When Kim Minors, senior clerk at the Registry General, first received a request for help from a New Zealander wanting to trace his family tree, she treated it like any other routine births and deaths inquiry.

"I gave him the standard spiel on what he has to do to get more information," she says. But Bill Grant, the Kiwi in question, kept coming back to her with more names of possible ancestors and a distant bell rang in Kim's head.

"He gave me a few names," she explains. "I kept saying to myself these names are familiar to me. I went home and looked in my family tree book.

"I e-mailed him back the next day. I said: 'You are looking for relatives. I have found you someone. Me.' It just went from there."

Kim, 43, discovered that her great-grandmother Kathleen Darrell was the sister of Bill's great-grandfather Edward. Kathleen and Edward were from 12 siblings whose mother had the unusual name Artemisia, which triggered Kim's memory.

Kim put Bill, 76, in touch with local relative Valerie Rowling, 57, whose grandmother Hilda was the youngest of the 12 Darrell siblings.

With the help of the two Bermudian women and Island genealogist Clara Hollis Hallett, Bill traced the family back to the mid-18th Century and Pilot James (Jemmy) Darrell.

He discovered that Kathleen, Edward and Hilda were the great-grandchildren of Pilot Darrell, confirming that the former slave, who won his freedom due to his nautical prowess and who has a square named after him in St. George, definitely had children and that his descendants live on to this day.

As recently as April 2007, the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs told The Royal Gazette that no record of Pilot Darrell having children or siblings existed, though many Darrells thought they were related to him.

That month, a service was held to commemorate the King's Pilot and the restored headstone marking his grave at St. Peter's Church in St. George was unveiled.

Bermudians believed to be descended from Jemmy were invited to the ceremony, including the Ramirez family, who live in Pilot Darrell's home, in Aunt Peggy's Lane, St. George.

Thanks to Bill's digging, a link between the two Darrell lines, all descended from Pilot Darrell's son Thomas, has now been established.

The Ramirez family are descended from Thomas' son George by his first wife.

Bill, Kim and Valerie are descended from Thomas' son Samuel by his second wife.

The research means many Bermudians who once vaguely suspected they were related to one another now know they are for sure and that they share a common famous ancestor.

The relatives have set up a committee, chaired by Marcelle Williams, and are planning a family reunion on the Island between April 15 and 22 next year.

They are hoping cousins from all over the world, including Hawaii, Mexico, California, New York and Australasia, will attend.

The reunion idea came from Bill Grant and Valerie's sister Cherylann Rowling-Spurway. Valerie and Cherylann's father Calvyn, 83, is thought to be one of the oldest surviving descendants of Pilot Darrell in Bermuda.

Committee members have been researching their own lines and contacting relatives as they find them. Kim says there are at least six or seven hundred descendants just from Samuel Darrell. "And we haven't finished yet," she laughs.

Marcelle, 55, says she'd never been able to go back very far with her family tree so the information from Bill filled in many blanks.

Finding out that Pilot Darrell was her ancestor was "kind of exciting", she says.

Lawyer Liz Christopher, 46, is one of George Darrell's descendants and says Pilot Darrell's cottage was left to her grandfather Richard Darrell.

"We have known for a while about the connection with Pilot Darrell, since he was first commemorated six or seven years ago," she says.

She adds that Jemmy, who died on April 12, 1815, was a hugely important figure in Bermuda's history, having campaigned for better pay for pilots and for a change in the law to allow black people to leave their property to their family.

"It's one thing to say that he was a freed slave. We are finding out so much more about him."

Other well-known descendants of Pilot Darrell include Attorney General Kim Wilson, former MP Anita Smith, former Miss Bermuda Gina Swainson and militaryman Edgar Ward, of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps.

Bill's great-grandfather Edward left Bermuda for Tasmania in the late 1800s, siring children both there and in New Zealand.

As reported last year by The Royal Gazette, Kiwi artist Sylvia Huege de Serville got a shock when Bill contacted her to tell her she had Bermudian roots and that Edward was her great great grandfather.

She always thought she had Aboriginal heritage and based her art around that.

Sylvia, 58, who now lives in Brisbane, Australia, says she is desperately trying to raise the cash to attend next year's reunion.

"The task of getting there looks pretty daunting. I'm currently entering every art competition going that has a cash prize in my efforts to attend.

"If I do make it, I know that just being around this part of my family will lay to rest some ghosts which have haunted me regarding who I am and where I came from."

Bill, from Tauranga, NZ, says he will be here for the weeklong reunion, which will include a traditional Bermudian fish fry, the annual commemoration for Pilot Darrell in St. George, a talent show, sightseeing tour and colour-coded T-shirts denoting the different strands of the family. "May I thank the many Darrells in Bermuda and worldwide who have contributed something to the history of the Darrells of Bermuda," he adds.

* Anyone planning to attend the reunion is urged to fill in their form as soon as possible and return it to the committee.

To find out more about the Darrell family tree and the reunion contact Marcelle Williams on 293 1175 or e-mail pullygirl@hotmail.com.