US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has ancestors who hail from England's industrial northwest and lived there for generations before converting to Mormonism and eventually leaving for the United States in 1841, a distant cousin discovered. But in a campaign where some Americans see Romney's Mormon religion as strange or un-American, Romney might be downplaying his English roots. On a visit to the United Kingdom in July he did not visit the area where his family once lived – a contrast to President Barack Obama who visited an Irish town in 2011 that was once home to one of his ancestors. Romney's campaign has also declined to comment on how the former New England governor feels about his British connection.