new member not sure he wants to be here.

[bonedaddy]

I thought it was going to be a neat thing to join a disscusion board about russian revolution and the royal family. I new the topic of Anna Anderson Manahan would be discussed and hoped it would since i was friends with both jack and anna manahan. I grew up in the small town of scottsville 20 miles south of charlottesville va. Where there beloved fair veiw farm was. Many of times id give Jack a ride back and forth to the farm to feed his dogs. Jacks father and my father where friends also. John manahan was the dean for the university of virginia.  Well anyway as i was saying i thought it would be fun to join and discuss the topic occasionally but it seems by what i have read by the administraion here. They  have a low oppinion and tolerance to the subject and if thats the the case there is no need to discuss the fact that these were fine kind hearted folks, That truely believed that anna was the grand duchess. Dna or not, i still do as well.                    MATTHEW THACKER

[Eddie_uk]

You still believe AA was AN despite DNA evidence? No disrespect intended but I think you need a shrink.

[tatianolishka_1]

*shrugs* Everyone has their own beliefs, I guess. Let's not judge people by them. Personally, I believe AA was not AN and the DNA was correct.

[Arleen_Ristau]

Matthew, you have read the essence of the forum most correctly....about AA and AN.  Discussions have gotten really vicious at times.  I stay out of it because I really don't like the hate mail......but I read all of the discussions.

Anyway be that as it may, welcome to the forum! 

I personally would like to know more about Anna and Jack Manahan.  The real people.  There are some people here on the forum who believe as you do and some Dr. Botkin relatives who are very nice.......stick around Matthew!

Arleen

[bonedaddy]

well eddieboy, as with some of the threads ive seen on here, with people calling themselves czars and grand duchesses, id say i was right at home if i need a shrink for believing that AA was GDAN. it goes to show that everyone has an oppinion and can be anyone they want to be if they put a royal tag in front of there name. and everyone can be as eccentric as jack and anna manahan.   after all i grew up knowing these people to be slightly oddball but very sweet and kind people that loved animals. they had plenty of money but you wouldnt know it looking at there clothes and the way they lived. also they werent stuck on themselves for being wealthy as many are. they treated everyone equally. if you needed something jack would be the first to offer assistance. i do believe in science and i do believe dna is a wonderful tool for solving mysteries of genetics, but it is not 100% infallible science. i do not 100% believe that anna was the polish factory worker they claim she was. she knew way to much information to have been this woman and she looked nothing like the only known photos of this woman. anna on the other hand looks more like the photos of GDAN to me.  she did speak several languages fluently. i know she could read russian as i saw her do that myself.  i recognized a book title was in russian she was reading one time when i drove jack home. although i never heard her speak russian i did hear her speak german and french and another language the i could not recognize. im not familiar with all the slavic languages. i didnt converse with her as much as with jack because she was difficult to understand at times and really didnt like to have people around for long. she was more comfortable being alone with jack. she dipped snuff most of the time which was also a habit that was very comon among the well to do in her era.  jack pushed the issue of her being the grand duchess more than she did while i knew them. she was happy being left alone about it. if you had known these people as i did , maybe you would have had a different oppinion of them as well.

[bonedaddy]

thank you arlen for your welcome and your warning. pleasure to meet you. i dont want to be a inflame the members with my beliefs. i just wanted to come here and share my knowledge of jack and anna.  what i believe is just that. thanks again, matthew

[Arleen_Ristau]

Matthew, in the News Links section there is an interesting article on Jack Manahan.  At least I enjoyed it.

Arleen

[bonedaddy]

hey arlene, if its the article from the newspaper, the hook. i have a copy of it here. we get that paper for free in this area and im going to try to get some more copys to have in case others want one.   my father is 98 years old and has known the manahan family since he was a boy, im also going to try to get some more good info about jacks family from him. my father was the longest in office mayor of a town in virginia. he was mayor of scottsville for 30 years. he came to scottsville in 1912 in a horse and cart. his brother just passed away at 104 years old. they owned the funeral home in scottsville for 60 years. hence my nickname, bonedaddy, as im the on the board of directors for the scottsville cemetary association. back to jack, i believe i still have a christmas card from jack and anna that they sent me, ill see if i can find it and scan it. if im not mistaken it was a very unusual one.   cheers, boney

[Forum Admin]

You seem to misunderstand our position.  I don't think anything ill of Jack or Anna Manahan. They may well have been lovely people. I never met them. On the other hand, the DNA evidence is 100% conclusive that Anna Manahan could not have been Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaievna.  You are most welcome to share your first hand knowledge of these people, the story is germane to the subject. If you have some concrete evidence to support an assertion that the mtDNA was wrong, please do speak up

[bonedaddy]

 i did not come on this site to sway anyones opinion of the dna test. it is your choice to believe it or not to. just as it is mine to beleive the way i do about it.  i just stated that i didnt believe the test, which doesnt mean im nuts, and it also doesnt mean i wanted to start an argument about it.  i just came here to discuss jack and anna as i knew them and maybe take up for them a little since they have been portrayed so badly by so many. you would do the same for your hometown folks wouldnt you?  it is implied by some here that you need professional help for believing anything other than the dna results.  know im begining to see how jack and anna felt . and why anna didnt want people around her.

[Holly]

The majority of people here who are active at the claimant boards have very strong opinions and will fight to the death for them. The fact is that Anna Anderson was proven scientifically by experts not to be Anastasia Nicholaievna. Keep in mind that most people find it tiring and annoying when people come here discussing over and over the same old stories despite the evidence that she wasn't the Grand Duchess. People won't be nice. That's just how it is. Sure, they may have been kind individuals but that doesn't change the fact that she pretended to be a seventeen year old girl who was murdered. That's not too nice in my opinion. 

[bonedaddy]

you know what, i was right to think i didnt belong here, because i dont. what happened to people having an oppinion of there own. as before i came here to give you people a different veiw of jack and anna manahan, through the eyes of someone who knew them.  i did not come here to argue about the dna or if she was or wasnt the grand duchess. if you dont want to discuss it fine, lets change the name of this part of the forum to something other than imperial claiments. i know, we can change it too "beleive what we do or go away". hows that sound. if this is the way you treat newcomers it sure is pathetic. i thought any info you guys got on the story would be of interest to you, but i guess its not. so goodby         bonedaddy

[Holly]

I just told you they would be like that... This is a history forum. People debate and argue. I'm sure there are people interested in the couple. But considering what Anna did, people aren't always going to say nice things about her.
"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."

[Eddie_uk]

Well said. as usual Holly dear. 

Bonedaddy, AA did a terribble and disrespectful thing. If you don't like the way AA has been portrayed then spare a thought for those that dislike what grief AA caused to the surviving Romanovs! And the rest.

[Forum Admin]

i did not come on this site to sway anyones opinion of the dna test. it is your choice to believe it or not to. just as it is mine to beleive the way i do about it.  i just stated that i didnt believe the test, which doesnt mean im nuts, and it also doesnt mean i wanted to start an argument about it.  i just came here to discuss jack and anna as i knew them and maybe take up for them a little since they have been portrayed so badly by so many. you would do the same for your hometown folks wouldnt you?  it is implied by some here that you need professional help for believing anything other than the dna results.  know im begining to see how jack and anna felt . and why anna didnt want people around her.

Not "believing" the DNA test does not make you "nuts". It makes you someone who simply does not UNDERSTAND the science of the test. One doesn't need professional help, one simply needs to LEARN the science behind the test, and the nature of the circumstances.  The problem is not that people are being mean, so much as they and I, are FRUSTRATED by those who just dismiss the science of the tests with a mere "I don't believe them" without offering any genuine supportive evidence as to WHY the mtDNA test should NOT be belived.  It's much like saying "I don't believe the Earth is a sphere" without offering proof as to why the Earth is flat, not round.

You don't belong here because YOU want to impose your views on others (not "share them" as you claim) but do not want to be intellectually challenged about those views.  This is indeed a place for challenging factual claims.  If you want to be able to "share" thoughts without anyone offering up evidence or proof to the contrary, head on over to Blogger.com, LOTS of fiction over there offered up without evidence or challenge.

You are indeed more than welcome here to share your experiences of the Manahans.  I suspect if you stay away from the DNA stuff, noboby will give you a problem, and I for one would make sure they were respectful of you if you did.

I think you need to check your own attitude before accusing others, frankly.

FA