AMERICAN Meredith Sweet arrives in Accrington on Monday determined to find out more about her family roots.

Meredith, from Long Island, has been helped by East Lancashire historians and will meet a woman who remembers one of her relatives.

After a search on the Internet, she was put in touch with June Huntingdon of the Hyndburn branch of Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society.

June's research revealed that Mrs Jean Tomlinson of Westwood Street lived next door to her grandfather's sister-in-law, Mrs Louisa Thompson.

Mrs Tomlinson said: "I remember her when I was a girl. She was 100 years old when she died in 1963."

Mrs Sweet knew that her grandfather Albert Thompson was born in Accrington in 1864 and lived in Ranger Street.

He attended the old Willow Street School and June was able to tell her that the building is now the Berkley Restaurant and Banqueting Suite.

Mrs Sweet's grandmother Ellen Yates Thompson was born in Oswaldtwistle in 1863. Albert and Ellen married at the Wesleyan Chapel, Clayton Street, Blackburn, in 1888 and Albert emigrated to the USA the same year. His wife followed a year later.

June said: "Meredith is staying with distant relatives in Birmingham and will spend Monday and Tuesday in Accrington. We are looking forward to showing her some of the streets her grandfather would have known."

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