BY interesting coincidences we have in recent weeks had a series of roots-search features. They were highlighted firstly by the visit of Rosemary Steed from Leith Scotland, who discovered her ancestor was a black Bermudian sea farer Charles William Downing Steed. He settled in Scotland in 1852, was twice married and father of ten children. Next was Janet Steed.

Next Janet Steed arrived in Bermuda weeks later from Scotland, knowing only from the internet that her ancestor was from Bermuda, who turned out to be Charles William Downing Steed. Janet had never heard of or met Rosemary, and was unaware she had preceded her to the island.

Next US Congressman George K. Butterfield was here from Washington, D.C. getting deeper insights into his celebrated uncle George Giles, who settled in Ocala, Florida and built a business empire there in the early years of the 20th century.

Now we have a group of Bermudians going to Springfield, Massachusetts on a root-connect. Among them were retired police Inspector Hilton Wingood of Somerset Bridge, and his sisters Marlene Swan and Lillian Hall, both originally from Somerset and now married with families in St. George's.

They were on the trail of two brothers Arnold and Harold Wingood who were among several Bermudians who migrated to the United States after the First World War, seeking broader horizons. They went lock, stock and barrel, taking with them their wives and children. Between them they had ten children, some born here and others in the States. They left behind a brother, Benjamin Augustus (Bruce) Wingood, the grandfather of the Wingood Trio, Hilton, Marlene and Lillian.

Arnold and Harold were highly skilled apprentices, trained in the Royal Naval Dockyard. Arnold was a shipwright and his brother a machinist. Brother Bruce Wingood who remained in Bermuda was a blacksmith.

Over the years the Wingood family in the U.S. outnumbered the Bermuda Wingoods. They were fully aware of their heritage, but Hilton, Marlene and Lillian had never met their US cousins until a recent family reunion held in Springfield, at "One Florentine Gardens" the stately home of, Ken Wingood and his daughter Joanne. Cousins ventured there from all parts of Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut including those from Bermuda other than the Wingood Trio.

The Wingood Brothers unquestionably prospered in Massachusetts the shipwright Arnold was snapped up by Bethlehem Steel Corporation and the first black supervisor at its shipbuilding plant, working there for the remainder of his life. Harold, the machinist opened his own manufacturing plant in Lowell, Mass. He invented a part for Ford Motors that is still used today.

It is reported their contemporaries marveled at their skills, and wondered where they had been trained. It was in fact at the Bermuda Dockyard.

The Wingood brothers were founding members of the Bermuda Overseas Club of New England, Inc., which Arnold served as president for years. The Club was a counterpart of the Bermuda Benevolent Association that thrived in New York from 1897.

Among the four children Arnold Wingood took to Boston in the 1920s was none other than Mrs. Leonie Dismont, whose late husband was the Rt. Wor. Cecil Dismont, the late, first black Mayor of Hamilton. When her mother died, Arnold remarried, the former Etolile Adams of Warwick. Leonie is the last surviving child of Arnold. Leonie was at the Springfield reunion.

Also there were offspring from Harold Wingood's Bermudian wife. She was a sister of well-known Bernard Manders, late of Somerset. Others from Bermuda at the reunion were Margaret Manders, her daughter Jennifer; their cousins Delano and Carmalita Ingham; Charlotte Cann and daughter Bernadine; also Lillian Hall's husband, Gladwin ;Doc' Hall and Leonie's family, Dianne, Rhonda, Michael and Jessica.