Thursday, May 01, 2008

An end to the Romanov mystery?

You may have read in the news recently that the remains last two Romanov children were found and identified. Some of you may have even noticed that AFDIL was involved in the identification, or you might be wondering who the mysterious "top US genetics lab" is (that'd still be us at AFDIL, not the University of Massachusetts Medical Laboratory as most articles seem to hint at). Worry not, I'm here to help clear this up for all you Russian history buffs.
The (brief) back story: After the Bolshevik uprising in Russia the whole Romanov family and 3 of their servants was basically kidnapped and taken out to a remote house and after period of imprisonment, were executed. Their bodies were then taken out to the woods and buried. The bodies of all but one daughter (Maria or Anastasia depending on who you as) and Alexei (the one sone of Nicholas and Alexandra), were buried in a mass grave that was revealed in 1991. The remains of the last daughter and Alexei were only discovered recently.
The controversy the first time around: When the original mass grave was discovered the remains were examined by the Russians, but also sent to Peter Gill at Britain's Forensic Science Services. Reference samples were obtained from maternal relatives of the Tsar and Tsarina. DNA showed exact matches between the remains of the Tsarina, the children and the maternal relative. The DNA from the Tsar and his maternal relative had one mismatch that could easily be explained, or so felt Peter Gill. Russian authorities were not satisfied however. The mismatch lead to questions as to the authenticity of the identifications. To resolve the mystery bone samples were sent to AFDIL (and the UMass Medical Lab), and the remains of Georgi (the Tsar's younger brother) were disinterred and also sent to the American labs. The UMass lab did not produce usable data. However, AFDIL confirmed that the DNA from the Tsar and his brother matched, containing the same mutation, and also duplicated the results from the FSS in typing the maternal relative. Given the results of AFDIL's testing, the identification of the remains as the Tsar, Tsarina, 3 of their daughters, and their 3 servants has been accepted. The missing remains of the one daughter and Alexei fulled the stories surrounding the potential survival of Anastasia and Alexei.
The latest: Recently two additional sets of remains were found nearby the original mass grave. Samples were sent to the lab at UMass, and AFDIL. The results were supposed to be kept hush-hush, but obviously there's been a leak somewhere... But now it's out there, the last two sets of remains have been ID'd as the last two Romanov children. We're not exactly sure what results the UMass people have, nor am I really allowed to discuss AFDIL's, but the remains do belong to the Romanov children. I'm sure there's more information to come, and more controversy, not to mention a race to publish the scientific results. One of the Assistant Technical Leaders in my section discussed the case with us today and it was really cool to hear about this stuff as it's happening. History in the making!

5 comments:

dara said...

Fascinating, but you sound like Kyla and it says posted by Steve. Another mystery?

Steve said...

A security breach. Hmmm, the blogmeister might have to look into this one.

Anonymous said...

I always loved to read about the latest Anastasia claimant. It was such a romantic possibility, and now AFDIL has spoiled the drama. The story even made the Naples Daily News, although Kyla and friends were not mentioned by name. Maybe Steve is Kyla's nom de plume?

Steve said...

I was always more fond of Rasputin.

Kyla said...

Hmm, Blogger said I was posting as me (Kyla), seems to have been a glitch. All part of the conspiracy surrounding the Romanovs... And yes, AFDIL does love to ruin the Anastasia mystery. AFDIL was responsible for refuting Anna Anderson's claim to be Anastasia and confirming her relation to some Polish (or some such nationality) farmer.