WHEN THE newspaper rang a then teenager called Pam McCartney decades ago to ask if she was related to Paul ahead of his first Australian tour, she had no idea.
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Now, 80-year-old Pam Andrich, nee McCartney, believes the infamous Sir Paul McCartney is part of her extended family.
The Anna Bay resident has been an award-winning piano player, she's sure she was a fan of the Beatles when she was younger, and she's got a deep curiosity for her family history.
Ms Andrich told the Newcastle Herald research tracing her history back had led her to find out that her own grandfather, and Sir McCartney's grandfather, were brothers.
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She said she got to know her McCartney cousins and relatives in Australia well, and one of her New Zealand cousins had put in work, including travelling overseas, to trace their history back.
In another fateful twist, Ms Andrich said her grandfather, Robert McCartney, hailed from Newcastle Upon Tyne in England.
She said family research had revealed her grandfather had died in the First World War.
"My direct grandfather, he was buried in Belgium," she said.
"When my grandfather died, my grandmother, that's my father's mother, she just decided ... it would be better if she moved out here to Australia."
Ms Andrich has looked deep into her family history and said finding out where she came from had been a passion.
She said she had come forward about the connections because it's just about "knowing that history".
"It would be nice to know what my cousin is like," she said.
"I'm very careful when I say anything ... then I feel stupid because I feel like people think I'm having them on."
Ms Andrich said she was musical herself.
"I used to play the piano for years ... I was five years old when I started to learn the piano," she said.
"It was just natural for me to do that."
She's sure she would have played a Beatles song on the piano back in the day, and that she was a fan when she was younger.
The Newcastle Herald approached Frontier Touring and Sir McCartney's representatives, but could not confirm whether Ms Andrich and the former Beatle were related.
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