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DNA Tests Confirm IDs Of Russian Tsar's Children
National Geographic News ^ | 4-30-2008 | Mike Eckel

Posted on 05/01/2008 7:54:08 AM PDT by blam

DNA Tests Confirm IDs of Russian Tsar's Children

Mike Eckel in Moscow, Russia
Associated Press
April 30, 2008

DNA tests carried out by a U.S. laboratory prove that remains exhumed last year belong to two children of Tsar Nicholas II, putting to rest questions about what happened to Russia's last royal family, a regional governor said Wednesday.

The bone fragments dug up are those of Crown Prince Alexei and his sister, Maria, whose remains had been missing since the family was murdered in 1918 as Russia descended into civil war, said Eduard Rossel, governor of the Sverdlovsk region (see map of Russia).

"We have now found the entire family," he told reporters in Yekaterinburg, the city where the remains were exhumed about 900 miles east of Moscow.

The confirmation could bring the tortured history of the Russian imperial family closer to closure and end royal supporters' persistent hopes that members of the tsar's immediate family survived the massacre.

Tsar's Story

Nicholas II abdicated in 1917 as revolutionary fervor swept Russia, and he and his family were detained.

The tsar, his wife, Alexandra, and their son and four daughters were fatally shot on July 17, 1918, in a basement room of the merchant's house where they were being held in Yekaterinburg.

The remains of Nicholas, Alexandra, and three of their daughters were unearthed in 1991 as the Soviet Union was collapsing.

Genetic tests convinced experts of their authenticity and identified one set as those of Anastasia, a daughter some have said survived.

The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas and his family in 2000, even as it expressed doubts that the remains were indeed those of the tsar's family.

The remains of Alexei and Maria, however, had never been located, leading to decades of speculation that perhaps one or both had survived. Last summer, researchers dug up the bone shards near Yekaterinburg and enlisted Russian and U.S. laboratories to conduct DNA tests.

"The main genetic laboratory in the United States has concluded its work with a full confirmation of our own laboratories' work," Rossel told reporters.

It was unclear which laboratory Rossel was referring to, but a genetic research team working at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has been involved in the process.

The university did not immediately comment on the report Wednesday.

The press service for the Russian Orthodox Church said no one could comment on the discovery.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: children; dna; tests; tsars

1 posted on 05/01/2008 7:54:09 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam

bump


2 posted on 05/01/2008 7:57:20 AM PDT by maine-iac7 (Typical Gun-Toting, Jesus-Loving Gramma)
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To: blam
Famous DNA


3 posted on 05/01/2008 7:57:38 AM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
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To: blam

Communism and State sanctioned murder, and anarchy,is merely the end result of a leftist agenda.The enemy never dies or sleeps, true evil always rallies around the cry for equality and economic justice by any means.”The Ballot or the Bullet”


4 posted on 05/01/2008 8:05:32 AM PDT by redstateconfidential (If you are the smartest person in the room,you are hanging out with the wrong people.)
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To: blam
The Famous DNA page is great!

Thanks for the link.

5 posted on 05/01/2008 8:29:57 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: blam

Holy passion-bearer Tsar Martyr Nicholas! The Lord has chosen thee as His anointed one to judge with mercy and righteousness thy people and to be the guardian of the Orthodox Kingdom. This royal service and the care for souls thou hast completed with the fear of God. Testing thee as gold in the furnace, the Lord has allowed bitter sorrows to come upon thee, as to the much suffering Job, by depriving thee of thy royal throne and sending upon thee martyric death. Having meekly endured all this, like a true slave of Christ, thou art partaking of the highest glory at the Throne of the God of All, together with the Holy Martyrs, the holy Tsarina Alexandra, the holy youth Crown Prince Alexis, and the holy princesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia and with the faithful servants of thine, as well as with the holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth and with all the Royal Martyrs and the Holy Martyr Barbara. For as having great boldness before Christ King, for whose sake thou hast endured everything, pray with us, that the Lord might forgive the sin of thy people, who did not stop thy slaughter, as King and Anointed One of God, that the Lord will deliver the suffering land of Russia from the fierce and godless ones, who came upon it because of our sin and apostasy, and that He will restore the throne of Orthodox Tsars, and to us will grant forgiveness of sins and will instruct us on every good deed, that we might acquire humbleness, meekness and love, as these Martyrs have done, that we will be vouchsafed the Heavenly Kingdom, where together with thee and all the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, we might glorify Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen!


6 posted on 05/01/2008 9:12:12 AM PDT by blinachka (Vechnaya Pamyat Daddy... xoxo)
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To: blinachka

7 posted on 05/01/2008 9:57:24 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated)
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To: AnAmericanMother
"The Famous DNA page is great! Thanks for the link."

You may like this one too: Ancient DNA

My dad's mother (Mrs Smith) is related to 9,000 year old Cheddar Man (U5a1a). Her ancestral homeland is now under the North Sea between Scotland and Finland.

8 posted on 05/01/2008 10:52:41 AM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
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To: blam

bump


9 posted on 05/01/2008 10:55:22 AM PDT by NaughtiusMaximus (Bible toting, bitter and armed with slashing sarcasm.)
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To: blam
Her ancestral homeland is now under the North Sea between Scotland and Finland.

Huh?


10 posted on 05/01/2008 11:10:36 AM PDT by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: Ditto
There wasn't a North Sea until near the end of the Ice Age.
England, Scotland, Sweden, Norway and Finland were all still connected.

A large number of the Finland Sa'ami's are DNA haplogroup U5b. My Mother's people, the Skolt Sa'ami, have haplogroup 'X', the rarest in all of Europe.


11 posted on 05/01/2008 1:11:14 PM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
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To: blam
There wasn't a North Sea until near the end of the Ice Age.

Yes there was. It just was not connected with the English Channel then. The areas at the end of the Ice Age were all in the southern North Sea between England and mainland Europe.


12 posted on 05/01/2008 1:32:10 PM PDT by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: Ditto
Stone Age Sites Found Under North Sea (8,000BC)
13 posted on 05/01/2008 2:14:56 PM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
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To: blam

The bolsheviks offered to let Nicholas and his family emigrate to England, but Nicky’s cousin, the King of England, refused to take them, so they were murdered. Real class, Georgie.


14 posted on 05/01/2008 2:18:58 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: blam

Yes, stone age sites have been found in the shallow waters of the southern parts of the North Sea. But the northern sections were still a sea during the stone age.


15 posted on 05/01/2008 2:33:28 PM PDT by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: ozzymandus
Never heard that before, and I've read an awful lot of history. It also surprises me, as George and Nicholas were fairly close.

Source?

16 posted on 05/01/2008 6:35:58 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother

I’ve read it several times, but the latest time I saw it is in “King,Kaiser,Tsar”, by Catrine Clay. Pretty much any book about the Russian Revolution will tell you the same thing. George was afraid the Bolshevik revolution would spread to Britain.


17 posted on 05/02/2008 11:36:51 AM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: ozzymandus

In that case I wouldn’t put it at George’s door, but at the door of whoever was PM at the time. Lloyd George, I think (and certainly he was unscrupulous enough to do it.)


18 posted on 05/02/2008 12:21:25 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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