The decision that Bermuda would be an ideal spot for a winter vacation has also given Evelyn LaBruce a fascinating glimpse of the country that was, for several hundred years, dominated by a branch of her family. As a consequence, part of her holiday has been spent in tracking down the history of her Bermudian ancestors.

Mrs. LaBruce, a former opera singer who spent most of her career performing leading roles in Europe, is a member of the American branch of the Tucker family. "Two of Col. Henry Tucker's sons left Bermuda and settled in America.

One of them was Thomas Tudor Tucker, a doctor who went to live in Charleston.

I am a direct descendant of Thomas Tudor.'' Through marriage, she says, her ancestor acquired a magnificent plantation called Litchfield, subsequently lost in the Civil War. "My aunt was born there and lived her early life there. In fact, she just died as she lived to the age of 100. It's now a well known resort and golf club. Ironically, I just received a brochure asking if I'd like to join the club. That gave me a strange feeling.'' One of her few family memories, she says, was visiting her aunt Pauline Tucker at the age of about four.

"She lived about two blocks from us and I sat on her piazza thinking how beautiful she was, a very regal face and masses of white hair. It was only much later that I realised the Tuckers had been a very wealthy and prominent family. I tended to take it all for granted. It's only since I started to get older that I began to think about `things past' and taking an interest in my heritage. In any case, I was too busy with my singing career to devote much time to things like that!'' Mrs. LaBruce admits her week's stay in St. George's was "unexpectedly moving'' and left her anxious to find out more about her Bermudian `cousins'.

When the American colonies declared war on Britain, trade between Bermuda and America was suspended. This brought great hardship to the island and, without the knowledge of the Governor, Col. Tucker took advantage of his sons' connections with leading members of American society and went off to plead Bermuda's cause with the American congress. It transpired that the revolutionaries were in desperate need of gunpowder and, just a month after Tucker's clandestine visit, in August 1775, a large amount of ammunition disappeared from the St. George's magazine. Even today, the precise facts concerning the Tuckers' participation in this dastardly plot are not fully known.

New roots From Page 23 Finding out about this exciting phase of her family's history, Mrs. LaBruce decided to try and contact a present-day "exciting'' member of the family, Teddy Tucker.

"But, typically, he is off in New Zealand trying to find the giant squid for National Geographic,'' she laughs. "I would love to have met him ... maybe another time.'' Her own life has been rather exciting, as well, with 11 years of her life spent as what she calls "a vagabond,'' singing (as a mezzo soprano) all over Europe, including the world-famous Salzburg Festival where she regularly appeared as a soloist.

"Then one day I realised I missed America and wanted my child to meet her grandparents. So I decided to go home and I became a teacher at the University of Wisconsin. That's where I met my second husband, Jack Waldheim, a brilliant designer, an utterly original artist and teacher. When he invited me on our first date to go and have `a bowl of soup' I thought he meant dinner but, no, he meant a bowl of soup. But I married him anyway!'' While in Bermuda Mrs. LaBruce attended a service at St. Peter's Church and found herself suddenly "overwhelmed'' by the fact that it was the oldest church in the western hemisphere and the place where her ancestors had undoubtedly worshipped.

"Everywhere I looked, I could see plaques and graves with the name `Tucker' on them. I began to get goose-pimples. I had always pushed this aspect of my life to one side. After all, I felt that their good fortune had, to a large extent been at the expense of other people's labours. Even so, I felt a surge of excitement. No, we didn't plan to come here. We just wanted to find somewhere warmer than home is right now. But when the travel agent said, `Would you like to go to Bermuda?' I said, `Would I! I have family there!'''