Megan Smolenyak – Medium

Megan Smolenyak

Featured Book

Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing: Adventures in Discovering News-Making Connections, Unexpected Ancestors, and Long-Hidden Secrets, and Solving Historical Puzzles

Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing: Adventures in Discovering News-Making Connections, Unexpected Ancestors, and Long-Hidden Secrets, and Solving Historical Puzzles

Get the inside story as the "Indiana Jones of genealogy" reveals how she cracked her headline-making cases and redefined history.

2012

Megan Smolenyak

Megan Smolenyak

Stories

Pinned

Megan Smolenyak

Genetic Genealogy’s First Decade

The Pioneering Days of 1999–2009

Jun 20

Genetic Genealogy’s First Decade

Jun 20

Pinned

Megan Smolenyak

Taylor Swift’s Formidable Female Forebears

Thanks to this mother-daughter duo, she’s got cousins around the globe

Feb 23

Taylor Swift’s Formidable Female Forebears

Feb 23

Pinned

Megan Smolenyak

Joe Biden’s Irish Roots

This is an updated version of an article that was first published in Irish America in 2013, but for obvious reasons, has become freshly…

Feb 16, 2020

Joe Biden’s Irish Roots

Feb 16, 2020

Megan Smolenyak

Tim Walz of the Tomhaggard Doyles

How a Solitary Tombstone in Wisconsin Solved the Mystery of His Irish Origins

Sep 14

Tim Walz of the Tomhaggard Doyles

Sep 14

Megan Smolenyak

Tim Walz’s Irish Great-Great-Grandparents Were Just Like Him

This Apple Didn’t Fall Far from the Tree

Aug 8

Tim Walz’s Irish Great-Great-Grandparents Were Just Like Him

Aug 8

Megan Smolenyak

6 Things You Didn’t Know about Mark Kelly’s Roots

It’s an understatement to say that Sen. Mark Kelly has an impressive resume. Navy Captain turned astronaut turned Senator and married to…

Aug 5

6 Things You Didn’t Know about Mark Kelly’s Roots

Aug 5

Megan Smolenyak

Enough Already with the Twisted Attempts to Weaponize Kamala Harris’s Family Tree

A Genealogical Reckoning

Jul 29

Enough Already with the Twisted Attempts to Weaponize Kamala Harris’s Family Tree

Jul 29

Megan Smolenyak

Shiny Object Ancestors

The Ones We Can’t Resist

May 21

Shiny Object Ancestors

May 21

Megan Smolenyak

How I Found my Elusive John Murphy

The Deadly Trail that Finally Revealed a Phantom Branch of My Family Tree

Mar 8

How I Found my Elusive John Murphy

Mar 8

Megan Smolenyak

Meg Ryan’s Rusyn Roots

Big Screen Po-Nashomu

Oct 30, 2023

Meg Ryan’s Rusyn Roots

Oct 30, 2023

Megan Smolenyak

Megan Smolenyak

Book Author

Friend of Medium

Genealogical adventurer & storyteller who loves solving mysteries! You may not know me, but chances are you’ve seen my work. (www.MeganSmolenyak.com)

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