The mystery of Anastasia.

Anna Anderson (1901-84) claimed to be Anastasia, the daughter of the last Czar of Russia who, with his wife and children, was assassinated by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Her claim was pursued for 30 years in the German courts, concluding in a verdict of unproven. During Anna Anderson's lifetime handwriting tests, forensic tests for facial comparisons and speech pattern analysis all proved inconclusive. But 10 years after her death her supporters obtained a mitochondrial DNA test on a specimen of her body tissue, a test which reveals the maternal genetic inheritance. The result was compared with a blood sample supplied by the Duke of Edinburgh, who is descended from the Romanovs. The samples did not match. The tests indicated that Anna Anderson may have been Franziska Schanzowska, a mistress of the Czar, but the fate of Anastasia remains a mystery - her remains were not with those exhumed in 1991 from the grave thought to be that of the Romanovs.