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For generations, these historical rumors were dismissed as scandal, legend, or propaganda. But modern DNA and forensic breakthroughs changed everything, revealing surprising truths about presidents, pharaohs, kings, conquerors and more. From royal bloodlines to long-buried secrets, these cases prove history can be stranger than fiction.
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at high-profile speculations that endured for generations before forensic technology gave
00:09us the answer.
00:10The truth about one of the era's most enduring mysteries is finally revealed.
00:16Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
00:19In 1802, controversial journalist James Callender struck a lasting blow in his feud with Thomas Jefferson.
00:28He published rumors that the U.S. president fathered three children with the enslaved Sally Hemings, who later had three
00:35more.
00:36It seems that Sally pretty much lived for this promise that she was able to extract from Thomas Jefferson while
00:43she was in Paris, that her children would be freed at age 21.
00:47The four children, who were still alive when Jefferson died, had either been allowed to escape or were granted freedom
00:53in his will.
00:54This became a fixture in Jefferson's legacy, even as his descendants and historians fought the accusation for almost two centuries.
01:03What time did you get off work?
01:05Um, never.
01:08You're fiery, Sally Hemings. I like that.
01:11Then, in 1998, Dr. Eugene Foster conducted Y-chromosome testing that linked Jefferson to Hemings' youngest son, Esten.
01:21Genomic sequencing from a hair sample in 2026 concluded that he fathered all six of her children, long after his
01:28estate formally recognized them.
01:31What did the research ultimately conclude?
01:33There was 99.9% chance that Thomas Jefferson had fathered a child of Sally Hemings.
01:40Warren G. Harding and Nan Britton
01:42The 1927 memoir, The President's Daughter, boldly claimed that Elizabeth Ann Blessing was the product of Warren G. Harding's affair
01:51with Nan Britton.
01:52That was the first love poem Warren ever wrote me.
01:57He's got quite a way with words.
01:59He allegedly supported the child financially for the four years leading up to his death in office in 23.
02:04The Harding family soon turned America against his mistress by claiming that he was infertile, then defeating a libel case
02:12in 1931.
02:13After both my cousin Peter and I had read the book written by Nan Britton, it seemed so real.
02:19And we wanted to know what the truth was.
02:22We always grew up believing that it was not true.
02:25Britton insisted that she was telling the truth until she died in 1991, followed by her daughter in 2005.
02:31Ten years later, Harding's grandnephews submitted samples to AncestryDNA for comparison with Blessing's son.
02:39It means that it's over.
02:41And now we can sigh relief.
02:43We can just not have to worry about it, not have to think about this anymore.
02:48Now we know that the truth is out there and everyone will know.
02:51The second cousin match finally vindicated Britton.
02:54As fiercely as she defended her memoir, though, there were always skeptics of the Harding family's account.
02:59Now, history will only remember you and your lake-based erotic poetry.
03:06Napoleon's Polish Wife
03:08The first French emperor's affair with Polish countess, Marie Walewska, lasted for years until the birth of her son in
03:161810.
03:17Given the old age of Alexandre Kolonat Walewska's legal father, it was widely believed that he disputed assumptions about Napoleon
03:25Bonaparte's infertility.
03:26The first, Count Lyon, Lyon from Napoleon, and the second, Alexandre Walewski, son of a Polish countess, Marie Walewska.
03:38This may have been enough to annul his marriage to Empress Josephine at the time, but standards for proof rose
03:43over the next two centuries.
03:45Finally, in 2013, geneticist Gérard Lucotte tested the living descendants of Alexandre and Napoleon's brother, Jérôme.
03:53This throne where Providence has placed me would be given to my children.
04:00However, I have lost hope of having children from my marriage to my beloved wife and Prince Josephine.
04:07Both lineages carried the rare Y-haplogroup, EM34.
04:12Aside from his legitimate heir with Marie Louise, the emperor's blood did in fact live on through the mistress dubbed
04:18Napoleon's Polish Wife.
04:21Everyone says that your Polish wife, yes, that's what they call her here, as the face of an angel.
04:29Countess Walewska, if you're referring to her, is in no way my wife.
04:36Tutankhamen's parentage
04:37The controversial religious reforms of Akhenaten were first undone by Tutankhamen in the 1330s BC.
04:45As later Egyptian dynasties escalated to erasing the so-called heretic pharaoh,
04:50even the background of his well-liked successor and possible son were lost to history.
04:54But his verifiably short life and poor health suggest the common practice of royal inbreeding.
04:59He ascended to the throne at age 9 and ruled Egypt for only 10 years.
05:05But thousands of years later, his fame lives on.
05:09In 2010, more than 3,000 years after Tutankhamen's death,
05:14he was exhumed along with 10 other mummies in a landmark forensic study.
05:18The results concluded that his parents were full-blooded siblings.
05:22Turned out that they're brother and sister, which was a big surprise for us.
05:27So Tut's mother and father, so their mother and father, they were also brother and sister.
05:32Some scholars, however, doubt that the mummy identified as his father was Akhenaten.
05:38Much remains uncertain about this royal line, let alone bloodline,
05:42but that much data is monumental in restoring a dynasty's legacy.
05:45And these results clearly showed that they're a father and son.
05:51Albert proved beyond doubt who Tut's father was.
05:55Ramesses III's Death in the Harem Conspiracy
05:58The judicial papyrus of Turin revealed that Ramesses III did not live to oversee the trial of the harem conspiracy
06:05that began around 1155 BC.
06:08The court records, like the Egyptian authority, conveniently omitted how the pharaoh died.
06:13His corpse was so meticulously wrapped to conceal the cause of death
06:17that direct examination thousands of years later would destroy the mummy.
06:21They found a brutal wound.
06:24A single slash to the throat, so deep, it cut through Ramesses' windpipe,
06:30severed arteries, and even reached the bone of his spine.
06:34It ultimately took advanced CT and DNA testing in 2012 AD to reveal fatal wounds.
06:41The Harem Conspiracy did pull off Ramesses' assassination,
06:45but failed to install his secondary son, Pentawar, on the throne.
06:49Robbing an identity is the supreme punishment for an Egyptian royal.
06:55It also means there's virtually no chance for an afterlife.
07:00Ramesses IV still couldn't let it get out that his father's supposedly divine reign
07:04did in fact end in murder.
07:06Killing Ramesses was the only part of Queen T's plot that succeeded.
07:13Everything else was a disaster.
07:16There's so much through the ages to discover, and we're here to help.
07:20Scan the QR code to explore more fascinating topics on the 24-7 Mizmojo livestream.
07:25It's entrance has already been beautifully restored,
07:29filled with hieroglyphic texts designed to transport the king into the afterlife.
07:34Richard III's Fate and Legacy
07:37Five centuries of propaganda and legend complicated records of Richard III's life and death.
07:44Was he buried near the site of the Battle of Bosworth, or discarded in the River Soar?
07:49And what was the extent of his fabled physical abnormalities?
07:52The purpose of the DNA analysis is to link the skeleton that we've dug up
07:57with a known living descendant.
08:00In 2012, an archaeological dig in Richard's supposed burial site
08:04uncovered a skeleton with scoliosis.
08:07Battle injuries and a DNA sample identified this as the elusive British king,
08:12whose final resting place is now in Leicester Cathedral.
08:15The greater shock, though, was that there was a break in the Y chromosomal lineage.
08:19The daughters and the mothers all match up all the way down to Joy Ebsen
08:24and eventually to Michael, and we've been very successful in proving that link.
08:30So there's a chance that a British king rumored to be illegitimate
08:33really was born out of infidelity.
08:35Sometimes, answering an age-old question with modern means just raises more questions.
08:41From here, the royal cortege headed for the Leicestershire countryside,
08:45beginning a week of events marking the king's life and death.
08:49Yosef Mengele in South America
08:51Justice wouldn't be delivered to one of the most disturbing figures of the Holocaust in his lifetime.
08:57SS physician Yosef Mengele, dubbed the angel of death for his experiments at Auschwitz,
09:03reportedly fled to Argentina in 1949 under the alias Helmut Gregor.
09:08But identifying the future of Nazi won't be easy.
09:13He changed his name more than once and had a relatively low profile.
09:19Nazi hunters chased false sightings across South America
09:22until they looked into one Wolfgang Gerhard six years after his death in Brazil.
09:28Forensics found a high probability that this was Mengele,
09:31before a DNA test in 1992 formally identified him.
09:35How did the world allow a man responsible for such atrocities to live in freedom,
09:41eluding capture for decades?
09:43One of the most twisted pseudoscientists in history was finally found through real science.
09:49Still, the idea of how openly he was able to live for 30 years is itself disturbing.
09:54A fugitive.
09:55He spent over 30 years on the run,
09:58evading justice as one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals.
10:01The Skrælingjár of Iceland.
10:04A landmark 1960 archaeology study confirmed legends of Icelandic contact with Vinland,
10:10now known as North America.
10:12Scattered within them are references to a place called Vinland.
10:16A place beyond Iceland, beyond Greenland, where the Norse had settled.
10:21A 2010 genome study supported an even more phenomenal claim in the saga of Erik the Red.
10:27This mix of historical record and fantasy told of two Skræling boys being baptized,
10:34taught the Norse language, and resettled in Greenland around 1000 CE.
10:39The question was whether this strengthened intercultural relations enough
10:42for Skrælingjár to join Icelanders' return voyage.
10:46They're great epics, and they tell you a lot about the personalities and the times,
10:52and they tell you a lot about family life.
10:54They tell you about the sailing directions.
10:57Decode Genetics led a massive DNA study which classified roughly 80 modern Icelanders
11:02under the genetic subgroup C1E, indicating Native American heritage.
11:08With that, a fabled subculture became a concrete part of Iceland and America's shared history.
11:13By sea, by air, by land.
11:17Always looking for clues that would fit into the puzzle of Vinland and the Greenlanders' saga.
11:23Polynesian and South American Interaction
11:25In 1991, archaeologists dated the remains of sweet potatoes in Polynesia
11:31back to almost a thousand years.
11:33This practically reshaped discussions about Polynesian voyagers' relationship
11:38with pre-Columbus South America, specifically the people there.
11:41In 2020, the Scientific Journal published the findings of research
11:45into more than 800 genomes from Polynesian and Native American populations.
11:51Legendary navigators guided the canoes to distant islands
11:54and returned home to share their discoveries.
11:57Not only did their ancestors mingle,
12:00but there was at least one instance of procreation with a genu of modern-day Colombia.
12:05This genetic heritage would be carried into the early settlements of Rapa Nui,
12:09or Easter Island.
12:20As important as archaeology is in finding where civilizations intersect,
12:25forensics can illuminate assumptions about how people came to be.
12:29Find comfort in reading the stars at night.
12:32You find comfort in understanding different wind and currents like this.
12:43Before we continue, check out this single from Current, EDM Transform.
12:48Check out the full track and album below.
12:58Genghis Khan's Lineage
13:00The warrior king Genghis Khan started a dynasty
13:04that impregnated whole nations for more than 150 years.
13:08For centuries across Central Asia,
13:10only the descendants of Genghis Khan had the legal right to his name as a noble title.
13:15The founder of the Mongol Empire was said to have dozens of wives and concubines,
13:20bearing sons who established dynasties across Eurasia.
13:23His death in 1227 left a legacy whose scope was hotly debated up to 2003.
13:29Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan,
13:31had a harem of 7,000 women when Marco Polo visited him in China.
13:36And those women were cycled through Kublai Khan's bedroom,
13:39not, you know, willy-nilly, but at the time of their maximum fertility.
13:42Geneticist Tatiana Zerhal identified a Y-chromosome starburst,
13:48which implicated roughly 0.5% of men worldwide as descendants of Genghis Khan.
13:54I would say that he was very charismatic.
13:58However, later studies linked the overlap to a greater Mongol genome cluster.
14:03That just adds nuance to a myth that unifies humanity
14:06and the idea that such myths inspire evolving research
14:10to answer history's greatest mysteries.
14:12Prince Devanyam, as he is called,
14:14says that like all of God's other prophets,
14:17his ancestor, the legendary warrior Genghis Khan,
14:19was misunderstood, that he taught equality and inclusiveness.
14:23What is other historical gossip that turned out to be legitimate?
14:27Keep the study going in the comments.
14:28There's no evidence.