Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Prince Alexei, 1911.
The princes of early 20th century Europe had a problem.  The source of their wealth and power — the royal blood coursing through their veins — could also sentence them to an early death.
A mutation that spontaneously arose in the DNA of Britain’s Queen Victoria doomed many of her [...]

Tags: factor IX, hemophilia, Romanovs, royal disease

As we have shown time and again here at the Spittoon, our DNA can greatly illuminate the lives of our most ancient ancestors.  We’ve learned how the ancient Phoenicians left their genetic footprints scattered across the Mediterranean Sea, and seen the DNA signatures of the first farmers sprinkled everywhere from Iraq to Germany to England.  [...]

Tags: Anastasia, Mozart, Romanovs, Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, Tsar Nicholas