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Researchers have discovered why everyone who lives on a remote Cook Islands atoll speaks with a strong drawl reminiscent of rural England.
Palmerston Atoll is home to 63 people, all descended from an English carpenter and barrel maker who settled there in 1863, and linguists have shown the islanders speak in a South Pacific version of a Gloucestershire accent.
Many of the 1000 people who claim direct descent from William Marsters, a Gloucestershire man who arrived on the atoll with three of his four Polynesian wives, now live in New Zealand.
Having failed to make his fortune in the Californian goldrush and on whaling ships, Marsters is said to have gone to Palmerston to grow coconuts and sell copra in Europe.
In 1891 Britain formally granted him sole lease of the atoll.
He had four wives, 17 children and 54 grandchildren, and died in 1899.
In 1954, ownership of the island was granted to his descendants, under the protection of New Zealand, and it is still run by his great-grandson.
English writer and historian John Roberts wants to contact people in New Zealand, Australia and Britain who think they may be related to Marsters to find out more about him.
He says it was thought Marsters was from the Midlands, but linguists from the University of South Pacific in Suva had said the islanders' accent came from Gloucestershire.
Marsters used wood from shipwrecks to build a community, which eventually included a church, school room and homes, and grew more than 8000 coconut trees.
- NZPA
