I've been wondering about this for a while:
During the Russian Civil War, it was believed that all of the Czar's
immediate family had been executed by the Bolsheviks. Later, a woman turned
up in a mental illness ward claiming to be Czar Nicholas's daughter Anastasia.
The true identity of this woman was never settled beyond a reasonable doubt.
My question is, could modern genetics prove or disprove the identity
of this woman, provided you had tissue samples from her and any
living Romanoff relatives (who would be Anastasia's cousins)? Does the lack
of samples from immediate relatives completely cloud the question and make
such analysis infeasible?
Any replies/comments would be appreciated.
Keith Robison
Harvard University
Program in Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
robison at ribo.harvard.edu
