Genealogist Lorna Moloney has stated that amid the recent peak in interest regarding Meghan Markle’s ancestral link to an Irish woman, Mary McCue, it could be possible that the royal has cousins in the north of Ireland.
“It’s certainly more than possible that there are people walking around Belfast that are descendants of Mary,” who was born in the city during the 1830s.
Meghan Markle can trace her Irish roots back to Belfast woman Mary McCuehttps://t.co/W44Ujkp5YQ pic.twitter.com/0FtP69tGOs
— The Irish News (@irish_news) July 16, 2018
“I’m sure they’ll get a huge influx of calls - this is a big thing,” Moloney added.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, Markle was given documents that detail her known Irish ancestry while in Dublin last week with Prince Harry. The link to Ireland is on her father’s side, as records showed that her great, great, great grandmother, McCue, married an English soldier named Thomas Bird in 1860.
Prior to Markle’s visit to the Irish Emigration Center, EPIC, genealogist Fiona Fitzsimons, with The Irish Family History Center in Dublin, discovered Meghan’s link to the north of Ireland with her colleague, Helen Moss.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive at EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin #RoyalVisitIreland #HarryandMeghan @people pic.twitter.com/unvxJunweK
— Simon Perry (@SPerryPeoplemag) July 11, 2018
McCue and Bird had left Belfast soon after they were married, having traveled to Malta in 1860 and then New Brunswick in Canada six years later. Bird passed away there in July of 1866, aged 36.
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Mary married again in 1867 to William White, an English soldier who was in Bird’s regiment. The newlyweds had two children; a daughter named Alexandrine, who died at a young age, and a son, William Thomas, in 1873.
The family had moved to New Hampshire and lived there for a number of years before Mary passed away in her mid-50s from pneumonia complications on August 28, 1885.
Current efforts by Moloney are centered around finding out exactly where McCue lived in Belfast to determine where to search for Catholic parish baptism records. Once she finds out the names of her parents, she believes that the research can go further back to establish more of an Irish connection for Markle.
Read More: Meghan Markle's visit to Ireland highlights her surprising Irish ancestry
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