Ancestral Voices

I'm currently listening to a disc of Grieg for review (the complete music for Peer Gynt), which reminded me that his family was Scottish - his grandfather, I think, was a Scotsman called Greig, who settled in Norway. Funny that, if that hadn't happened would the young Edward Greig have still been a talented composer?

Which reminds me again, of the programme notes in this year's Grange Park Opera programme book. In an article about Donizetti, the writer asserted that Donizetti's Grandfather had been a Scotsman called Izett who had taken an Italian wife and Italianised his name. Is this true, it sounds so far fetched. I must pop to the library and see if they have a Donizetti biography!