I am related to one of the Tsars - but how can I prove it?

Question:

I am related to one of the Tsars - but how can I prove it?

I am not sure which Tsar it was (Not Nicholas II) - Maybe his father or Tsar Alexander. He had an affair with the British Ambassador's wife who were based in St Petersburgh. As a result she got pregnant and bore him twin daughters. These children were totally not recognised as legitimate - but nevertheless one of the twin girls went on to have 14 children, and one of those children was my grandfather. How to get to the bottom of it though - 'cause I suppose tracing something that was deliberately covered up might be difficult? The girls were given the name of Ward - whether that was the Ambassador's name who took them on as his own, I dont know. Any ideas how to even begin to search this one?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: GenevievesMom's is likely correct that you will never be able to PROVE it directly at this late stage, however, this said, you should be able to establish whether or not the legend is at least potentially true.

Specifically, you can trace back your grandfather's line until you reach the woman in question. With Census and governmental records, you should be able to find whether or not your great-great-grandmother's husband was in the British Foreign Service fairly easily. You didn't say how old you were, but given the number of generations, you'd prob. be looking at a mid-late 19th century Tsar, presumably Alexander II or Alexander III.

And indeed while Victorian mores would have hushed up the incident, there might be some mention of scandel in gossip-rags of the day in either the UK or Russia - although the availability of these sources may be minimal. Diplomatic correspondence, to the extent it still existed and has been classified, may also hint at the scandel.

Be prepared, however, to find that the whole story is hog-wash. Real research often destroys family stories - but that can be part of the fun.

BTW - DNA wouldn't help, as the Tsar's Y-chromosome DNA line wasn't passed to any illegitimate daughter (it only passes to sons). If you did have a male line, you'd have your answer, as a Romanov DNA profile was compiled by Dr. Peter Gill (of Cambridge, i believe) in connection with the identification of the bodies of Nicholas II and family and said profile was published (in part, i believe) in various forensic journals.