FOR many, Marilyn Monroe is the epitome of “old Hollywood”, a household name still synonymous with glamour and sex appeal more than six decades after she first graced the silver screen.

The Some Like It Hot star is up there with Elvis Presley and John Wayne in the pantheon of American popular culture, but it appears Marilyn Monroe has ties a little closer to home.

DNA evidence has now proved that the legendary actress has roots in Moray. A descendant of the Munro clan, her ancestral ties can be traced back to the village of Edinkillie, near Forres in Moray.

The remote town, which is home to fewer than 4,000 people, is a far cry from Los Angeles where Ms Monroe was born in 1926.

Star of 1950s classics like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Seven Year Itch and Some Like it Hot, she died of an overdose at 36.

There has long been speculation over the Hollywood actress’s Scottish roots, but her lineage was unconfirmed until now.

Next week members of Clan Munro will gather in the Highlands to hear about the latest discoveries in the clan’s DNA project detailing Ms Monroe’s relatives.

The actress was born Norma Jeane Mortenson but took her now-famous screen name from mother Gladys Monroe. She grew up in LA, home of the movie business. 

Like many other US Monroes, her father’s line could be traced back to John Munro, a soldier from the area around Tain, who travelled to America in the mid-17th century. 

He was one of many Scotsmen who fought for the Royalist cause during the English Civil War only to be exiled after its defeat by Oliver Cromwell and is believed to have settled in what is now the US state of Rhode Island. 

Despite the connection, no Munro men who shared the same signature pattern of the male or Y chromosome had been found in Scotland, so the link to the Highland clan was uncertain. Until now.

The Clan Munro DNA project has finally proved Marilyn’s forefathers were related to a Munro family from Edinkillie.

Descendants of this Munro family, some of whom emigrated to the Bahamas in the 18th century, carry the unique and elusive Y chromosome marker previously found only in descendants of the exiled John Munro.

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Another member of the Moray family, William Munro, emigrated from Scotland to Batavia, now Jakarta in Indonesia, in the early 19th century.

Previously the Munro DNA project found that US President James Monroe was of a different male line, most closely related to the Munros of Teaninich Castle in Alness.

The discovery comes two years after an appeal for Scots clan members to help confirm the origin of Monroe’s ancestors.

The project began after it was discovered that an ancestor of Monroe was a soldier exiled to America after the English Civil War and launched an appeal to find more ancestors.

The search was unveiled amid much fanfare to coincide with what would have been Monroe’s 90th birthday, with Clan Munro USA offering free test kits to Munro men of Highland origin in summer 2016.

One year later, the association’s genealogy committee said it was “surprised” more Scots had not taken up the offer of the free test kits but that they remained hopeful.

Initially, amid deepening suspicious from the Scottish side of the family, the trail ran cold.

The one Munro found to be related to Marilyn Monroe failed to respond to any contact from the Americans, suggesting he wanted nothing to do with the project, even after initially volunteering his DNA.

Hector Munro, 67, chief of the Munro clan, acknowledged that there was a vast difference in attitudes between the Americans and their Scottish counterparts when it came to tracing their lineage.

READ MORE: Iconic star Marilyn Monroe's ancestors come from small Scottish village

“The Scots think they know their history so they aren’t as keen to get involved,” he told The Telegraph after the search launched in 2017. “The further people get away from the Highlands, the more interested they are. It’s about capturing that feeling of belonging.”

Marilyn Monroe is not the only famous US face whose ancestors are believed to have hailed from Scotland.

Author Allan Morrison, from Greenock, claims that the roots of Elvis Presley can be traced back to the village of Lonmay, Aberdeenshire, in the 1700s.

His research shows the first Presley in America was an Andrew Presley, who is recorded as living in South Carolina in 1745.

The Presley roots in America could be traced right up to 1933, when Elvis’s parents married. The singer was born two years later. Scotland was also the location for The King’s only visit to the UK,when he touched down briefly at Prestwick Airport in 1960.