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The very mention of the Underground Railroad reaches deep into the American psyche, invoking images of brazen midnight escapes, secret tunnels, and concealed doors, as well as the exploits of thousands of daring men and women.

Are you Irish? said the man on the other end of the phone when he heard my last name. "McMahon," I had told him. "With two n's?" he asked. "No, like Ed McMahon," I answer, "M-c-M-a-h-o-n."

President John Tyler in the 1860sPhoto byUnattributed; Public Domain Image. President John Tyler (1790 - 1862) was the tenth president of the US who served from 1841 to 1845. He succeeded to the presidency when President William Henry Harrison (1773 - 1841) died just 31 days after he was inaugurated as president. At the time, Tyler was his vice president.

Image of Cave menPhoto byDavid S. Soriano; CC-BY-SA-4.0 Adrian Targett is in the Guinness Book of World Records because he can trace his direct ancestor to a 9000-year-old caveman nicknamed the Cheddar Man.

Kim Kardashian in 2009Photo byCredit: David Shankbone; CC-BY-3.0 In 2019, the media reported that Kim Kardashian was descended from Scottish royalty. A Scottish journalist Craig Williams discovered that Kim's family was fond of Scottish names. Kim's niece, Penelope Disick was given the middle name "Scotland."

Brooke Shields in the 1980sPhoto byCredit: PH1 Doty, U.S. Navy; Public Domain Image. The House of Torlonia is an Italian princely family that made their fortune in the 18th and 19th centuries by managing the finances of the Vatican.

Mary Boleyn (painting)Credit Unknown; Public Domain Image. Mary Boleyn (1499 - 1543) is most famous for being Anne Boleyn's sister. Her sister, Anne, was married to England's King Henry VIII and reigned as Queen consort from 1533 to 1536.

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels with a young girlAttribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-2004-1202-500 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. According to several sources, there are only five surviving and remaining relatives (as of November 2022) of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945).

Colorized image of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)Credit: Kentot785; CC-BY-SA-4.0 In 2018, a reporter from the German newspaper, Bild, tracked down three brothers who lived in Long Island, New York.

The Merovingians were a dynasty of Germanic origin kings who ruled ancient Gaul (the south of France) from the 5th to the 8th century. They were a ruling family of Franks. The Franks were first associated with tribes from the Lower Rhine and the Ems Rivers located on the edge of the Roman Empire. They gained power over the post-Roman kingdoms and Germanic peoples. The kings ruled the throne of France and the most famous Frankish king was Charlemagne.

When my husband decided to trace his genealogy he found much more than he expected. He knew his grandparents lived in the southwest, he knew that his great grandparents had moved in the 1940s from Georgia to Arizona. He didn't know that before moving to Georgia they were in South Carolina. He didn't know that before that, they had come to the American Colonies in the mid-1600s and before that, his family lived in Wales.

Exploration of our genetic makeup by Dr. Gabriella Korosi. What does generics mean to you? Genetics can mean different things for different people. It can be explored throughout looking for connections for family members. An example would be people who have been adopted, looking for relatives. Another way to explore genetics it's the look at the medical implication, potential complications based on genetic sequencing. an example would be to look for genes that show a likelihood of developing cancer. This can be very important especially if somebody has a family member who had developed cancer before. Genetic information can be also used for family planning. Certain diseases can be inherited from the father or the mother or both.