'Links with the British royal family would eventually prove crucial': How DNA solved the 70-year mystery of what happened to the executed members of the last Russian imperial family
Yet those links with the British royal family would eventually prove crucial in their identification.
Key points
- Their bodies were hidden and remained lost to time for nearly a century — until modern technology, with some help from the British royal family, unraveled the fascinating story of their disappearance.
- The Russian royal family, the Romanovs, had been the reigning imperial dynasty since 1617, and three centuries later, Tsar Nicholas II was on the throne.
- It was the first major case to combine both mitochondrial DNA and DNA fingerprinting to identify human remains: those of the Russian imperial family.
Before the genetic study, Russian forensic scientists had used numerous techniques alongside historical data to tentatively identify the remains as some of the members of the Russian royal family, their doctor and servants.
Additional details
- because of their links with the British royal family fell through, owing to a reluctance on the part of George V to grant it.
- These included examining the bones, to determine approximate age and sex, and some of the teeth, the expensive dental work, incorporating gold, platinum and porcelain, indicating that certain remains must belong to members of an aristocratic family.
- There were plans to get the family to the U.K., but King George V (Nicholas' first cousin) and the British government withdrew their offer of asylum over concerns of the ramifications.
- The family were kept under house arrest and in 1918 they were moved to Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg with the royal physician, Dr Botkin, and three of their staff.
- (Image credit: Heritage Images via Getty Images) Ironically, the new Russian government had wanted to get the Romanovs out of Russia due to the risk of their becoming a rallying point, but a plan to grant asylum to the Romanovs in the U.K.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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