We will explore progenitors extensively throughout this project. The progenitor, developed by Robert T Curtis, is a special type of infinite group formed by a semi-direct product of a free group m*n and a transitive permutation group of degree n. Since progenitors are infinite, we add necessary relations to produce finite homomorphic images. Curtis found that any non-abelian simple group is a homomorphic image of a progenitor of the form 2*n: N. In particular, we will investigate progenitors that generate two of the Mathieu sporadic groups, M11 and M11, as well as some classical groups. We will prove their existences a variety of different ways, including the process of double coset enumeration, Iwasawa's Lemma, and linear fractional mappings. We will also investigate the various techniques of finding finite images and their corresponding isomorphism types.

The goal of this presentation is to find original symmetric presentations of finite groups. It is frequently the case, that progenitors factored by appropriate relations produce simple and even sporadic groups as homomorphic images. We have discovered two of the twenty-six sporadic simple groups namely, M12, J1 and the Lie type group Suz(8). In addition several linear and classical groups will also be presented. We will present several progenitors including: 2*12: 22 x (3 : 2), 2*11: PSL2(11), 2*5: (5 : 4) which have produced the homomorphic images: M12 : 2, Suz(8) x 2, and J1 x 2. We will give monomial progenitors whose homomorphic images are: 17*10 :m PGL2(9), 3*4:m Z2 ≀D4 , and 13*2:m (22 x 3) : 2 which produce the homomorphic images:132 : ((2 x 13) : (2 x 3)), 2 x S9, and (22)•PGL4(3). Once we have a presentation of a group we can verify the group's existence through double coset enumeration. We will give proofs of isomorphism types of the presented images: S3 x PGL2(7) x S5, 28:A5, and 2•U4(2):2.