Grand Duchess Anastasia

Great-granddaughter of Tsar Alexander II (1818 - 1881), Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse) (1824 - 1880), Prince Albert (1819-1861) and Queen Victoria (1819-1901).

Granddaughter of Czar Aleksandr III (1845 - 1894), the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorova (1847-1928), Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (1837-1892) and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (1843 - 1878).

Daughter of Tsar Nicholas II (1868 - 1918) and Tsarina Alexandra (1872 - 1918).

Niece of Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich of Russia (1869-1870), Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia (1871-1899), Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia (1875-1960), Grand Duke Michael (1878 - 1918), Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (1882-1960), Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (1863-1950 ), Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1864-1918), Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (1866-1953), Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse (1868-1937), Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (1870-1873) and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (1874-1878).

Younger sister of Grand Duchess Olga (1895 - 1918), Grand Duchess Tatiana (1897 - 1918), Grand Duchess Marie (1899 - 1918) and older sister of Tsarevitch Aleksey Nikolaeyvitch Romanov (1904- 1918).

Her Imperial Highness, The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaievna Romanov was born on June 18, 1901. She was the fourth child of Tsar Nicholas the second, and the Empress Alexandra. She was a big disappointment because by now they were hoping for a boy to be the tsarevich and the next tsar. She had three older sisters -Olga, Tatiana and Maria - and one younger brother Alexei. Out of all she siblings she was the favorite of her grandmother, Maria Feodorovna. She had brown hair and blue eyes and was the jokester of the family who liked to play pranks on people. Anastasia was very short and thin but when the family was in captivity, she became fatter and her mental development had slowed down. Anastasia was sometimes called "Imp" and "The Infant Terrible" of the family. Anastasia was pretty close to her older sister Maria who were known as "The Little Pair", while, her older sisters Olga and Tatiana, were called "The Big Pair. " As well as their older sisters, they shared a bedroom. Anastasia dominated her older sister with her energy and enthusiasm. Anastasia was extremely close to her younger brother Alexei. Whenever Alexei got hurt, she would always try to make him better by telling jokes and trying to get him to laugh. When her father abdicated, for himself and for Alexei, Anastasia and her family were prisoners of the Revolution, in Tobolsk. After that, Anastasia's father, mother and sister Maria went to Ekaterinburg, leaving Anastasia with her sisters Olga and Tatiana and her younger brother Alexei. Anastasia and her sisters took care of Alexei because he got very hurt before her father, mother and sister left. After Alexei was well enough to be moved, Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia, Alexei and some of their employs went to Ekaterinburg, to be with their parents and Maria. In Ekaterinburg the Romanovs lived in a place called "The House of Special Purpose. " Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia all shared a room, while her father, mother, and Alexei shared.

Second cousin of Irina Yusupova (1915 -1983), Princess Xenia Andreevna of Russia ( 1919 - 2000), Prince Michael Andreevich of Russia 1920 - 2008), Prince Andrew Romanov (b. 1923), Princess Olga Romanoff (b. 1950), Prince Michael Feodorovich of Russia (1924 - 2008), Princess Irene Feodorovna ( (b. 1934), Prince Nikita Romanov (1923 - 2007), Prince Alexander Romanov ( (1929 - 2002), Princess Nadejda Dmitrievna (1933 - 2002), Prince Rostislav Romanov (1938-1999), Prince Nicholas Rostislavovich ((1945 - 2000), Princess Marina Vasilievna (b. 1940), Olga Kulikovsky (b. 1964), Xenia Kulikovsky (b. 1941), Leonid Kulikovsky (1943-2015), Alexander Kulikovsky (b. 1948), Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark (1905 - 1981), Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (1906-1969), Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (1911 - 1937), Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (1914 - 2001), Prince Philip (b. 1921), stillborn (1925-1925), Lady Tatiana Elizabeth Mountbatten (1917 - 1988), David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven (1919 - 1970), Patricia Mountbatten (1924 - 2017), Lady Pamela Hicks (b. 1929), Princess Barbara of Prussia (1920 - 1994) and Prince Alfred Friedrich Ernst Heinrich Conrad of Prussia (1924 - 2013).

However, even in the last months of her life, she found ways to enjoy herself. She and other members of the household performed plays for the enjoyment of their parents and others in the spring of 1918. Anastasia's performance made everyone howl with laughter, according to her tutor Sydney Gibbes.

Other lesser known claimants were Nadezhda Ivanovna Vasilyeva and Eugenia Smith. Two young women claiming to be Anastasia and her sister Maria were taken in by a priest in the Ural Mountains in 1919 where they lived as nuns until their deaths in 1964. They were buried under the names Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna.

The purported survival of Anastasia has been the subject of cinema, made-for-television films, and a Broadway musical. The earliest, made in 1928, was called Clothes Make the Woman. The story followed a woman who turns up to play the part of a rescued Anastasia for a Hollywood film, and ends up being recognized by the Russian soldier who originally rescued her from her would-be assassins.

Third cousin of Countess Xenia Nikolaevna Sheremeteva (b. 1942), Prince Alexis Andreevich Romanov (b. 1953), Prince Peter Andreevich Romanov (b. 1961), Prince Andrew Andreevich Romanov (b. 1963), Nicholas Mathew (b. 1976), Francis Mathew (b. 1979), Alexandra Mathew (b. 1981), Thomas Mathew (1987 - 1989), Prince Michael Mihailovich (1959 - 2001), Joelle Soulas (b. 1966), Alain Pelle (b. 1956), Prince Fedor Nikitich Romanoff (1974-2007), Théodore Nikitich de Russie (1974-2007,), Penelope Allen (b. 1953), Marina Allen (b. 1955), Alexandra Allen (b. 1958 ), Princess Stephena Rostislavovna Romanov (b. 1963), Princess Alexandra Rostislavovna Romanov (b. 1983), Prince Rostislav Romanov (b. 1985), Prince Nikita Rostislavovich Romanov (b. 1987), Nicolas Romanov (b. 1968), Daniel Romanov (b. 1972), Heather Romanov (b. 1976), Tatiana Beadleston (b. 1968) Alexandra Beadleston (b. 1970) Nicholas Beadleston (b. 1971) Natalie Beadleston (b. 1976), Peter Cordeiro (b. 1994), Paul Kulikovsky (b.1960), Vivian Larsen ( b. 1962), Peter Larsen (b. 1966), Vibeke Nielsen (b. 1981), Stillborn (1933-1933), Kraft, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1935 - 2004), Princess Beatrix Alice Marie Melita Margarete of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1936 - 1997), Prince Georg Andreas Heinrich of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (b. 1938), Prince Rupprecht Sigismund Philipp Ernst of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1944 - 1978), Prince Albrecht Wolfgang Christoph of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1944 - 1992), Princess Margarita of Baden (1932 - 2013), Maximilian, Margrave of Baden (b. 1933), Prince Ludwig Wilhelm Georg Ernst Christoph of Baden (b. 1937), Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine (1931 - 1937), Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine (1933-1937), Princess Johanna of Hesse and by Rhine (1936 - 1939), Stillborn (1937-1937), Princess Christina Margarethe of Hesse (1933 - 2011), Princess Dorothea of Hesse (b. 1934), Prince Karl of Hesse (b. 1937), Prince Rainer Christoph Friedrich of Hesse (b. 1939), Princess Clarissa Alice of Hesse (b. 1944), Prince Welf Ernst of Hanover (b. 1947 - 1981), Prince Georg of Hanover (b. 1949), Princess Friederike of Hanover ((b. 1954), Prince Charles (b. 1948), Princess Anne (b. 1950), Prince Andrew (b. 1960) and Prince Edward (b. 1964).

Speculation was rife that Anastasia escaped the revolution with her grandmother and supposedly resurfaced in Paris in the 1960s. Although unfounded, this theory provided the inspiration for Danielle Steel's Zoya (1995).

4th cousin of Tatiana Sfiris (b. 1968), Princess Natasha Catherine Romanov (b. 1993), Thomas (b. 2004) Lucy (b. 2006) Isabella Florence (b. 2011), Tatiana Alexandra (b. 1986), Prince Rostislav Romanov (born 1985), Princess Cécile Marita Dorothea of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (b. 1967), Philipp, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (b. 1970), Princess Xenia Margarita Anne of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (b. 8 July 1972), Prince Michael Galitzine (b. 1993), Princess Victoria Galitzine (b. 1984)., Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia (b. 1959), Prince Nikola of Yugoslavia (b. 1958), Prince William (b. 1982), Prince Harry (b. 1984), Peter Phillips (b. 1977), Zara Tindall (b. 1981), Princess Beatrice (b.1988), Princess Eugenie (b. 1990), Lady Louise Windsor (b.2003) and James, Viscount Severn (b. 2007).

Her remains and that of her family and servants were found in 1991. In 2007 the remains of her brother Tsarevitch Alexei and sister Grand Duchess Maria were found 20 miles away.

6th Cousin Louis Ivan Welf Otto Hooper (b. 2007), Konstantin Georg Erik Falk (b. 2007), Leopold Welf Christian Falk, (b. 2009).