 the family tree details against his Wikipedia biography revealed that this was <em>the</em> Alan Rickman—the star of the <em>Harry Potter</em> movies, the original <em>Die Hard</em>, and many other big-screen classics. He had always been one of my favorite British actors, but now I learned that he was my second cousin too. My latest attempt at genealogical research was proving a truly amazing experience for me. I had never imagined that I could progress so quickly and discover such rich and surprising in