If you want to find out what people are really like, talk to their landlady.

This is possibly the philosophy behind a series of Bermuda National Trust St. Georges weekly reenactments about Bermuda's history.

The reenactments in period costume, are carried out by actress Barbara Jones and Malachi Simmons, 16. They take place every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in St. George's.

Mrs. Jones is at Tucker House on Water Street at 10.45 am and at the Globe House on York Street at 11.45 am.

The Royal Gazette recently sat in on a performance at Tucker House where Mrs. Jones played the role of Althea Dickinson Harvey and Malachi played the role of her tenant, the young Joseph Hayne Rainey.

To get a feel for the reenactments imagine visiting a gossipy elderly aunt in a country you just arrived in about an hour ago.

"What a shock for Fanny after 38 years of marriage...," said Althea.

Er, Fanny who?

Perhaps the National Trust could splurge on a few cookies for the audience. Surely, Althea would never have let her guests sit there hungry and parched. It all goes down so much better with something sweet.

Althea lamented the lack of linen on the island and then talked quite a lot about the Tucker family.

"What a family they are," she said. "Augusta married Thomas James Tucker last year. He was nephew of President Henry Tucker. Henry's wife ... her father was the governor here.

"The Tuckers moved to Verdmont in Smiths you know,"

The small audience was made up almost entirely of cruise ship visitors who had only just arrived at the dock.

Sunburned foreheads furrowed as they try to figure out 'Smiths'...is that a family, another island...Verd... what.

Maybe the gossip about some of Bermuda's leading historic families is a little too thorough, and the pace is a little too quick.

But history buffs and genealogists with connections to Bermuda's early history should get a lot out of the event.

To put Althea into context, her father, Benjamin Harvey, bought Tucker House from the Tucker family in 1825. Mr. Harvey died, and Althea lived in the house for some time and then sold it back to the Tuckers in the 1860s. Eventually, the house was sold back to Althea. She died a spinster in 1876.

One of her tenants had a very important role in American history. Mr. Rainey, from South Carolina, was the first black man elected to the United States House of Representatives, a post he kept from 1870 to 1879.

During the American Civil War it is thought that Mr. Rainey and his wife, a seamstress, lived in Bermuda and rented the detached kitchen to the northeast of the main Tucker House where he operated a barber shop.

"Mrs. Rainey makes a petticoat that when you are going over the puddles in the street lifts straight up," Althea told her guests. "She thinks that women should be able to vote." This was followed by nervous titters from Althea.

"They were able to escape from the confederates because Joseph was conscripted earlier as a steward on one of the ships," said Althea. "But Joseph had been drafted even though he was a free man. But he was born a slave. He worked tirelessly to improve his education. My father holds the Raineys in such high regard."

To demonstrate the young Joseph played by Malachi read off an essay he had been writing about civil rights and liberty.

"If you take a look around you might get some idea as to where Mr. Rainey's going," Althea hinted broadly.

After the performance, Mrs. Jones said, "Rainey is less well known. It is very difficult to do the piece about Rainey because it is before he went on to become a congressman. There is a limit to what one can say about him."

Mrs. Jones said that some visitors to the Tucker House reenactments are history buffs, and others aren't really sure what to expect.

"Last week we played to one audience member at Tucker House and she was so enthusiastic it made up for the whole morning," said Mrs. Jones.

"Sometimes we have had Tucker family come. There are considerable Tucker connections through to the United States. In the 18th century many Tuckers went over to Williamsburg, Virginia.

"At least three of President Henry Tucker's children went including Thomas Tudor. He was appointed secretary of the American treasury by president Thomas Jefferson in 1801. He remains to this day the longest serving secretary to the treasury there has ever been. He was Bermudian. Sometimes we get actual family members come over. We had a big group of family members last year. That can be testing because they know far more about it than I do."

Malachi said he had learned a lot about Bermuda history working with the Bermuda National Trust.

"I want to be an actor when I grow up," he said. "I really enjoy doing this."

Mrs. Jones said it was her second year doing the performances.

"Even though I have lived here for thirty years I didn't know most of this history," she said. "It took a huge amount of research. I actually write the scripts as well, so this is an original work. The more I research, the more fascinated I am with this period of history. I made the costumes as well."

She said that if the costumes look hot, it's because they are hot.

"This dress has not one but two petticoats," she said. "I should have a hooped crinoline also, but it is difficult to get through the narrow doors in hooped crinoline which would be accurate for the Victorian era.

"The working girls would be in a cotton blouse, but they still would have been in long sleeves.

"In the Victorian era, no lady had her arms and bosom uncovered during the day. In the evening low necked and short sleeves were popular."

And you couldn't even cool off in the ocean, because few people could swim.

For more information about Bermuda National Trust events go to their webpage at http://www.bnt.bm.

They will also be holding storytelling at Verdmont Museum in Smith's Parish every Thursday throughout September and October 2008 at 10.30 am.

Esther Zuill will be telling stories about growing up in Bermuda and more with special guests joining them on select days. Suitable for ages two and up. All children must be accompanied by a guardian. Admission is $2 per person, free for BNT members. Telephone 236-6483 to reserve your child's spot.