Assignment problem: Have you seen the movie (or Broadway play) Anastasia? It tells the story of the lost princess of the Romanov family, the last monarchs of Russia. Years after the Bolsheviks attacked the royal family, the graves were found - but there weren't enough bodies to represent the whole Romanov family! This led to the idea - "rumor in St. Petersberg" - that princess Anastasia might still be alive and able to reclaim the throne.
There are some very large differences between the movie and reality. Though the movie and play both depict the intentional deaths of the Romanov family in St. Petersberg while still in rule, Tsar Nicholas II actually abdicated the throne in 1917 and then the Romanovs were banished to Siberia later to be executed in Yekaturinberg on July 17 1918. To be fair, death by palace arson does make for a more dramatic scene compared to the more realistic firing squad in the Siberian desert. Still, the recovery of Romanov burial sites where family members were left unaccounted for did lead to a real quandary of whether Anastasia and her brother Alexei may have survived.
So why are we talking about the Russian monarchs that were killed 100 years ago? It's a really interesting story involving lots of genetics! The biological and technological advancements of the 21st century have allowed us to reexamine the data - and even retest some specimens!
Required Readings:
Biography.com Anastasia bio.
Los Angeles Times summary.
Optional Additional Reading:
2009 PLOS article after analyzing the 2nd grave
2011 Investigative Genetics article with retesting of DNA - mtDNA