Well-known Bermudian Ed Welch was stricken and died suddenly at home in Hamilton Parish November 19, while in the midst of finalising details of the extraordinary social and cultural event, Roots, Rock and Cherokee.He had conceived it to highlight his country’s debt to his Cherokee ancestors who were brought to the Island from their native North America as slaves.Foremost among them was Jane Bernice Welburn, a Cherokee Native American slave, who married a white Bermudian, in 1843 at St John’s Pembroke Parish Church.Ed’s wife Dorothy (Dot Welch) with friends like Sinclair (Brinkey) Tucker, who had enthusiastically supported the original promotion, decided to follow through and make it a reality.He had engaged the Earl Cameron Theatre at Hamilton City Hall.Also Prof Ron Welburn of the University of Massachusetts and his wife Cherrie had booked passage to Bermuda to be guest speaker.And Indian performers abroad were ready to join locals on stage.Master of Ceremonies at the Memorial was former Mayor of St George’s E Michael Jones.In any case, hundreds packing the theatre a week ago, echoed the sentiments of Prof Welburn that the gathering was a celebration by the Welch Family in memory of Edward MacDonald Welch himself!He was an avid carpenter, fisherman and singer.The following are Prof Welburn remarks at ‘Roots, Rock and Cherokee’:“Most of us know Ed would not have craved the spotlight for himself alone but for his ancestors who settled in Bailey’s Bay, Jane Berniece Welburn Gibbons and Robert Gibbons, parents of eight offspring who have gone on to considerable distinction in various professions.He took deep pride in his legacy and made arrangements for this programme as a means for us to share his boundless joy.“Edward Welch passionately wanted this occasion to take place to celebrate these Welburn-Gibbons descendants, and I am honoured and humbled to participate because he asked me to do so, to summarise briefly the family’s heritage.“It is proper etiquette to begin my presentation somewhere at the beginning of what Ed and some of his relations have shared with me, combined with some of my indigenous heritage as a ‘Salt Water Cherokee’ among the Virginia Eastern Shore’s Algonquians, the Gingaskin reservation of the Accomac nation of the Powhatans.The original homelands of the Aniyunwiya or “the real people” as Cherokees refer to themselves were vast, encompassing parts of eight of the modern mid-South United States.When the Europeans arrived, disruptions affected the lives and cultures throughout the hemisphere; people died from the genocides of diseases and warfare, relocations were frequent, tribal communities were forced onto reservations and refugee status, and some Indians were enslaved.It is not inappropriate to use these terms because Ed Welch spoke them in acknowledging the horrific legacy which brought Berniece Welburn, his Cherokee ancestor, to Bermuda.I want to state here that an article on slavery in today’s March 16, Royal Gazette (by Dr Edward Harris, Director of the Bermuda National Museum in his weekly Heritage Matters feature), while well intentioned, neglects to mention the reconnection of the St David’s Indian community with their relatives in southern New England or articles about Ed’s great-grandmother sold into slavery here, and there’s a photo of Mary Warfield, an Indian from the Potomac River shore, never mentioning her as Indian.Let us not forget the Native American slave legacy here on Bermuda.We all remember Ed Welch’s deep admiration for the accomplishments by the indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere, and by the ancient Chinese and the Egyptians, and he was ever respectful of the profundities of ancient human ingenuity.Still, Ed was not one to dwell on the pains of history, even his own, for he realised irony in the awful spectre of slavery that brought together people like me, a Welburn from the mainland and himself, along with Vynton Astwood, also a Welburn-Gibbons Cherokee, scores of other people, and individuals who, like my wife Cheryl, simply loved him just for being Ed Welch.You wouldn’t have encountered very many people bursting with so much pride about the accomplishments of their family relations.He kept track of the descendants of Jane Berniece Walburn Gibbons and her husband Robert Gibbons with a dizzying and effusive energy, and he was up early in the morning making phone calls to share his love of history, his thoughts and his plans.I for one spoke with Ed several times over his last two years and I’m glad he sent me copies of handwritten and typed family anecdotes that form the basis of his genealogy.Ed used to shout, “Attack! Attack!,” when he realised a project like that that had to be done. Times are sure to come in our lives when loved ones need to share the passions which fill their hearts, and perhaps they realise this subconsciously, for their efforts become an emptying process which invests in us the responsibility to pay attention.We all remember that Ed Welch was as patient with his carpentry and his boats as he was by contrast a man possessed when he talked about planning this programme to acknowledge his family.I want here to recite the names of Berniece and Robert Gibbons’ eight children, again, all residents of Bailey’s Bay:Alester James Gibbons, Ed Welch’s grandfather; Ann Mary Outerbridge, Nathaniel Charles Gibbons, Cordella Grant Outerbridge, Eliza Carol Outerbridge, Elizabeth Frances Outerbridge, Richard William Gibbons and Robert Thomas Gibbons.The Gibbons extended family includes such surnames as Hollis, Trott, Packwood, Hill, Wilkinson, and King.Some branches married into the St David’s Native community.Dianne Gibbons King Steede constructed a genealogy and Ed could rattle off the accomplishments of several of his beloved family members, his “Cream of the Crop.”For example:The building of the sailing vessel The Harvest Queen was a family affair.Many relatives were gifted crafts people working in shell and cedar; his brother Philip Welch was a foremost skilled machinist; Jackie Gibbons Freeman was a ballet dancer in New York City; Ed shared a talent for music with band master Horace Gibbons; uncle Carl Gibbons discovered the Crystal Cave in 1907 at age 13.Walter King became a professional golfer, served in the Progressive Labour Party, and donated a year’s salary to the Francis Patton Primary School so its students could visit the US.Also, Noel Gibbons and Cousin Charlie Marshall were famous cricketers.Cyril Outerbridge Packwood, a librarian, authored the first sociological history of slavery in Bermuda, Chained on the Rock, first published in 1975.Ed was fiercely proud of four young relatives: Nashon Outerbridge Hollis, whose paintings when he was 11 years of age convinced observers he was of genius level;His nephew Yuri Prou; Denise Haywood, teacher and granddaughter of Ed’s sister Gloria Gibbons Barton; and Shawnee Basden, who received her PhD in Psychiatry from Brown University.The descendants of Robert and Berniece include 30 school teachers, plus physicians and members of the clergy.And it should be mentioned Ed’s distress with the loss many years ago of 25 acres of Gibbons family property in Bailey’s Bay. In closing, I want to acknowledge and thank two especially grand people in Ed Welch’s life.One is Ira Philip for his steadfast journalism, for being the long-term chronicler of Bermuda news and culture, and for being Ed’s trusted friend.Next is Dorothy Welch, Ed’s Dot, who stood with him for the 51 years of their marriage and selflessly hosted visitors to their home.Ed Welch would want us to revel with him in his family’s successes.Losing his early presence leaves us to appreciate his change of worlds, and we affirm the honour of the Welburn-Gibbonses which will never change.I close my remarks with the hope that we will remember our duty to our families as Ed Welch found so much pride in his, and that includes us. All our relations. Wa’du! Dodada gv’hi.