Premier Jennifer Smith will be introduced to many more relatives she did not know she had when the DeShield family packs into St. Paul's Centenary Hall for a family reunion to rival all family reunions next month.

A precious part of Bermuda's heritage will be unveiled on September 3 when more than 600 family members join the Premier, as she and several other members of the family are honoured for their outstanding achievements.

The Premier is connected to this proud Bermudian family through her mother, Lillian DeShield-Smith, and other members of the community will also find they are related somehow to the DeShield, Virgil and Symonds families.

"The last one of this magnitude was in 1989 at Warwick Camp,'' explained Cheryl Virgil-Kerr.

"We began planning this a year ago when, last June, a section of the family had a small family reunion picnic, which we tend to have every year or other year, and we were discussing that it was time to go back on a large scale again.

"In this age when we're losing so much of our roots and the family structure is not as stable as it used to be, it's important to do things like this on a periodical basis. I'm looking forward to it.'' The highlight of the gala reunion will be the presentation of awards and certificates to certain outstanding family members.

Some of those who have had high achievements in their professional lives also include Mrs. MaiRuth Sarsfield, who is a member of the board of directors for the Canadian Broadcasting Company and Carleton University.

She is also the author of several books and is a former Assistant Director of Internal Information for the United Nations Environment Programme in Kenya.

MaiRuth's mother, Anne DeShield-Packwood, is the oldest surviving member of the family at 102 years old.

Also expected to return home for the momentous occasion is Curtis Symonds, the Promotions Director for Black Entertainment Television (BET). His cousin, nationally renowned jazz musician Maxwell Maybury, will perform a few selections at the reunion.

Unfortunately another family member, soccer star Shaun Goater, who plays for English Premier League team Manchester City, will not be able to return for the event. Goater is connected to the family through his mother, Lynnette Goater, the granddaughter of Mabel DeShield-Basden.

"MaiRuth is one of the giants of the family, even though her mother is the most senior member of the family,'' said cousin Wayne Symonds, who is one of the principle organisers of the reunion.

"We're going to be honouring those people so that other members of the family can have that sense of identity with a proud family heritage.'' The patriarch of the DeShield family, Joseph DeShield (1796-1845), arrived in Bermuda sometime near the dawn of the 1800s. His descendants, which now number more than 1200, are proud of their roots.

Their rich family folklore, passed from one generation to the next, depicts seafaring exploits beginning with the arrival of the original French speaking DeShield settlers.

It is said that three brothers sailed to Bermuda and two stayed and raised families here while the other chose to return home. They were God-fearing men who, according to family folklore, managed to come to Bermuda at a time when the British and French were at war.

"Where Joseph came from is still a mystery, our research has not discovered it yet,'' said Symonds.

"But where he did come from is a French speaking country, Martinique, Guadeloupe or Haiti. However, what I have discovered of the family I'm not so willing to confine it to the Caribbean because they were seafaring men.'' Through documented conversations with Anne DeShield-Packwood, Symonds was able to obtain a lot of family history. "But that doesn't take you back far enough to connect with Joseph and his beginnings,'' Symonds stressed.

Symonds referred to J.C. Arnell's book "Sailing in Bermuda'', on behalf of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club for their centennial in 1982, which listed the elder men of the DeShield family in the origins of sailing. In a letter they thanked Mr. Samuel Triscott prior to his departure from the Island for helping them to form the Bermuda Native Yacht Club, one of the first yacht clubs on the Island.

A huge chart of the family tree containing the names of the more than 1,200 descendants of Joseph DeShield will also be on display at the reunion. The spirit of the DeShield family is captured in a well researched display which documents the family's 200 years in Bermuda.

DeShield and his involvement in the Wesleyan Methodist Church is mentioned by Cyril Packwood in his book "Chained on the Rock''. There will be audio visual displays along with photographs and other memorabilia portraying the heritage of a proud family which has become a part of Bermuda's history.