This is an unusual topic for GQ, but I would assume this is the correct forum. I am a part time collector and dealer in rare books. Years ago I bough a worthless single volume from a set because I was intrigued by a signature and a piece of paper laid inside the front cover.
I don’t think it would matter, but the book is “Ouevres Completes de Helvetius”, Published in 1777. A woman, presumably the previous owner signed it inside the front cover, "Claire (?) D. Reviere Darling(?), L.I. (presumably Long Island) NY. The question marks signify words I am not certain of. The note laid in reads
“These folks gave a home to the daughter (the youngest) of the Russian Czar who escaped Russia with an army officer by whom she bore a child. She stayed with them until she was old. The wife was French.”
Does anyone know the story behind this episode. I have read a bit of Russian history and I don’t know to whom this note refers. This is hardly earth shattering, but my ignorance has been bothering me.
Might this refer to one of the pretenders to the identity of Anastasia. I suppose the problem is that I don’t know when the book was signed. I assumed that the signature was contemporary with the publishing of the book, but that obviously is not necessarily the case.
That certainly was my first thought. I can’t imagine any other circumstances, at least post-1777, when a daughter of the czar would have felt the need to “escape Russia”. I hate to say it, but the note is just romantic twaddle!
Most likely one of the Anastasia pretenders-her being the youngest daughter of the last Tsar.
There were quite a few of them-people claiming to be this family member and that one-there were even people claiming to be the Tsar himself!
The most outrageous were the men who claimed to be the Tsarevich-um, I highly doubt that Alexei, being a hemophiliac who was reportedly shot point blank in the ear, would have survived such a massacre!
It was either Maria or Anastasia. Olga was almost certain to be there-it’s the three other girls and Alexei they’re not sure of.
There’s a debate over which skeletons the rest belong to-which one is Maria, which one is Anastasia, or which one is Tatiana.
Alexei’s skeleton is missing, along with one of the girls. At the time of the murders, from what I understand, the assassins took two of the children and tried to burn their bodies-they were going to burn them all, but they didn’t have enough time. They took the remains of those burned and buried them somewhere apart from the others. I believe though that the soil was churned so ruthlessly in an effort to secure them, that any remains are most likely gone.
Now, it’s been a while since I read it, but the best source is Robert K. Massie’s The Romanovs: the Final Chapter. Also, check Livadia.org, the site run by my Romanov RPG group.
DNA could not differentiate between the girls, but it could say that they were related to the two skeletons said to belong to the Tsar and Tsaritsa.
IIRC, the assassins at least wanted to burn Alexei, the heir, and Alexandra, who was hated, but the bodies had begun to bloat, and they mistook one of the daughters for the mother.
A Dr. Abramov believes that the missing daughter is Marie. He identified the family by superimposing pictures of them in life with photos of the reconstructed skulls.
A Dr. Maples believes that the missing daughter is Anastasia. He has examined the bones and teeth, and says that none of the female skeletons are young enough or short enough to be that of Anastasia.
Sokolov, a White Russian who led a search for the family sometimes before 1920, reported finding and collecting some charred human bones, most likely Alexei and the missing daughter. There are rumors, reported in Massie’s book, that the remains are kept in the Russian Orthodox church in Brussels, and revered as relicts. I don’t know if that’s been debunked since the book came out.
Massie has some fascinating stories about all the pretenders. There were multiples of all the kids running around.
Oh! I was going to say that Anna Anderson was the pretender who said that she bore a child to a soldier, but I don’t think she ever lived with a couple in New York. Another Anastasia, Eugenia Smith, lived with a rich woman in Chicago for years- a Mrs. Emery.