I don't think we need to necessarily be harsh, and paint all supporters of AA with the same brush. I would not call the now departed gentleman "bonedaddy" either bizarre or obsessed.
The problem is really one of ignorance of the science involved in the mtDNA testing. I won't rehash the long discussion again here, its been done to death on other threads. But, suffice it to say, the only way to "not believe" the results are
1. The sample was not from Anna Manahan. However, records at MJH and the chain of custody are pretty clear. Certainly the Schweitzers were happy in the knowledge that the sample was hers. That's good enough for me.
2. The sample was somehow switched in some bizarre, complicated and virtually impossible scheme and conspiracy.
Thats it. The DNA was not "ancient" in the scientific term, nor was it degraded. It was a well preserved stable pathology sample from a well respected teaching hospital. Four different labs got the exact same sequence result from different bits of the original sample, this rules out contamination of any one tested sample by mis handling of those performing the testing.
NOTHING in the years since changes the validity of the original sample for one reason: Any newer test that tests for MORE sequence points as may be done today could only reveal MORE mismatches than the original five. There will NEVER be fewer mismatches than five. And remember, just ONE mismatch is an automatic exclusion from maternal relationship.
The science doesn't lie. It is not flawed. There was no grand conspiracy. Anna Manahan was of no maternal relationship to Alexandra Feodorovna, Queen Victoria or Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt.
This fundamental ignorance by many in the "Anna Manahan was GD Anastasia" is really more the point. What I don't understand is why "they" are so unwilling to just produce the evidence to support their claims.
I STILL stand by my original offer that anyone who can produce a paper from a peer review journal, written by a scientist trained in the field of forensic dna analysis which shows why the original testing by Gill, Melton, et al, is no longer reliable, I will publish said paper myself here in the Alexander Palace Time Machine website and will modify my position on the subject.
For three years now, I have yet to be provided with any such paper. Yet, for three years, I am castigated, ridiculed, defamed, libeled and plain called names (such as by good Mr. "bonedaddy" because I stand by the science, and only ask that people stand behind their claims that the mtDNA testing "is not to be believed" by offering genuine proof.
oh, and NOBODY in Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaievna's family EVER dipped snuff. That "fad" had died out 80 years before she was born. They chain smoked instead...