alternatehistory.com

The hero of the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs at the dawn of the 18th century, once considered for the throne of Poland, and who died in exile in Turkey, married a cousin of the Empress Eleonore Magdalene, Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Wanfried and had four children (three sons and a daughter, of whom only two sons survived infancy).

Charlotte Amalie was said to be beautiful, a contemporary account of her describes her as "looking as the queen of the May". However, Franz's surviving sons (József b.1700; and György b.1701) don't seem to have featured prominently in their father's life. György reportedly joined Franz II in exile in Turkey, while József only left his comfortable in existence in Vienna in 1734, after his dad created him duke of Munkács, then travelled around Paris, Rome and Naples before making his way to Rodosto, in Turkey, after Franz II had died.

György married twice (according to Mr. Miroslav Marek's genealogies), the first to a Bethune relative of the Dowager Queen of Poland (Marie Louise Casimire de la Grange d'Arquien),and then to one Marguerite Susanne Pinthereau de Bois I’Isle, but his only son (unspecified as to which marriage he issued from) died in infancy. József never married, but fathered an illegitimate daughter, Maria Elisabeth (who became a nun under the name of Sister Josephine Charlotte), who died in 1786.

The challenge is to somehow get Rákóczi's bloodline to survive beyond the 18th century. (And no, the Chevalier de St. Germaine - rumoured to be the son of Rákóczi and the Dowager Grand Princess of Tuscany, Violante of Bavaria - doesn't count). I'd like to see what you people can come up with.
Top