Ocampo, Lorenzo Angelo A.

3-C

The Romanovs and the relevance of DNA

The Romanov family was the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia. During the Russian
Revolution of 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries toppled the monarchy, ending the Romanov
dynasty. The imperial family was sent to live under house arrest. The anti-Bolshevik Russian
forces was advancing to Yekaterinburg to rescue the Romanovs. Tsar Nicholas II and his entire
family were then ordered to go to the cellar and they were later executed by Bolshevik troops.

The remains of the family were discovered in a mass grave in the Ural Mountains in 1991. DNA
testing confirmed the identities of the Nicholas, Alexandra and three of their daughters.
However, the remains of Alexei and one of his sisters were still missing. In 2007 a second grave
was discovered near the larger mass grave. The grave contained the remains of two partially
burned skeletons. DNA testing showed that such remains belong to Alexei, and one of his
sisters, likely Anastasia or Maria.

The DNA tests that were conducted on the remains found on the first mass grave showed that
the bodies were four females and one male, they were all related, the male was related to the
Romanov family, and that the females were related to the Tsarina's family. The DNA tests on the
two new bodies found in the second mass grave showed that they were a male and a female. The
boy was related to the Romanov family and the female was related to the Tsarina's family. All of
this taken together provides very strong evidence that the occupants of the two graves were the
Tsar, the Tsarina, and their five children.

The two separate graves were found within 75 yards of each other. The graves contained a total
of eleven bodies. DNA and anatomical evidence indicated that there were four female children,
one male child, four men and two women. This was the composition of the Tsar's family and
servants who were exiled together. DNA evidence showed that seven of these people were
related -- the man, the woman, the four girls and the one boy. Again, this was the composition of
the Tsar's family that went into exile. DNA evidence also showed that the man was related to the
family of Tsar Nicholas II on both the mother's and the father's side of the family. And that the
woman was related to the Tsarina on the mother's side of the family.