If you dig deep enough into your family roots, you’re bound to unearth a few surprises.

When Roslyn MacGregor, an Anglican minister in Montreal Canada, starting investigating her Bermudian heritage, she was surprised to learn that she is of mixed racial heritage.

On a recent trip to Bermuda, Ms MacGregor spoke with the Royal Gazette about her hunt for family members in Bermuda.

“When I learned that we were people of colour, I was happy,” said Ms MacGregor. “My parishioners always said I had to have some colour in me because I understood their problems. I was the chair of the anti-racism committee in Montreal before I knew this, and was addressing the issues of racism in my parish. When I went back to Montreal and told my congregation, one of my parishioners who is of Barbadian origin said ‘I knew it’.”

Ms MacGregor’s grandmother, Emily Millicent Spicer, was born in Bermuda in 1891. In 1904, when Emily was 13, her mother and younger sister left Bermuda while her father remained for a few more years.

“They went to Liverpool, England and were there until 1907. There wasn’t any work for my great grandfather so they immigrated to Montreal. There were a lot of immigrants at that time.”

In 1963, Ms MacGregor visited Bermuda with her parents and grandmother. It was a special trip.

“It was the first time my grandmother had been back and she died the following year,” said Ms MacGregor. “She had always been homesick. I had no idea what that homesickness was until I came back to Bermuda as an adult. We stayed with Ethel Hooper in Shinbone Alley in St. George’s. Her maiden name was Virtue. They were very good friends of my grandmother. The Virtues, in fact, invited my great grandmother to share their pew in St. George’s at St. Peters Church.

“I didn’t realise that it was probably a bigger thing than just inviting someone to share a pew, because my family were of colour, and the Virtues were white,” she said.

She started her research about nine years ago. Through genealogy websites such as rootsweb.com she met Judy Corday, who has helped many people with their Bermuda research. Mrs. Corday runs a small guest house operation, and has hosted several of the people she helped on-line.

“I came down to Bermuda, and “I came down to Bermuda, and then I have been down three more times since then,” said Ms MacGregor. “The first time I came with two friends, but I left them together a lot. Then I started coming by myself because I wanted to do the research, and I wanted to meet people.”

It was Mrs. Corday who suggested that Ms MacGregor’s relatives could be of mixed racial heritage.

“I didn’t know we were mixed race until I came to stay with Judy Corday in Bermuda,” said Ms MacGregor. “Judy took one look at a family picture and said ‘do you realise you have colour in your family’. I have confirmed it through the records. Family baptisms have ‘Col’ beside their names. When they went through New York on their way to England they were listed as West Indian, African & black even though they were fair skinned.

“My grandmother had very distinctive features that were not Anglo-Saxon, but we never thought anything about it. Once they got to Canada and maybe in England too, they passed for white. It was a family secret. It was marvellous to be discovering all these people that I am related to.”

In the records, she got back as far as Issac Virgin and Margaret Burrows who were born slaves.

“Their daughter, Joanna Virgin was also a slave,” she said. “She was my great great grandmother. She married John Benjamin Smith on July 31, 1834, the day before emancipation. So they started their married life free.

“They had a number of children, one of whom was Belinda Margaret Smith who married Israel Thomas Jones. One of their children was Sarah Joanna Jones (1852 - 1914) was the mother of John Tavanier Bartram’s (1811 - 1889) children. He owned Banjo Island in Mullet Bay, which was left to Joanna when he died.”

Ms MacGregor is researching surnames, Virgin, Smith, Jones and Bartrams. She is particularly interested in her Virgin connections.

“The Virgin family worked at Stokes Point, at one time as slaves and then as workers,” she said. “Joanna Virgin is apparently buried there. We’d like to know if anyone knows about a small burial ground there.”

The one thing that remains a mystery, is the source of the surname Virgin.

“It is an English name and a slave name, but in the record I find no record of a white person here named Virgin in Bermuda,” she said. “Issac Virgin married Margaret Burrows in Sandys. I think it is possible they were brought in by the Burrows family. Maybe they were bought from a white Virgin. I am still trying to find that link.

“The white Virgins were involved in the islands and in new England and Virginia as well, but I can’t make a connection yet, because slave vital records weren’t well recorded. But I am working on it.”

On one trip to Bermuda she connected with the late Alister Virgin.

“He was the only Virgin in the phone book,” she said. “I met him and his mother and his aunt who is 97. She is in a nursing home in St. George’s.”

It is said that most of the Virgin family in Bermuda were forced to change the name to Virgil, because at one time the government found the surname offensive.

“Alister Virgin said his family refused to change their name, so he remained a Virgin,” said Ms MacGregor.

She admitted she has had some humorous moments asking people if they know any Virgins in Bermuda.

With the help of some other relatives, on her most recent trip to Bermuda she arranged a small family get together at Mullet Bay Park.

“Our reunion went well,” said Ms MacGregor. “There were not as many people as we hoped for, unfortunately. It coincided with the Annual Exhibition, among other things. But we had a wonderful time. About 15 to 20 people came. There was much laughter, photo taking and food sharing. It looked like the loaves and fishes.”

She said while it is nice to find the resting place of long-dead ancestors, the best part of genealogy is finding living people.

During her genealogy research, she also learned that she has Native American connections.

“For sure I have some St. David’s Islander in my family tree,” she said. “My great grandfather, Jacob Catlin Smith died there in 1870 something.”

Her Native American heritage was confirmed when she took part in a National Geographic survey that analyses people’s DNA to figure out migration patterns over thousands of years.

“I sent off to this National Geographic study,” she said. “You pay $100 and it says which direction your people came from. I thought it would be Africa, but actually it was across the Bering Sea and into North America, so it was Native American.”To contact Ms MacGregor email her at ram@montreal.anglican.ca