Gerald (FitzGerald) Fitzgerald (1851 - 1893)

Born 16 Aug 1851 in Carton, County Kildare, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Hermione Wilhelmina (Duncombe) FitzGerald — married 17 Jan 1884 in St George Hanover Square, London, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 1 Dec 1893 at age 42 in Carton, County Kildare, Ireland

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Biography

Gerald FitzGerald was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Gerald was the son of Charles William FitzGerald, 4th Duke of Leinster and Lady Caroline Sutherland-Leveson-Gower.^[1]He was born on the 16th of August 1851 at Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland.^[1]He married the Lady Hermione Wilhelmina Duncombe, daughter of Mabel Violet Graham and William Ernest Duncombe, 1st Earl Feversham of Ryedale, on the 17th of January 1884 at London, England.^[1][2]He died on the 1st of December 1893 at the age of 42.^[1]

Titles

• 5th Duke of Leinster [I., 1766] on 10 February 1887.^[1]
• 5th Marquess of Kildare [I., 1761] on 10 February 1887.^[1]
• 10th Baron Offaly [I., 1599] on 10 February 1887.^[1]
• 2nd Baron Kildare of Kildare, co. Kildare [U.K., 1870] on 10 February 1887.^[1]
• 5th Earl of Offaly [I., 1761] on 10 February 1887.^[1]
• 5th Viscount Leinster of Taplow, co. Buckingham [G.B., 1747] on 10 February 1887.^[1]
• 24th Earl of Kildare [I., 1316] on 10 February 1887.^[1]

Research Notes

It has been alleged that Maurice Fitzgerald of California was one of four sons of the 5th Duke of Leinster, that he ran away from the family seat in Ireland to North America before the First World War, and that the Leinster family then froze out the runaway by orchestrating a bizarre change of identities. As reported in The Scotsman,^[3] the Californian man's daughter, Mrs FitzGerald Caudill, believed that

her father was christened Desmond. But when he disappeared to America, his identity as Desmond was assumed by his elder brother Maurice, who was killed in the First World War.
Meanwhile, Maurice's identity was assumed by Lady Hermione's sickly eldest son Gerald Otho, whose existence had been denied by the family and who was hidden away in the Craighouse Asylum in Edinburgh. The sickly child - now renamed Maurice - became the sixth duke, but died young in 1922.
With Mrs FitzGerald Caudill's father estranged in North America and the other son dead in the trenches, the gambler Edward succeeded to the title.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10} Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. volume 2, page 2300.
2. ↑ "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DJS-M31 : 13 December 2014), Gerald Marquis Of Kildare Fitzgerald, 1884; from “England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005,” database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1884, quarter 1, vol. 1A, p. 561, St. George Hanover Square, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
3. ↑ “DNA test the latest twist in aristocratic tale of a cowboy, a gambler and a web of deceit”, The Scotsman, 4 November 2010 (archived 6 June 2021).

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_FitzGerald,_5th_Duke_of_Leinster