However, the late James Carnegie (the 3rd duke of Fife) and Countess Xenia Sheremeteva (still living today) had only a T. I find this extremely puzzling, in light of the fact that the latter descends from a sister of the czar (Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna), while the former descended from a first cousin -- and therefore was more distantly related.
How could the countess have mitochondrial DNA identical to that of a distant relative, the duke (who matched the czar 98.5%), but not to that of a closer relative, the czar? That seems to be the implication of the article ...
BTW: does anybody know if the duke and the countess ever actually met in the person? They would have been third cousins, once removed, and it was actually British (not Russian) researchers who tracked them down in the search for DNA samples. This was because the first people they contacted, the nephews of Nicholas II through his sister Olga, both refused to take part in the testing.
Getting Prince Philip of the UK to cooperate in DNA testing, to identify the remains of the Empress Alexandra and her five children, does not appear to have been problematic. And it's interesting to note that the British researchers didn't have to travel far to locate one of the relatives to help with identifying the remains of the czar. Unfortunately, James Carnegie didn't match Nicholas II 100%.
Anyhow, here's a link to the article --https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/09/01/dna-proves-bones-belong-to-last-czar/d2d36845-f0b3-4afd-b9dc-650aa912e8f8/
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