Princess-to-be Kate Middleton has Maryland family ties

(Baltimore Sun) Soon-to-be princess Kate Middleton has a few prominent Marylanders — and American celebrities — in her family tree. Middleton, a commoner who marries Prince William on Friday, is a distant cousin of "The Star-Spangled Banner" author Francis Scott Key, talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and Colonial Maryland governor Sir Thomas Bladen, the namesake of Bladensburg, according to "The Ancestry of Catherine Middleton." Continued

Photo: Mrs. Mary T. Key-McBlair, granddaughter of Francis Scott-Key, 5/1/25 (Library of Congress).