History is replete with the remains of various leaders and their families going missing, usually after a political upheaval. In some instances, such as the scattering of the ashes of the Julio-Claudians dynasty during the sack of Rome in in 410 CE, the remains are forever lost to history. In some cases however, the remains are found and able to be identified using DNA evidence from living or dead blood relatives with the recent identification of Richard III of England being an excellent example. Now the same is being done in Russia with the bodies of Tsar Alexander II and III being exhumed to provide DNA samples to identify bodies that are thought to be children of Nicholas II. Russian historians hope to use this test to finally the settle the question of what happened to the last Romanovs and bring finality to the enduring mystery of the lost children of the last Tsar.
See, Remains of Russia’s Alexander III Will Be Exhumed, Archeology.com, November 4, 2015.
Special thanks to Sara J. Hudman for bringing this article to my attention.
