I was just reading about the commission in Russia that evidently handled the bones found in the Ekaterinburg shaft and identified them as relatives of Queen Victoria and therefore as Nicholas II and his wife and three out of the four daughters. 1) A Prince A.K. Golitsyn raised doubts about the commission’s dealing with the whole matter. Is he now satisfied and what are the doubts is my question. 2) What is the speculation about which of the daughters is missing: Olga, Tatiana, Marie, or Anastasia? I think I read that Anastasia was identified so the daughter whose bones were missing must be one of the other girls. 3) What is the speculation about why the bones of the little tsarevich Alexis were not there?
I don’t know exactly if this will help, but it’s a site some dear friends of mine from the Romanov community set up:
http://www.livadia.org/missing/
Well Dr Maples (rest his soul) Thought so when he went.
You can read about it in his book “Dead men do tell tales”
Dr Maples BTW was one of the top Forensic Anthropologists in the world and was one of a group who went over to Russia to help with the investigation of the bones.
IIRC he was not impressed with the way the Russians handled things. But, he was pretty sure they were the remains of, I believe, The former russian royal family.
If you need more details read his book or if I must I shall go and dig it off the shelf with my other FA stuff and refresh my memory.
I do know the Russian Orthodox church does not recognise the remains as those of the Nikky II, his family and their retinue . Of course, that may be out of date since it was three years ago I was in the same room with the remains. (St Petersburg…Peter and paul fortress)
Here are some related links:
http://www.lawbuzz.com/tyranny/anastasia/anastasia_ch15.htm
the book:
And my favorite:
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/Anna.html
google ISmy friend
Oh Guin I took a look at your friends sight and found it very well laid out and informed.
Sorry I can’t help you out more don willard. I have been away from the Forensic Anthropology field for a while and have not kept up with things.
I shall of course keep an eye on this thread and see if I can get hold of some old friends who might clue me in and any updates I am unaware of.
I saw a program on one of those cable chanels (History Channel?) and I thought from the show that the Orthodox Church accepted the remains as who they were alleged to have been AND gave them a burial in some church of the Czars AND cannnonized them to boot. Of course, you can’t beleive everything you see on the TV.
I just read Dr. Maples book, and he was indeed very convinced that the remains he examined matched up well with photos/descriptions of the royal party as well as with first-hand accounts of their deaths. One of the daughters was indeed missing (I can’t recall which one, but he does identify her in the book) from the grave, as was one of the retainers. However, the account by the Red Army person who buried the bodies says that he first tried burning two bodies, and only after seeing how difficult it was did he decide to just bury the rest of them. So Dr. Maples accepted that the two missing bodies were burned on the site, and thinks its pretty unlikely that Anastasia did escape to run a coffee shop in Des Moines.
The book (“Dead Men Do Tell Tales”) isn’t bad, if you’re into cutting up dead people. The best parts are the three or four cases he goes into at length, including the Tsar, Pissaro, and a multiple murder/?suicide? (that’s what he’s trying to figure out) in Florida.
Weren’t some DNA tests carried out using some members of the British Royal family because of their common ancestry back to Queen Victoria ?. I think that helped to prove that the remains were authentic. One of the present British royals ( I think Prince Michael of Kent ) sports a very authentic looking Czarist beard. On a visit to Russia a couple of years ago he was warned about walking down the street because he looks so much like the late Czar. The worries were that he could be mobbed by the crowds thinking that the Czar had come back to life!
Weren’t some DNA tests carried out using some members of the British Royal family because of their common ancestry back to Queen Victoria ?. I think that helped to prove that the remains were authentic. One of the present British royals ( I think Prince Michael of Kent ) sports a very authentic looking Czarist beard. On a visit to Russia a couple of years ago he was warned about walking down the street because he looks so much like the late Czar. The worries were that he could be mobbed by the crowds thinking that the Czar had come back to life!
Yes-Prince Philip-who was the Tsarina’s great-grand nephew, a descendent of Queen Alexandra of Britain-who was Nicholas’s maternal aunt and the great-grand daughter of Nicholas’s sister Xenia all donated DNA samples.