By Allison Jones, The Canadian Press

When Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall visits Dundurn Castle in Hamilton on Thursday she will be getting in touch with her Canadian roots, touring the home of one of her ancestors - an early Canadian leader.

Sir Allan Napier MacNab was Canada's pre-Confederation prime minister for three years and the duchess' great-great-great grandfather.

Camilla and Prince Charles will tour MacNab's home, Dundurn Castle, in Hamilton as part of their 11-day visit to Canada.

"We're always very welcoming, obviously, to descendants of Sir Allan's, but to be able to have a visitor of that stature in society come out is just incredible," said Tom Minnes, the curatorial assistant at Dundurn.

"It will be a chance for us really to introduce the Duchess of Cornwall to her Canadian ancestors and her Canadian ancestral home through portraits and family objects."

MacNab is referred to as either the premier or prime minister of Upper Canada from 1854-56 for leading the provinces and is thought of as an early nation builder, Minnes said.

"He dies in 1862, five years before Confederation, but in a sense he was beginning to sow the seeds of Confederation through his interest in railways, tying Canada together," he said.

MacNab also helped suppress the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, for which he knighted in 1838 by Queen Victoria.

Camilla is descended from MacNab through his daughter Sophia - pronounced Soph-eye-ah. She married into the upper levels of English society, to William Keppel, who became the 7th Earl of Albemarle.

Their son George Keppel married Alice Edmonstone. Their daughter Sonia Keppel married Roland Cubitt, the 3rd Baron Ashcombe, and that couple had a daughter named Rosalind. Rosalind Cubitt married Maj. Bruce Shand, and their daughter Camilla would go on to become the Duchess of Cornwall.

MacNab, whose family came to Canada from Scotland, was born in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ont., in 1798, and is "very much a self-made man," Minnes said. He had quite a varied background before landing in the history books as an early Canadian political leader. He is referred to as the "boy hero of the War of 1812," having served at the age of 14, Minnes said.

After that he dabbled in diverse fields, from carpentry to acting, before landing as a law student at age 18. He passed the bar and some have said he was the first lawyer in Hamilton, Minnes said.

There is almost a complete lack of personal correspondence from MacNab to be found, so writings from one of his daughters are some of the only glimpses into MacNab's personal life, Minnes said.

"He seemed to be a very caring father," he said. "You get that from her diary that Sophia kept in 1846. He brings the daughters back poodle dogs from Montreal."

The duchess won't be the only one on the visit who has a personal connection to Dundurn Castle. Prince Charles' great-great-grandfather, who reigned as King Edward the seventh, visited Dundurn in 1860 at 18 years old, Minnes said. They will present the couple with a copy of an image from that visit.