The use of Prince Philip as a reference also illustrates the broader power of mtDNA in genealogical identification: because it doesn’t recombine across generations the way nuclear DNA does, it remains stable across many maternal generations, allowing comparisons that would be impossible with nuclear DNA in cases where no direct-line relatives exist.
Prince Philip, who died in April 2021, remained the critical human link between the living world and the historical Romanov family’s maternal biology. His contribution to the scientific resolution of the Romanov case — both the identification of the 1991 grave and the exclusion of Anna Anderson — was practically and scientifically essential.
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## The Schanzkowska Family: Witnesses Against Their Will
The Schanzkowska family’s involvement in the Anderson case is one of its more complicated threads. They were identified as the likely family of origin for the woman claiming to be a Russian princess, and their responses to this identification were ambiguous in ways that became ammunition for both sides of the debate.
Felix Schanzkowski (sometimes spelled Schanzkowska or varying across German/Polish orthography), the alleged brother, visited Anderson at some point in the late 1920s following the newspaper report identifying her as his missing sister. His response was documented as acknowledging a “strong resemblance” but not definitively identifying her as Franziska. He did not sign a document confirming the identification.
This ambiguity was seized on by Anderson’s supporters as evidence that even her own alleged family did not claim her — that the Schanzkowska story was a construction rather than a genuine identification. If she were really their missing Franziska, why wouldn’t her own brother say so clearly?