Earlier this year we highlighted how the members of the Steed family from Scotland had come to Bermuda on a roots search after stumbling on the fact that their great grandfather was a globe-trotting black Bermuda who had settled in Leath in the 1800s.

Now we have a reversal of a roots search with a group of black Bermudian women leaving to meet up with their cousins who are descendants of an adventurous black Bermudian named Edward Darrell. In the late 1800s he migrated to Australia where he married and then settled in New Zealand.

It all started when New Zealander Bill Grant, a great-grandson of Edward, upon discovering his roots were actually in Bermuda e-mailed the Registrar's Office in Hamilton requesting any possible information about the family of Edward Darrell.

He mentioned a couple of names including that of a Kate Minors, his father's sister. By coincidence, the Registrar happens to be a lady named Kim Minors, who is a great-grand-daughter of none other than Kate Minors.

The Registrar went into high gear tracking down her own local kinfolk. Among them were well-known travel agent Marilyn Darrell Smith and sister Elaine Darrell Bean. Their great grandfather was Stanley Darrell, the eldest of the ten siblings of Edward. Their parents were Samuel and Artimeza Darrell of St.George's.

Marilyn contacted cousin Bill in New Zealand and the thoughts of a tour to his country were germinated. She has been in the travel business since 1952, and knows the world like the back of her hand. She got her grounding with the now defunct Donald Smith Travel Agency, and is now with Meyer Franklin Travel Agency. She has travelled to the five continents, sometimes accompanied by her husband John.

Marilyn put together a 23-day package tour that proved to be irresistibly attractive to her many friends and associates. It included round-trip air fare to Los Angeles and then to Sydney, Australia. There they boarded the cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas, cruising for the next 14 days to Melbourne and then New Zealand, stopping in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Napier and Auckland.

It was in Christchurch that they met up with the first of Edward Darrell's many offspring who warmly received and entertained them. Next stop was Tauranga where they caught up with the man who started it all, Bill Grant, and his family.

I'll bring you more on this roots saga next week.

Our pictures show some of the Bermuda group on a roots search tour in Australia aboard the luxury liner Rhapsody of the Seas. Top right: Front, from left, are Marilyn Smith, Rosalin Woolridge, Muriel Nusum, Sylvia Courtney, Ismay Johnston, Elizabeth Isaac, Ester Pitt, Marilyn Simmons, Etoile Tucker, Helena Cann, Elaine Bean, Dorothy Brown, Yvette Smith. Bottom right: Descendants of the adventurous black Bermudian Edward Darrell who went to Australia in the late 1800s, married and settled in New Zealand. Top centre: Bill Grant of New Zealand, who initiated the roots search. Edward Darrell had an equally adventurous brother Stanley Darrell (soldier in uniform) who was an early member of the Bermuda Militia Artillery and ended up in France as a member of the Bermuda Contingent of the Royal Garrison Artillery. The brothers were among the ten children of Samuel and Artimeza Darrell (middle left) of St. George's. Left: Marilyn Darrell, a veteran of 52 years as a travel expert, seen on the dock with her ship in Auckland.