Though the King of Rock and Roll may only briefly have touched down in Scotland for little more than an hour in 1960, it turns out his Scottish connections actually go much deeper. It turns out that Elvis Aaron Presley's family may originally have been from Aberdeenshire.
The music and film star, known for his unmistakable voice and infectious charisma, may never have performed here but for thousands of fans, he still definitely left his mark. With the legend's life currently being revisited with a new film starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, Aberdeen Live has taken a look back at the work of Scots author Allan Morrison, who, in 2004 finally traced Elvis' roots back to a little village in the north east.
In researching Elvis' lineage for his book the Elvis Prophecy, the writer said he was in Sarasota in America in 2000 when he discovered the star's ancestor Andrew Presley was actually from Scotland, and the first Presley to cross the Atlantic way back in 1745.
Further digging back in Edinburgh found that the Andrew who settled in North Carolina in 1745, was originally from Lonmay, a small village six miles south of Fraserburgh.
Records show Andrew's father, with whom he shared a first name, married Elspeth Leg in the village in 1713. And the Presley clan's lineage in the United States can be followed right up until the singer's parents married two years before his birth in 1935.
Morrison also traced many relatives who lived in Aberdeenshire throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The writer's findings were a revelation to fans in the northeast who had seen devotees in the west of Wales and Paisley lay claims to their hero for decades.
During his stint with the US Army, when he touched down at Prestwick Airport, he may only have been in Scotland for 90 minutes or so – the only time set foot on UK soil – when he reportedly asked "Where am I?"
But he could never have dreamed that the answer was the country his ancestors hailed from over two centuries before.
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