Four descendants of a Sea Venture passenger have visited Bermuda for a family vacation.

Part of the family, from Tennessee, travelled to the Island by plane - Robert Holt arrived on May 24 and was followed by his brother-in-law, Mike Gasser, and 19-year-old niece Katie Gasser seven days later. Mr. Holt's older sisters, Sara Welch and Martha Gasser, travelled to the Island in similar manner as their descendant. They arrived aboard the cruise ship Zenith last Monday.

Mr. Holt said his paternal great-grandmother, Mariah Thomas, traced her line of descent directly from the Sea Venture passenger John Thomas.

The Sea Venture carried Sir George Somers to Bermuda.

Ms. Welch and her cousin, Jim Bryson, discovered the link while researching their family history about two years ago.

They "stumbled upon it completely by accident", he said.

"This is our first known relative who left England for Virginia and travelled on the Sea Venture in 1609. When Jim told me one of our ancestors had been shipwrecked here, I said, `Yeah, I know the rest of the story.'"

The family visited the replica of Deliverance as well as Builder's Bay, the St. George's shore where Deliverance was built from salvaged parts of the derelict Sea Venture.

"Builder's Bay was really neat," Mr. Holt said. "It was a really unusual experience for me to think that one of my relatives was there almost 400 years ago."

Besides John Thomas, Katie Gasser may be able to boast a relationship to Pocohontas through her paternal great-grandmother. There is a possibility her father Mike is related to Pocohontas, Mr. Holt said. "It is kind of a joke that we met each other on different sides of the ocean."

Ms Gasser and Ms Welch departed Bermuda on Thursday and Mr. Gasser and his daughter left on Saturday. Mr. Holt plans to stay for another week.

He has travelled to Bermuda 14 or 15 times to visit friends including Carol Terceira who he met while she attended school in Tennessee.

"Over the years I've met a lot of people here. It's a good getaway for me. I usually spend two or three weeks --as much time as I can get," he said. "I have only had one moped wreck in 14 or 15 years. I think I'm doing pretty well so far."