Two Island men with an interest in history and research spent Thanksgiving Day on a mission far from the dining room table this year. While friends and relatives were at home preparing turkey and pumpkin pie, Jay Segel and Ron Monterosso were in London meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to recount the story of a native American who traveled to England in the late 1700s to try and get his tribe's land back.

Sachem Mohamet Weyonomon, a young Mohegan Indian chieftain, died in England of smallpox in 1763. He is buried in an unmarked grave on the banks of the Thames River. For centuries, the identity of the person lying in the grave not far from the burial sites of John Harvard and William Shakespeare, remained a mystery.

Enter Dr. Segel, a West Tisbury podiatrist and Mr. Monterosso, an Edgartown attorney, who both run a company called New England Antiquarian Research and Title, which specializes in researching land titles and native American history. The company is mostly a hobby, although the two men have spent the past few years doing research for a number of native American tribes, including the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and the Mohegans in Connecticut.

They were hired by the Mohegan tribal leadership in 2001 to find out what became of Sachem Mohamet, and if possible, find where he was buried so he could be properly commemorated.

Here is what they found:

Sachem Mohamet and a delegation traveled from the colony of Connecticut to petition King George II for the return of Mohegan land that had been appropriated by British settlers. The chieftain had planned on meeting with the king, but London at the time was in the grip of a smallpox outbreak, and he died shortly after his arrival.

Although Sachem Mohamet died in London, it was forbidden to bury foreigners there, so he was interred instead in an unmarked grave on the grounds of the Southwark Cathedral on the south bank of the Thames.

Dr. Segel and Mr. Monterosso's research has led them to the large libraries and repositories in England, where they have grown adept at researching old tax records, ledgers and land titles.

To learn more about Sachem Mohamet, the two men researched old tax records in Guild Hall in Old London and found that Sachem Mohamet lived with a man named Mr. Midhurst in a home on Aldermanbury street. They also came across a published news account reporting that Sachem Mohamet had been interred at night, a rarity at the time. Further research led the men to deduce that he was brought across London Bridge in a candlelight procession before being laid to rest at Southwark Cathedral.

The evidence suggests that Sachem Mohamet was treated with some degree of reverence, certainly with more respect than he might have received from English colonials in Connecticut.

"I think people appreciated the risk he took sailing to England for his people. At the time, it was almost unheard of for a [native American] chief to travel across the ocean. Nobody in England had ever even seen a native American," Dr. Segel said.

After sharing their findings with the Mohegan tribe, the British government joined with tribal leaders to create a sculpture for Sachem Mohamet to be placed at his grave. The sculpture was carved by British artist Peter Randall-Page, who specializes in sculpting rocks while respecting their shape and form.

Mr. Randall-Page used a granite boulder from the Mohegan's Connecticut reservation to create the monument.

The sculpture was unveiled in front of Queen Elizabeth II and Mohegan tribal leaders during a ceremony on Wednesday this week at Southwark Cathedral.

Dr. Segel said he was pleased that he and Mr. Monterosso were able to help the Mohegans properly commemorate someone of such historical significance to the tribe.

"It's really satisfying to be able to finally be able to tell this man's story, it had been lost for so long," he said.

And while the purpose of the trip to England this past week was to tell the royal family about Sachem Mohamet before a sculpture was unveiled and placed at his grave, something else happened along the road to Great Britain.

An old and possibly rare document was discovered by a volunteer during the annual West Tisbury library book sale last summer. The volunteer knew about Dr. Segel and Mr. Monterosso's interest in historic research, so she gave the document - which is written in Latin on parchment and bears the date 1642 - to them.

Although the two men are well-versed in researching old tax records and land records, both admitted this week that they are unsure just what the document is. The only thing they have been able to make out on it is the date, and the name of King Charles II, who ruled England from 1649 to 1660.

From his hotel room in England on Monday, less than 48 hours before he was scheduled to meet the Queen, Mr. Monterosso said he and Dr. Segel decided to present the document to the British government so it can be properly translated and studied.

"All we can really tell right now is that it's part of the Windsor family documents, and we felt the right thing to do was to turn it over to the [British government] so they can decide what to do with it," Mr. Monterosso said.