The many friends and family of Edward (Ed) Welch, the singer, boat builder and fisherman of Gatehead Lane, Smith's, are shocked over his sudden death on Tuesday of this week. Ed had celebrated his 82nd birthday on November 2. His funeral is set for Tuesday next at St Paul AME Church in Hamilton.Ed, his wife Dorothy and I were good friends. I called him the “great researcher”. He was proud of his Native American ancestors. He made a major contribution to the volumes written about St. David's Islanders and their connection with the Pequot Tribe. But he discovered little had been researched and documented about those Bermudians who are rooted with the Cherokee Tribe. He had accidentally discovered he was a direct descendant of a beautiful Cherokee Native American slave named Jane Bernice Walburne.At the time Ed was fatally stricken at his home on Tuesday he was heavily engrossed in plans for a posthumous salute to five outstanding Bermudians including the first Bandmaster of the Bermuda Regiment, Captain Horace Gibbons and artist Charles Lloyd Tucker. Hamilton City Hall'' Earl Cameron Theatre had already been booked for the event on March 17. Historian and producer MP Dale Butler, had agreed to make an audio-visual presentation. Pequot singer Ron Warren and Ms Anice Torres of Mexico's Taino Indian tribe were among entertainers scheduled for the programme.University of Massachusetts-Amherst Cherokee Professor Ron Welburn had agreed to be guest speaker at the event. The professor has altered his schedule and is due in Bermuda this weekend for the funeral on Tuesday. He will be accompanied by his wife and other friends.Remembering a feature I did on Ed Welch a couple of years ago, and how he had been diligently researching his Cherokee ancestry, I went into my archives for for the following excerpts, noting how his efforts were substantially rewarded upon receiving an unexpected batch of carefully annotated photographs and documents from abroad.Additionally, he was supported by a group of ten young Bermuda women, half of them of Portuguese ancestry and Cherokee roots. They had been planning a local Cherokee reunion. Ed's den is full of memorabilia about the great reconnect of St. David's Islanders and their Indian ancestors.Ed, had absolutely no inkling of his Native American ancestry until he was in his early 20s. He had been on a concert tour to New York with a male voice choir from St John's AME Church, Bailey's Bay. A former accompanist of the legendary American singer Marion Anderson happened to be in the audience when the choir was performing in the legendary Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.He noted an extraordinary quality about young Welch's tenor voice, and offered him a scholarship to develop his potential at the Julliard School of Music which he accepted. Before going to Julliard, Ed felt the need to attend a prep school in New York. He stayed with an elderly aunt, Blanche Gibbons Lightbourne, who had left Bermuda as a young girl in the early 1900s.It was Blanche who literally blew his mind when she told him about his Cherokee roots; and that he was a direct descendant of Jane Bernice Walburne, a beautiful Cherokee Native American Indian slave. He was aware that much had been written about St David's Islanders reconnecting with their Native American kin emanating from the Pequot Tribe. But little was known about those Bermudians rooted with the Cherokee Tribe. He saw that situation as a personal challenge.Somehow or the other Jane Bernice had ended up in Bermuda. Her marriage certificate shows she became the wife of Robert Gibbons, a white Bermudian, in 1843 at St John's Pembroke Parish Church. According to Ed, research had shown the (Gibbons) surname comes from Mayo, Ireland.The Jane Bernice Walburne and Robert Gibbons union produced four daughters and four sons. Through various inter-racial marriages they began what Welch fondly calls “The Rainbow Group”. The four girls all married Outerbridges from Bailey's Bay.He (Ed Welch) was the son of Amy Averil Bernice Gibbons. She was the youngest of 12 children born to Lester Walburne Gibbons who was one of the four sons of Bernice Walburne.Not unlike their cousins who descended from the Irish side of the Gibbons family, the Walburnes made significant contributions to Bermuda (or Welburnes), in both the arts and crafts, the professions including more than 25 school teachers including Miss Carol Hill; clergy at home in Bermuda and abroad, and noted historian Cyril Packwood, author of “Chained on the Rock”, the best seller of his four books.The Fisheries Committee, over the signature of Government's Fisheries Officer Norbert, has posted a tribute to Ed. It stated: “''Sir Edward' displayed the type of stewardship of our marine resources all fishermen need to emulate. Whether he was catching bait fish or black rockfish, he harvested conservatively.”“Mr Welch is survived by his wife Dorothy and sister Gloria Barton (Thomas), who resides in the US. He was predeceased by brothers Philip and Kenneth. His funeral is set for 2pm on Tuesday, with only one viewing, an hour earlier. Burial will be at Holy Trinity Church, Bailey's Bay.