What differing opinions we all have!!! (Of course, it just makes these discussions all the more interesting). Thanks for the link, too. I'll check it out. In response to claims of Tatiana Nicolaievna surviving and Dr. Michael Occleshaw's writings, I have my own views on the subject. While I do believe that the House Of Windsor does know more than they have revealed about the fate of the Romanovs, and I do think it's possible that one or more of the family survived, I don't necessarily believe Occleshaw's theories. The Lydd connection and grave of "Larissa Fedorovna" is interesting, and since the woman has no living relatives, I have to wonder if it would be permitted to exhume the grave and at least try to give them a DNA test at least to put that side of the story to rest. There are many coincidences between Owen Tudor's first wife and the Grand Duchess Tatiana, and it is also an interesting point that three people who knew the Tudors positively identified a photograph of Tatiana as Larissa. That aggravating photo from the Yorkshire newspaper "The Harrogate Harold" does add something to the mystery, since the picture cannot be improved due to the lack of negatives, and the fact that the person in question who resembles Tatiana is not named.
But some of the stories that Occleshaw collected around the time of the murders doesn't ring true. For example, the testimony of Georgi Biron, supposed executioner of the family (funny, his name hasn't been mentioned in other accounts or books), about how the family was killed doesn't make sense, along with this bit of information: Biron was quoted as saying, "Regarding Princess Tatiana Nicolaievna, she ran away or disappeared with the one of the Red Guards, long before this, perhaps even from Tobolsk." Now, the photographs taken of the family while imprisoned in Tobolsk show Tatiana to be present in most of them, which doesn't necessarily mean anything, since we don't know exactly when the pictures were taken. But, Pierre Guillard recalled seeing the rest of the children off to Ekaterinburg after the Czar, Czarina and Marie Nicolaievna had left, and he describes in clear and tearful detail as the children were trudging through the snow, and he saw Tatiana sink deeper and deeper into the mud, until she reached the transportation. Also, the priests who performed the last religious service to the family on 14 July 1918 has claimed that the entire family was present.
There are many holes in the story regarding Meinertzhagen's diary account of rescuing one of the daughters, that many of you have mentioned here.
I don't know what to think about the remains that were found, since so many have disputed the claim that they are the bodies of the Romanovs. I have always believed that Anastasia surivived, but I am willing to keep an open mind. There are just so many things about the accounts of the murders, disposal of the bodies, remains and survival claims that do not make sense or that are puzzling. I hope one day it can all be put to rest.
:-/
