大象传媒

You have to wonder whether James Madison Carpenter realised what he had done.

He must have doubted the significance of his achievement. Why else would his work languish in his attic for five decades?

Carpenter, an American academic, drove round Britain in the late 1920s documenting folk songs and traditions.

His particular interest in sea shanties brought him to the north-east of England's coast - and Sunderland - where he persuaded retired sailors to sing some of their old working songs.

Mark Page, right, and three generations

To capture their dulcet tones for posterity he asked them to sing into an Ediphone, a machine that had only just been invented.

By doing this he created a unique audio archive of something that wasn't written down and, it seems, no-one had any idea of its significance for a long, long time.

Even when the US Library of Congress bought the wax cylinders in the 1970s nothing happened.

But now the 大象传媒's Inside Out programme in the North East and Cumbria has brought this amazing archive to light...and sound...by tracing the family tree of one of the participants, Mark Page.

You can watch their feature by clicking on the following link:

Trafalgar Square

James Madison Carpenter collected a number of his recordings from residents at the old mariners' almshouses at Trafalgar Square in Sunderland.

While Chris Jackson managed to track, upside down, the family tree of Mark Page, there are still others whose families are yet to appreciate their place in history.

Chris, and the American Folklife Center at the US Library of Congress, would be interested to hear from potential relatives of Thomas Carfrae, George Houghton, John Gregory, H J Hammond and Edward Robinson.

Modern generations of Mark Page's family

If you think you might be related to one of these men we would love to hear from you, e-mail: wear@bbc.co.uk

Inside Out is back soon. Click on the link below to visit their website:

Hear Mark Page singing Across the Western Ocean here:

Two dollars a day is the usual pay,
Young girls goes a weepin',
Two dollars a day is the usual pay,
Across the Western Ocean.

I thought I heard our captain say,
Young girls goes a weepin',
That we should have some grog today,
Across the Western Ocean.

Images of James Madison Carpenter 漏 American Folklife Center, US Library of Congress.