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Keeping it real 原汁原味

Australian Prime Minister John Howard is descended from convicted thieves through both his father and mother, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

But far from being seen as a slur on his character, the discovery will give the conservative 67-year-old former lawyer “street cred,” the newspaper said.

About 157,000 convicts were transportated from Britain to Australia between 1788 and 1868, a heritage formerly seen in Australia as an embarrassment but more recently embraced with a rebellious pride.

“For Australians, finding a convict ancestor is the Holy Grail, especially a First Fleet ancestor,” said Society of Australian Genealogists executive officer Heather Garnsey.

“A lot of people have a romantic notion of the convict period. I joke in Australia it's the equivalent of royalty to some extent.”

But convict ancestry only became a badge of honor in the 1980s, coinciding with the nation's bicentennial celebrations. “Previously it was a social no-no,” Garnsey said.

The maternal great-great-grandfather of Howard's father Lyall, William Tooley, was convicted of complicity in the theft of a tortoiseshell watch and transported for life on the ship the Fanny in 1816, the Daily Telegraph said.

His mother Mona's forebearer, Thomas Barker, was sentenced to transportation after being convicted on two counts of robbery, arriving on the Bengal Merchant in 1835.

The prime minister's family features in a special weekend magazine series the newspaper is running to help Australians trace their family trees — and those treasured convict genes. 

(AFP)

根據「每日電訊報」報導，澳洲總理霍 華德的父系和母系祖先都是遭判刑的小偷。

報導指出，這項發現不僅無損他個人聲譽，反倒給這位律師出身的六十七歲保守派總理一種「街頭魅力」。

英國約有十五萬七千名罪犯在一七八八年到一八六八年間被流放到澳洲，澳洲人曾以這項歷史背景為恥，近來卻因此產生一種叛逆的驕傲。

澳大利亞系譜學家協會專員海瑟．加恩賽表示︰「對澳洲人來說，找出被判刑的祖先就像在找尋聖杯一樣，特別是搭第一艦隊來的祖先。」

他說︰「很多人對那段罪犯時代有很 浪漫的想法，我開玩笑地說，就某個程度來說，這些罪犯就像皇室一樣。」

不過一直到一九八○年代澳洲慶祝建國兩百週年，有罪犯祖先才成為榮耀的象徵，加恩賽表示︰「在這之前這一直是社會的禁忌。」

「每日電訊報」表示，霍華德父親里歐的高曾祖父威廉．圖利，曾因與他人共謀盜取一只龜甲錶而遭到判刑，於一八一六年搭乘芬妮號，終身流放澳洲。

霍華德母親的祖先—湯瑪斯．貝克因兩宗竊盜罪被判流放，於一八三五年登上孟加拉商船。

霍華德的家族歷史連載於「每日電訊報」發行的一份週末特刊，幫助澳洲人追溯他們的家譜，以及珍貴的罪犯基因。

（法新社／翻譯︰鄭湘儀）

Today's Word 今日單字 1. slur n. 蔑稱 (mie4 cheng1) 例: The dialogue was rewritten, removing the racial slurs. (這段對話被改寫過，去除種族蔑稱的部分。) 2. Holy Grail n. 聖杯 (sheng4 bei1) 例: Many people have embarked on a quest to find the Holy Grail. (許多人踏上尋找聖杯之旅。) 3. First Fleet n. 第一艦隊 (di4 yi1 jian4 dui4) 例: My great-great grandmother came here on the First Fleet. (我的高曾祖母隨著第一艦隊來到此地。) 4. complicity n. 共謀 (gong4 mou2) 例: Although he did not instigate the incident, there was an element of complicity which cannot be ignored. (雖然他並未煽動此事件，卻不能忽略有共謀的嫌疑。)

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