WHEN a well-known Irish journalist set out to trace his family history for a TV show on genealogy, he had a vague notion that his journey would lead to Bermuda. What Charlie Bird discovered, however, was his grandfather's legacy as the Bermudian who brought electricity to rural Ireland.

In September, Irish broadcaster RTE aired an episode of the popular programme Who Do You Think You Are? featuring its own chief news correspondent, the investigative journalist Charlie Bird.

The show is an Irish version of the BBC genealogy series that has, since 2004, traced the family histories of celebrities including actor Jeremy Irons, Olympic athlete Colin Jackson and talk show host Jerry Springer.

Mr. Bird had long known of a family connection to Bermuda, but had few details.

He said that "sketchy family folklore" held that the Birds were linked to colonial rule of the island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He had, in fact, believed his grandfather Timothy Collins Bird to be a relative of one of Bermuda's Governors.

"I had known a certain amount about the Bird connection to the island of Bermuda," Mr. Bird told the Irish Independent newspaper earlier this month. "However, the reality of what I discovered there was far different to the colourful stories that I had in my head as a child. I knew, yes, that my grandfather Timothy Collins Bird had been born there. But in truth I knew nothing else."

Mr. Bird flew from Ireland to Bermuda to find out more about his island ancestors. He discovered, with the help of researchers, that not only was Timothy Collins Bird indeed born here, but so was Timothy's father. Charlie Bird's great-grandfather, also called Charles Bird, was born at Mangrove Bay in the middle of the 19th century, before the abolition of the slave trade and during the island's yellow fever epidemic.

While Mr. Bird's patchy family history described Charles Bird as a colonial ruler, the truth could not have been more different: he was a simple hospital gate-keeper, the son of a painter at Bemuda's Royal Naval base at Dockyard. Charles Bird married a local girl with British roots called Lavinia Guest. Their wedding took place at the parsonage rather than their local church, hinting at some sort of scandal. Indeed, Mr. Bird discovered that Lavinia gave birth to his grandfather Timothy just two months after the wedding, making their marriage quite controversial for 19th century Bermuda.

During Mr. Bird's visit to the island, he managed to locate his great-grandfather Charles' grave, where he was buried in the 1880s after succumbing to yellow fever. In so doing, the journalist was reminded of the vast divides in 19th century Bermudian society.

"It turned out that he was buried on the island, and I was able to visit the graveyard," he told the Irish Independent. "The slaves were buried in one part; in another, the black people; and in another, those who died of yellow fever."

Mr. Bird's grandfather Timothy was raised in Bermuda by Lavinia, and went on to become an electrical engineer. It was this vocation that brought the Bird family to Ireland, where they have remained for the past century. Timothy left Bermuda on a ship bound for Portsmouth, England, eventually ending up in Macroom, a town in West Cork, Ireland. In the small market town, Timothy was responsible for installing electric street lighting, making Macroom one of the first places in Ireland to benefit from the recent invention.

Timothy went on to marry Jane O'Shea, a local girl and the daughter of hoteliers in Macroom, where both Mr. Bird's mother and father were born in the early 20th century. There ends Charlie Bird's Bermuda history - although, as he told the Irish Independent, he has not been able to forget his island roots since visiting the grave of Charles Bird at the island's yellow fever cemetary.

"I have to confess that during the visit to Bermuda I started to have some of the most vivid and disturbing dreams about the relatives I'd never known," he said. "I was so disturbed by them that I even refused to discuss them with the TV production team during the interviews we'd have as we went from place to place.

"Perhaps my imagination was running away with me. But the reality is we are all probably passing strangers in the streets today to whom we are related through links in the dim and distant past."

Bermudian journalist and Royal Gazette reporter Ruth O'Kelly-Lynch, who helped research the Bird family tree, spoke of Mr. Bird's fondness for the island - and his reluctance to relinquish his local roots.

"In general, Charlie loved Bermuda and enjoyed the five days he spent here," she said. "He even inquired about obtaining a passport and was disappointed to find out he didn't fit the criteria. Despite being here in February he managed to get five days of great weather for filming and the island looked beautiful in the show."

Mr. Bird encourages all of us to delve into our family histories, whether our roots are in Bermuda or further afield.

"More and more of us are becoming interested in our family backgrounds," he said. "I can see why: having gone through the exercise I feel much more enriched about my family background.

"Of course, when delving back in time it is important not to be judgrmental of what, or who, one might find.

"All of us have swept things under the carpet. I shudder to think what my relatives perhaps in 100 or 200 years time might think of me."

"Has this journey changed me? Yes, is the answer. But I have one regret. I wish I could roll back the clock at least a little and sit with my parents and get their view of our family history.

"One hundred years ago, or even less, we had the oral tradition, passing down stories from one generation to another.

"Today, we're all too busy to do that. It's ironic, though, that as one record dies, another emerges: the internet is now providing one of the most useful tools for us to look back to help us find out who, and what, we are. Start looking now."

Permission to film Charlie Bird's trip to Bermuda for Who Do You Think You Are? was granted by the Government. The Bermuda Archives provided additional support to the documentary team.