Only yesterday I found an obit for a distant relative which I hadn’t seen before, mentioning family names, places he lived and when he arrived in Australia.
Umm, I’m not sure if the rags to riches story of the PM being thrown around pre election mightn’t have been a little ‘enhanced’ should we say.
No idea if true or not, but I heard that his mother came from a fairly well off Irish family who sent her off on the world trip and she met some guy in Italy who “got her in trouble”. Don’t know how the child was given the father’s surname if she “met” him in Italy unless he followed her to Australia and was present when the birth was registered. Or, was she married to him? Surely an illegitimate child born in Australia would automatically be given the mother’s surname wouldn’t it? Apparently family disowned her for getting “in the family way.” Haven’t heard those old terms for ages, let alone used them.
More research needed to determine the facts of the story, and maybe some of it will be in Trove.
27,964 signatures …..
Added: Some Albanese info on Wikipedia which doesn’t tally with the “rumour” above:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_AlbaneseStill don’t know how he was registered under Albanese rather than his mother’s surname, Ellerry. No father named on b/c. Either mother told a fib that her surname was Albanese, or it was permissible to give father’s surname despite parents being unmarried and father not being named as father on the cert.
