Historians in Co Tipperary are scouring parish records after the revelation that Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has Irish roots.
According to research by Mr Rudd's own family, his maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Montreal Webster DeVere, was from Ballingarry, Co Tipperary. His grandmother, Hannah Cashin, also had family from Tipperary.
Rudd's Australian biographer, Robert Macklin, says the prime minister's Irish heritage is easy to spot even without genealogical digging.
"He has a wonderful gift of the gab," said Mr Macklin, speaking from the Australian capital of Canberra. His dry persona was just a facade, said Mr Macklin.
"I've spent many, many hours with him and he has the most infectious sense of humour, a very Irish, lively, self-deprecating sense of humour."
There are two Ballingarrys in Tipperary, but county historians say it is likely that DeVere was from the bigger version, near Thurles. Webster and Cashin are common names in the area, said Billy Martin, an amateur historian from Ballingarry, who added that DeVere was a name known in adjacent Co Limerick.
Thomas DeVere arrived in Australia between 1846 and 1848, so probably missed Ballingarry's principal claim to fame: the 1848 rising by William Smith O'Brien and his followers where the Irish Tricolour was unfurled for the first time. O'Brien, incidentally, was transported to Tasmania three years later.
Labor Party leader Mr Rudd (50) certainly has some rebellious characteristics. He was sworn into the top job on December 3rd after the ousting of the conservative coalition government headed by John Howard, and immediately announced he would ratify the Kyoto treaty, pull Australian troops out of Iraq and introduce more worker-friendly industrial relations laws.
Unlike previous Australian leaders such as Paul Keating and Ben Chifley, Mr Rudd has so far made little of his Irish heritage. Indeed, it has received no publicity in Australia.
Much more attention has been focused on his interest in Asia and his Chinese-language skills - earlier this week he had a 30- minute conversation in Mandarin with China's premier.
Mr Rudd's Irish roots were revealed by Robert Macklin, the author of Kevin Rudd, The Biography, who gleaned the Irish connection from Mr Rudd's sister.