The ancestry of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor

The birth of the newest member of the British royal family affords the chance to review all of young Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s ancestry – from his paternal ancestors, well-covered in a range of sources, to his maternal forebears in America, about whom much remains to be learned. In the following ancestor table, Christopher C. Child and I have used some recent sources on the British royal family for Archie’s paternal grandfather’s family; Richard Evans’s The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales (with some updates published at Vita Brevis) and Burke’s Peerage for the baby’s paternal grandmother’s ancestors; and a variety of sources for the family of Archie’s mother, the Duchess of Sussex.

As British titles and honours can affect the name or title used at various stages in a person’s life, they are given in the table below, along with a separate glossary. (The exception is the British monarch, the fount of honour, for whom those implied titles and offices are omitted.) The ancestor table presents the most up-to-date treatment of the individuals listed – but for the Duchess’s ancestry it is an initial review, with more information to come from other researchers.

With Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s birth, the surname of the British royal family is used with no other title or rank to confuse the issue. The baby is a member of the House of Windsor, but, like his father and grandfather he bears the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. Neither one of these surnames is very historic – both emerged in 1917, when the British royal family found its German origin inconvenient and took the name Windsor from its Berkshire castle; at the same time, the Prince of Battenberg, an in-law, Anglicized his name as Mountbatten.

Archie’s great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, is a Windsor, a member of the House of Windsor; his great-grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, is a Mountbatten via yet another name change: the Duke’s father was a Prince of Greece and Denmark, his mother a Princess of Battenberg (she married before her father’s name and title change), and it suited everyone when, in 1947, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark became Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. After the Queen’s accession, it was determined that Windsor would remain the royal house name, but that Mountbatten-Windsor would be the family’s surname when needed.

Glossary

C.I.: Companion of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India

D.B.E.: Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

D.C.V.O.: Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order

G.B.E.: Knight or Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

G.C.B.: Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath

G.C.V.O.: Knight or Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order

HM: His or Her Majesty

HRH: His or Her Royal Highness

HSH: His or Her Serene Highness

K.C.V.O.: Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order

K.G.: Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

K.T.: Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle

L.G.: Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

L.T.: Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle

M.C.: Military Cross

M.V.O.: Member, Royal Victorian Order

M.P.: Member of Parliament

O.B.E.: Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

O.M.: Member, Order of Merit

P.C.: Member, (His or) Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council

1. Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was born at Portland Hospital, Westminster (London) 6 May 2019.[1]

2. HRH Prince Henry Charles Albert David (Harry), 1st Duke of Sussex, K.C.V.O. (2015), was born at St. Mary’s National Health Hospital, Paddington (London) 15 September 1984. He married at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire 19 May 2018,[2]
3. Rachel Meghan Markle, who was born at Los Angeles, California 4 August 1981. She married, first, at Ocho Rios, Jamaica 10 September 2011 (following a civil ceremony performed earlier at Los Angeles), Trevor Engelson, who was born at Great Neck, Long Island, New York 23 October 1976, from whom she was divorced in August 2013.[3]

4. HRH The Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, 23rd Prince of Wales, K.G. (1968), K.T. (1977), G.C.B. (1974), O.M. (2002), P.C. (1977), was born at Buckingham Palace, Westminster (London) 14 November 1948. He married, second, at the Guildhall, Windsor, Berkshire 9 April 2005, Dame Camilla Rosemary Shand, L.G., G.C.V.O., P.C. [from 9 April 2005, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall], who was born at King’s College Hospital, Lambeth (London) 17 July 1947, formerly wife of Brigadier General Andrew Henry Parker-Bowles, O.B.E., and daughter of Major Bruce Middleton Hope Shand, M.C., and Hon. Rosalind Maud Cubitt, daughter of Roland Calvert Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe. He married, first, at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London 29 July 1981 (marriage dissolved by divorce 28 August 1996),[4]
5. Lady Diana Frances Spencer [from 28 August 1996, Diana, Princess of Wales], who was born at Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk 1 July 1961 and died at Paris 31 August 1997.[5]
6. Thomas Wayne Markle, television lighting director and director of photography, was born at Newport, Pennsylvania 18 July 1944. He married, first, in 1964, Rosalyn Loveless, from whom he was divorced in 1975. He married, second, at Los Angeles, California 23 December 1979 (marriage dissolved by divorce about 1987),[6]
7. Doria Loyce Ragland, who was born in Ohio 2 September 1956.[7]

8. HRH The Prince Philip, 1st Duke of Edinburgh, K.G. (1947), K.T. (1952), O.M. (1968), G.B.E. (1953), P.C. (1951), was born HRH Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark at Mon Repos, Corfu 10 June 1921 and died at Windsor Castle, Berkshire 9 April 2021. He married at Westminster Abbey, London 20 November 1947,[8]
9. HM Queen Elizabeth II Alexandra Mary, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, etc., who was born at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair (London) 21 April 1926.[9]
10. Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, M.V.O. (1954), was born at 24 Sussex Square, Hyde Park (London) 24 January 1924 and died at the Humana Wellington Hospital, St. John’s Wood (London) 29 March 1992. He married, second, at Caxton Hall, London 14 July 1976, Raine McCorquodale, who was born at 6 Culross Street, Mayfair (London) 9 September 1929 and died at 24 Farm Street, Mayfair 21 October 2016, formerly wife of Gerald Humphrey Legge, 9th Earl of Dartmouth, and daughter of Captain Alexander George McCorquodale and Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, D.B.E. He married, first, at Westminster Abbey, London 1 June 1954 (marriage dissolved by divorce at London 15 April 1969),[10]
11. Hon. Frances Ruth Burke Roche, who was born at Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk 20 January 1936 and died at Seil, Argyllshire 3 June 2004. She married, second, at the Westminster Register Office, London 2 May 1969 (marriage dissolved by divorce in 1990), Peter Shand Kydd, who was born at “Waratah,” Highgate (London) 23 April 1925 and died at Aldeburgh, Suffolk 23 March 2006, son of Norman Shand Kydd and Frances Madeline Foy.[11]
12. Gordon Arnold Markle was born in Juniata County, Pennsylvania 22 March 1918, died in July 1982, and was buried at Saint David’s Reformed Church Cemetery in Killinger, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. He married at Newport, Pennsylvania 13 March 1941,[12]
13. Doris Mary Rita Sanders, who was born at Alton, New Hampshire 28 July 1920 and died at Pasadena, California 25 November 2011.[13]
14. Alvin Azell Ragland was born at Chattanooga, Tennessee 21 February 1929 and died at Los Angeles, California 12 March 2011. He married, second, about 1962, Elaine ____, from whom he was divorced in Cuyahoga County, Ohio 17 August 1963. He married, third, at Los Angeles 6 May 1983, Ava D. (Burrow) Wrice. He married, first, at Cleveland, Ohio 6 March 1958 (marriage dissolved by divorce),[14]
15. Jeanette Forshey alias McAfee alias Arnold, who was born at Sandusky, Ohio 4 September 1929 and died at Fresno, California 27 December 2000. She married, second, before 1988, ____ Johnson, from whom she was divorced at the time of her death.[15]

16. HRH Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, G.C.V.O. (1902), was born at Athens 2 February 1882 and died at Monte Carlo 3 December 1944. He married at Darmstadt (Hesse), Germany 7 October 1903,[16]
17. HSH Princess Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie of Battenberg, who was born at Windsor Castle, Berkshire 25 February 1885 and died at Buckingham Palace, Westminster (London) 5 December 1969.[17]
18. HM King George VI, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India (until 1948), etc., was born HRH Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George of York at Sandringham House, Norfolk 14 December 1895 and died there 6 February 1952. He married at Westminster Abbey, London 26 April 1923,[18]
19. Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, L.G. (1936), L.T. (1937), G.C.V.O. (1937), C.I. (1931), G.B.E. (1927), who was born (by some accounts) at St. Paul’s Walden Bury, Hertfordshire 4 August 1900 and died at Royal Lodge, Windsor, Berkshire 30 March 2002.[19]
20. Albert Edward John Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, was born at London 23 May 1892 and died at St. Matthew’s Nursing Home, Northampton 9 June 1975. He married at St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, London 26 February 1919,[20]
21. Lady Cynthia Elinor Beatrix Hamilton, D.C.V.O. (1953), O.B.E. (1943), who was born at 111 Park Street, Mayfair (London) 16 August 1897 and died at Althorp House, Brington, Northamptonshire 4 December 1972.[21]
22. Edmund Maurice Burke Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, M.P. [as Lord Fermoy] 1924–35 and 1943–45, twin, was born at Chelsea (London) 15 May 1885 and died at King’s Lynn, Norfolk 8 July 1955. He married at St. Devenick’s Church, Bielside, Aberdeenshire 17 September 1931,[22]
23. Dame Ruth Sylvia Gill, D.C.V.O. (1966), O.B.E. (1952), who was born at Dalhebity, Bielside 2 October 1908 and died at 36 Eaton Square, Belgravia (London) 6 July 1993.[23]
24. Isaac Thomas Markle was born at Shamokin, Pennsylvania 13 August 1891 and died at Millersburg, Pennsylvania 21 December 1972. He married, probably in Pennsylvania, about 1916,[24]
25. Ruth Ann Arnold, who was born at Millerstown, Pennsylvania 6 November 1892 and died at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 9 July 1963.[25]
26. Frederick George Sanders was born at Lake Village (Laconia), New Hampshire 10 July 1873 and died at Concord, New Hampshire 8 July 1944. He married at Gilford, New Hampshire 5 September 1907,[26]
27. Gertrude May Merrill, who was born at Meredith, New Hampshire 16 June 1887 and died at Laconia 11 January 1938.[27]
28. Steve R. Ragland was born in Georgia 8 April 1908 and died at Woodland Hills, California 7 May 1983. He married, probably in Tennessee, about 1929 (marriage probably dissolved by divorce),[28]
29. Louise “Lois” Russell, who was born in Tennessee about 1914 and living at Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1940. She married, second, before 1940, ____ Harper.[29]
30. (probably) James Forshey was born in Alabama about 1882 and living at Youngstown, Ohio in 1930. He was probably not married to,[30]
31. Nettie Mae Allen alias Arnold, who was born at Seneca, South Carolina 23 June 1897 and died at Los Angeles, California 4 December 1980. She married, first, in Erie County, Ohio 5 September 1917 (marriage dissolved by divorce), John Linzia Williams, who was born at Anderson, South Carolina 18 July 1887 (or 1892) and died at Flint, Michigan 27 June 1948; second, in Erie County 23 April 1938 (marriage probably dissolved by divorce), Johnnie M. McAfee, who was born at Dekalb, Mississippi about 1904 and no longer living with Nettie by 1940; and, third, by 1958, ____ Pritchard.[31]

Continued here.

Notes

[1] William Booth, “The mystery of where Britain’s royal baby Archie was born is solved by his birth certificate,” The Washington Post, 17 May 2019.

[2] Charles Mosley, ed., Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage…, 3 vols. (Wilmington, Del.: Burke’s Peerage & Gentry LLC, 2003), 1: cxlv; Richard K. Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, for Twelve Generations (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2007), 1; https://www.royal.uk/invitations-wedding-prince-harry-and-ms-meghan-markle-have-been-issued.

[3] Christopher C. Child, “Meghan Markle’s maternal family,” Vita Brevis, 18 May 2018; Andrew Morton, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2018); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Engelson.

[4] Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, ed., Burke’s Royal Families of the World, 2 vols. (London: Burke’s Peerage Ltd., 1977), 1: 313; Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 1: cxlv; Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, 1.

[5] Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 3: 3696; Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, 1.

[6] Child, “Meghan Markle’s maternal family,” Vita Brevis, 18 May 2018; Morton, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess.

[7] Child, “Meghan Markle’s maternal family,” Vita Brevis, 18 May 2018.

[8] Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke’s Royal Families of the World, 1: 313, 326; Mosley, Burke’s, Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 1: cxliii, cxxxviii; Valentine Low, "Prince Philip dies aged 99," The Times, London, 9 April 2021.

[9] Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke’s Royal Families of the World, 1: 312–13, 326; Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 1: cxxxvii.

[10] Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 3: 3695–96; Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, 5; Scott C. Steward, “Revisiting the Princess of Wales,” Vita Brevis, 1 August 2018.

[11] Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 1: 1414; Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, 5; Steward, “Revisiting the Princess of Wales,” Vita Brevis, 1 August 2018.

[12] World War II Draft Registration Card of Gordon Arnold Markle, 1940; Gordon Arnold Markle findagrave.com memorial no. 189711342 (no photograph of stone; Gordon and Doris’s deaths not found in Social Security Death Index); Application for Marriage License of Gordon Arnold Markle and Doris Mary Rita Sanders, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Marriages, 1940-1941, 281.

[13] U.S. Public Records; Marriage Record above; findagrave.com memorial no. 192579668 (no photograph or specific source).

[14] Child, “Meghan Markle’s maternal family,” Vita Brevis, 18 May 2018; Social Security Death Index; Cuyahoga County, Ohio Marriage Licenses, 553: 380, FHL #102863776, image #386, marriage between Alvin Ragland and Jeanette Arnold (Jeanette’s parents given as “James (Dec’d)” and “Nettie Williams”); Ohio, Divorce Abstracts 1962-1963, 1967-1971, 1973-2007 (Alvin and Elaine’s divorce); California, Marriage Index, 1960-1985 (Alvin and Ava’s marriage).

[15] Child, “Meghan Markle’s maternal family,” Vita Brevis, 18 May 2018; Christopher C. Child, “Challenging modern records,” Vita Brevis, 10 December 2018.

[16] Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke’s Royal Families of the World, 1: 326; Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 2: 2694.

[17] Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke’s Royal Families of the World, 1: 326; Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 2: 2694.

[18] Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke’s Royal Families of the World, 1: 312; Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 1: cxxxix.

[19] Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke’s Royal Families of the World, 1: 312; Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 3: 3784; “Queen Mother dies peacefully, aged 101,” The Guardian, 30 March 2002.

[20] Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 3: 3695; Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, 7.

[21] Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 1: 7; Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, 7.

[22] Mosley, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 1: 1414; Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, 7.

[23] Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, 7.

[24] Findagrave.com memorial no. 184032063; Social Security Death Index; World War I and World Ward II Draft Registration Cards of Isaac Thomas Markle; 1930 U.S. Census, Perry, Newport Co., Pa., Isaac T. Markle household (approximate date of marriage).

[25] Pennsylvania Death Certificate of Ruth Ann Markle, 1963, no. 069129-63; findagrave.com memorial no. 184032096.

[26] New Hampshire Marriage Record of Fred G. Sanders and Gertrude M. Merrill; New Hampshire Death Certificate of Fred G. Sanders.

[27] New Hampshire Birth Record of Female Merrill (16 June 1887); New Hampshire Death Certificate of Gertrude Merrill Sanders.

[28] California, Death Index, 1940-1997 (Steve’s death); findagrave.com memorial no. 79711486; Social Security Death Index; 1930 U.S. Census, Chattanooga, Hamilton Co., Tenn., James Russell household.

[29] 1940 U.S. Census, Chattanooga, Hamilton Co., Tenn., James C. Russell household.

[30] Child, “Meghan Markle’s maternal family,” Vita Brevis, 18 May 2018. “James Forshay,” appears in the Youngstown City Directories in 1926 and 1927. Green Dennis Forshay (b. Texas 1882), was the only other African-American with the same surname living in Youngstown during James’s brief appearance in Youngstown records.

[31] Child, “Meghan Markle’s maternal family,” Vita Brevis, 18 May 2018; Child, “Challenging modern records,” Vita Brevis, 10 December 2018.