MEGHAN Markle may only have married into the Royal Family a few years ago, but her ties to the royal household actually span generations.

The 39-year-old's great-great-great grandmother worked as a cook at Windsor Castle – 160 years before Meghan and Prince Harry exchanged vows there.

According to the Express, a database of royal household staff revealed last year that a worker named M. Bird appeared in the Windsor Castle Weekly Disbursement Book in 1856.

This would have been around the same time Meghan's relative Mary Bird was there.

Mary – who was a teenager at the time – married Irish shoemaker Thomas Bird, a British Army officer who served in Ireland and India.

She was then disowned by her family and the couple moved to Malta with the Army, where they had two children.

One of these children was Meghan's great-great grandmother, who was born in 1862 and also named Mary.

Mary and Thomas spent 20 years in Malta, but after her husband died, Mary migrated her family to Canada before settling in New Hampshire.

Among her descendants are Meghan's father Thomas Markle.

A year before she met Harry, 34, Meghan actually took a trip to Malta in order to explore her heritage.

Never-before-seen photos emerged last month, showing a relaxed and smiling Duchess as she explored the island and sampled local food and wine.

According to website 89.7 Bay, she said of her trip: "Coming to Malta has been really important to me because my great-great-grandmother lived here, so we've been trying to trace the ancestry.

"Before I came, people were telling me: 'When you go to Malta, everyone will look like you,' and I started to say: 'Oh my gosh I do sort of blend in,' and it's the loveliest feeling."

In more royal news, Carole Middleton says her 'biggest fear' was 'losing' daughter Kate.

And Kate Middleton and Prince William played 'never have I ever' with his ex-girlfriend at university… and it didn't end well.

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