "We know about his time on the island because it has been documented by passing missionaries and yachtsman, but his early life remains a mystery.

"It was originally thought he was from the Midlands but this discovery points to him coming from Gloucestershire. Linguists from the University of South Pacific are very confident the accent that the islanders speak originates from there."

Mr Marsters, who ran away to be a whaler when he was 18, then headed to California for the gold rush of the 1840s before plying the trade routes of the Pacific.

He arrived on Palmerston in 1863. Already travelling with three Polynesian wives, he later took a fourth. The atoll was uninhabited at the time, and Marsters used wood salvaged from shipwrecks to build and populate a tiny community.