chicky_pie
POTATO HEAD ROXON
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd's ancestors include petty criminals - one a street urchin sentenced to death for stealing a dress and underwear from another child, researchers say.
At a meeting at Kirribilli House in Sydney today, Mr Rudd was presented with two leather-bound volumes containing his family history, produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Church elder Terry Vinson said Mr Rudd had a "true Aussie pedigree", including free settlers and convicts.
Mr Rudd's paternal fifth great-grandmother Mary Wade was a London street urchin who made a pittance by sweeping streets and begging.
In 1788, aged 12, she and an older girl named Jane Whiting robbed an eight-year-old girl of her dress and underwear.
They were tried at London's Old Bailey in January 1789.
Mary's death sentence was commuted to transportation to the colony of NSW.
Another relative, Catherine Lahey, was convicted in 1789 for forging coins because she could not pay her rent. She arrived in Sydney in 1800.
The Prime Minister's paternal fourth great-grandfather, Thomas Rudd, was transported to Australia in 1801 to serve a seven-year sentence for "unlawfully acquiring a bag of sugar".
He went on to become one of the founders of Campbelltown and two streets in the Sydney suburb are named after him: Thomas Street and Rudd Road.
Other ancestors came to Australia as free settlers, living in Parramatta, Wagga Wagga and Queensland.
Mr Vinson said there was great value in Australians seeking out their ancestry.
"A study of our personal history helps us to respect the struggles that our ancestors endured - in a far different world than the one we live in today - to give us the prosperity we now enjoy," he said.
The research took more than a year to complete and will be presented to the National Library next month as part of National Family History Week.
"We regard today's presentation as our gift to the nation," said Mr Vinson.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24106991-29277,00.html
A bastard child pedigree