Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Which US president fathered six children with the enslaved Sally Hemings, confirmed by DNA in 1998?
Thomas Jefferson
DNA testing in 1998 established a genetic link between Thomas Jefferson and the descendants of Sally Hemings. Historians now widely accept that Jefferson fathered at least six children with Hemings over a period of nearly four decades.
Q 02What did opponents chant about Grover Cleveland's secretly fathered child during his presidential campaign?
Ma, Ma, where is my Pa?
During the 1884 presidential campaign, opponents taunted Grover Cleveland with the chant "Ma, Ma, where is my Pa?" after the revelation that he had fathered a child out of wedlock with Maria Halpin. After he won, supporters added: "Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!"
Q 03Which famous aviator secretly fathered seven children with three European women, revealed after his 1974 death?
Charles Lindbergh
Alongside the six children he had with Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Lindbergh fathered seven more out of wedlock with three separate European women. None of it was public in his lifetime.
Q 04Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son William served as royal governor of which colony?
New Jersey
William Franklin was Benjamin Franklin's acknowledged extra-marital son and served as New Jersey's last royal governor from 1763 to 1776. He stayed loyal to the Crown, which permanently split him from his father.
Q 05When was Strom Thurmond's secret daughter with a teenage domestic servant publicly confirmed?
Months after his death in 2003
Essie Mae Washington-Williams went public at almost 78, months after Thurmond died in 2003 aged 100. Her mother, Carrie Butler, had been 15 or 16 and worked as a servant for Thurmond's parents.
Q 06Lucien Bonaparte broke with which emperor, his brother, over his marriage to Alexandrine de Bleschamp?
Napoleon I
Lucien married Alexandrine in 1803. His brother wanted him to divorce her and take a Bourbon Spanish princess instead, so Lucien refused all imperial honours and left for self-imposed exile.
Q 07Which of Charles II's illegitimate sons led a failed 1685 rebellion against the new king and was beheaded?
James Scott, Duke of Monmouth
Charles II acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children and ennobled many of them. His eldest, born to Lucy Walter, claimed the throne in 1685 and was executed within weeks of his defeat.
Q 08Which philosopher placed all five of his children with Therese Levasseur in a foundling hospital?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
By Rousseau's own account all five children were handed to the Enfants-Trouves foundling home between 1746 and 1752 — an act he later tried to explain in his Confessions, written after Emile made him Europe's authority on raising children.
Q 09When did DNA finally confirm Warren G. Harding fathered Nan Britton's daughter Elizabeth Ann?
2015
Ancestry.com tested descendants of Harding's brother against Britton's grandchildren and settled the question 24 years after Britton's own death.
Q 10Which English king's secret 1464 marriage to Elizabeth Woodville upended his advisor's French marriage plans?
Edward IV
The wedding took place in secret around 1 May 1464 with only the bride's mother and two ladies present, while the Earl of Warwick was arranging a French match. Warwick's humiliation helped drive him into open revolt.