I don't know about anyone else on this forum, but I, for one, have NEVER believed in AA based on a wish or desire that she would be Anastasia. As a matter of fact, I can't even really say that I "believe in Anna Anderson." Anyone who accepts her claims, and yet looks at her from a "faith" standpoint is delving into an area that belongs to religious faith, NOT a question of the identity of a human being.
To me the objective evidence in her favor seems so absolutely overwhelming, that I cannot just take one piece of evidence, however compelling it might SOUND, and discount everything else.
Having had identical body markings to Grand Duchess Anastasia seems to me to be just as compelling as DNA evidence. These markings are not things that anyone could have concocted. Only her parents, Shura, and Botkin would have known about these things. They were historically unimportant in all respects, EXCEPT for the way that they relate to the Anastasia case. Noone would have know about them. Stupid, uneducated Franziska, far away in Poland, certainly would not have known the locations of Anastasia's birthmarks and scars.
Shura is documented as having said that AA's feet were identical to Anastasia's feet. Her exact words were, "These are Anastasia's feet."
Also, it is a misnomer to say that Grand Duchess Olga rejected her. It is a documented quote of G.D.Olga, sitting in AA's hospital room, "Shura and the little one seem happy to have found one another again." That, my friends, adds up, incontestably to a recognition.
None of us know, none of us will ever know, just exactly what went on behind the scenes at Villa Hvidore (between Olga and Maria Feodorovna) after Olga returned from Berlin. However, knowing both of their personalities and relationships with one another, doesn't it seem likely that Olga took a severe browbeating from her domineering mother.
Now. I am going to share a quote with you, a quote that gets right down to the meat of this. I cannot tell where I got it without the permission of the person who shared it [ask me privately], but it is incredibly significant in this discussion.
Many years ago when asked by a researcher about AA one of Xenia's grandsons replied, "Of course it was her. We all knew it was her. But we were forbidden by my grandmother to talk about it, or even to think about it. And family loyalty was everything after the revolution-- a she [Anastasia] had placed herself outside of that."
Enough said