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Dr Staelens, a Bournemouth University academic is setting off on a historical musical trail which she hopes will reveal Hampshire's bygone singing history.

Using a list of details recorded over a century ago, The Singing Landscape Project hopes to locate and link people directly to their hidden folk heritage and build up a picture of the county's singers.

Blacksmith Thomas Hounsome of Alresford

"We want to delve deep into community history to tell the story of the singers of Hampshire – who they were, where they lived – and the songs they sang which say so much about their lives," explains Dr Staelens.

Golden age of folk

"Many of us will have singing ancestors and perhaps not even know it," said Dr Staelens. "This project gives people a chance to find out who they were, where they lived, what they sang, sometimes even what they looked like."

Names on the list include Moses Blake, a labourer who lived in Lyndhurst, Thomas Cooper, a fisherman on the River Itchen and George Macklin, a bricklayer in Basingstoke - all recorded during the 1901 census.

The project will parallel the work of London music teacher Cecil Sharp, who travelled throughout Somerset over 100 years ago on his bicycle recording hidden folk songs and singer profiles.

Moses Blake of Emery Down © HRO 143M83/PZ1

Travelling folk

So why Hampshire? "Hampshire and the West Country are key places which people emigrated from to all parts of the world over the years so this project has global implications."

"It's potentially the biggest distribution of folk song research ever and that makes it very exciting," Dr Staelens added.

To kick-off the project, Yvette will be criss-crossing Hampshire with an exhibition of folk history hoping to find the descendants of Hampshire's folk singers.

You can find out if your ancestors feature on the list by clicking on the links below.