Meghan Markle's great-great-great-grandmother was a cook at Windsor Castle in the 1850s, it has been discovered.
The Duchess of Sussex's family has previously claimed that her ancestor, Mary Bird, was part of the royal household in the 19th century, saying that she was a maid.
Now her name has been found in a database of Royal Household staff. There was a worker named M. Bird, who appeared in the Windsor Castle Weekly Disbursement Book in 1856.
This was around the same time Mary would have been in the UK, reports The Express.
Mary Bird, Meghan's great-great-great-grandmother
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert made Windsor Castle their principal royal residence, despite Victoria complaining early in her reign that the castle was "dull and tiresome" and "prison-like", and preferring Osborne and Balmoral as holiday residences.
Victoria took a close interest in the details of how Windsor Castle was run, including the minutiae of the social events.
The Queen shunned the use of Buckingham Palace after Albert's death in 1861 and instead used Windsor Castle as her residence when conducting official business near London.
Meghan's great-great-great-grandmother later married Thomas Bird, an Irish shoemaker who served as an officer in the British Army.
Her family disowned her for this and so the couple decided to move to Malta with the Army, where they started a family in 1862.
They had two children together, including Meghan's great-great-grandmother, who was also named Mary.
The family went on to spend the next 20 years living in Malta, but after her husband died, Mary and the children migrated to Canada, before moving to Meredith and finally settling in New Hampshire.
Mary is thought to be connected to Meghan on her father's side of the family.
