Meghan Markle's Irish GGG-Grandmother : Short Biography

Mary McCague was the Irish great-great-great-grandmother of the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle. 

Born in Belfast, her father, Francis McCague, was a Catholic farmer. McCaugue is a variation of the Gaelic surname Mac Taidhg which can appear as Kegg / MacTeague / McKeigue / McHaigue and more.

Mary was living at Merrion Strand, Dublin when she met Thomas Bird a private in the 22nd Cheshire Regiment, who was based at Beggar’s Bush Barracks in Dublin. Their inter-denominational marriage took place on January 23rd, 1860, at Dublin’s Donnybrook Church of Ireland parish church. She was Mary McCue (aka McHugh) but signed the register as Mary McCauge. 

They lived in Dubin for six months before leaving Ireland when Thomas' regiment was sent to Malta in June 1860.   The couple travelled from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) by train to Queenstown (Cobh) from where they set sail on the steamship Olympus. In Malta, the couple had two daughters before the untimely death of her husband. 

Mary and family then settled in Fredericton, York, New Brunswick, Canada she remarried and became Mary White.  The family had moved to Pennsylvania by 1890 when her son Thomas died. 

Meghan Markle the Duchess of Sussex has quite a long lineage where several other Irish Norman names appear, to include: Fitzgerald, Prendergast, and de Burgh. 

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