Count Witte Research

[JayYvette]

I am looking for information on Count Sergei Witte's family tree.  I am a direct descendant of his and am trying to find out more information without going to Russia.  Does anyone have suggestions or information?  Thanks.  

[Mike]

To the best of available knowledge, Sergey Witte had no children of his own. Upon his second marriage he adopted his wife Matilda's daughter Vera Lisanevich. Vera later married Cyrill Naryshkin, a Russian diplomat in Brussels, and they had at least one son: Lev Naryshkin.  

[JayYvette]

Mike thanks for your reply.  

The information we have is that he married Sophia Machlin from Mechlenberg, Germany and they had a son, George Christian Witte.  This is from research we've done.

Then George Christian Witte had three daughters, Lucy, Sally and Sarah.  

The only "bump" we've found with this research is the name of Count Witte is Louis Serguis Witte, whom they called Serguis.  

Could this be a different Witte?  Could it be a cousin or a brother?  We would like to find out the information, are there sources in the US for this type of information or if not, where in Russia would this information be located?  
 

[Mike]

There were several families of that name in Russia (its Baltic provinces), not all belonged to nobility, and none was titled. Sergey Witte was made count by Nicholas II in 1905 for concluding the Portsmuth treaty with Japan. His father Julius was given hereditary nobility at a well-advanced age.

You may find quite a long list of Russian Wittes here:
http://www.vgd.ru/V/vitt.htm
(in Russian)

[JayYvette]

Thank you again for your response.

The information we have is from my mother.  She states she grew up being told that her great grandfather was a Russian Count, and we do know they were quite wealthy.  

We do not speak or read Russian so the web site is a good idea gone bad.  

I do have another question, do you know where Count Sergei Witte was born and raised?  

Thanks again for any infomation you have.  

[Mike]

where Count Sergei Witte was born and raised?

In Tiflis (now Tbilisi), where his father was an official of the Causasus provincial government. His mother was nee Fadeev, a prominent Russian noble family related to many aristocrats.  

[JayYvette]

Do you know anything about his first marriage?  Was his first wife's name Sophie Malchin (MS?)

[Mike]

Sergey Witte's first wife was N. Spiridonova nee Ivanenko. The couple had no children, and Spiridonova's daughter by her first marriage wasn't adopted by Witte - as it was later done with respect to his second wife's daughter.

It seems quite unlikely that "your" Witte was somewhat closely related to Sergey Witte...

[JayYvette]

Mike,
Thank you again for all the information you have given.  I believe you are probably correct, but we still have questions that go unanswered.
    My mother, who knows very little about Russia and nothing about Russian history/politics (and doesnt even own a computer) knows the whole story about her great grandfather coming to the states and working on some treaty with Japan and then going back to Russia only to have some Czar get mad at him...  it just seems odd to me that she would know anything about that, except that's what her mother told her about her grandfather.  She's getting very old and doesn't have the clarity she used to.  
    We are enjoying looking into the family history and truly have learned a lot on this web site.  We will continue to look.  Thanks Again.  

[Janet_W.]

JayYvette, re: your search for information re: Count Witte, I've just cut 'n' pasted these items from a search on amazon.com.

You may be able to find the out-of-print books via your local library's interlibrary loan service.

Good luck!

Janet



1.   The memoirs of Count Witte
by S. I¸ U¸¡ Vitte

Other Editions: Hardcover | Unknown Binding

Out of Print--Limited Availability
 

2.   Count Witte and the Tsarist government in the 1905 revolution (Indiana University international studies)
by Howard D Mehlinger

Other Editions: Unknown Binding - 1972 | See all (2)

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Used & new from $25.00  


3.   Count Witte, as Minister of Finance, 1892-1903
by Stuart Ramsay Tompkins

Out of Print--Limited Availability
 


4.   Count Witte: Scenes from his life and times, 1902-1915
by Vladimir Brenner

Out of print--Limited Availability


5.   Count Sergei Witte and the Twilight of Imperial Russia: A Biography
by Sidney Harcave (Hardcover - March 1, 2004)
(Rate this item)

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List Price:   $59.95  
Buy new:   $49.18  
Used & new from $59.64  

[JayYvette]

Thank you Janet we have his Memoirs on order already from Amazon.  The one about his life and times we did not know about, we will try to find that one.  If nothing else the man was interesting...Thank you!

[Vera_Narishkin]

I can only give you information about his descendants via his adopted daughter Vera:

Vera Naryshkin-Witte was the daughter of a certain Mr. Lissanevitch and his wife, Matilda Ivanovna Nourok, who remarried in 1892 to count Serguei Youlievitch Witte who legally adopted Matilda's daughter Vera from her fist marriage.

Vera Witte married Kyrill Vassilievitch Naryshkin - she was his first wife; he got married a second time, in 1921, to Geneviève van Brouwer.

Vera Naryshkin-Witte and Kyrill Vassilievitch Naryshkin had two children: Lev Kyrillovitch Naryshkin, born in 1905, and Irina Kyrillovna Naryshkina, born in 1912.

Lev Kyrillovitch Naryshkin married twice - first to Edith Jaunez (the daughter of a French minister posted in Oslo) in 1921 (according to Ikonnikov's Naryshkin genealogy), which marriage ended in divorce; and a second time to a certain Marguerite Heller. Lev Kyrillovitch had one daughter, Natalia Lvovna Naryshkina, born in 1929 - I don't know if she was born from his first or from his second marriage. I have no information as to what became of her, if she is still alive, if she ever got married and had children, or not.

Irina Kyrillovna Naryshkina married twice - first to Baron Pallandt, secretary to the Dutch Mission in Berlin, in 1931; her second marriage was to the duke Luigi, son of Thomas Dusmet de Smours, duke in Naples. I have no information as to whether Irina Kyrillovna Naryshkina had any children by either or both of her husbands.

[hikaru]

Dear Vera,
Do you have some photos of Witte for the period between 1901-1905?

[aeio]

Hello,

I suppose Sergei Witte descendant of Mr.Witte  and Catharina Oom,*1727 Reval,Livland,daugther of Adolphus Oom ,*4.10.1670,Reval,Livland ,merchant and Burgmester of Reval,Baltic German,and Katharina Elizabeth Höppener.
The parents of Sergei Witte they are Julius Witte and Mrs Fadeev,but the parents of Julius Witte,who knows ?
I am very interested in this branch of the Oom 's family.

All answers they are welcome.Thank

[Rav_Benzi]

I am very interested in learning about the family of Count Witte's second wife, Matilda Ivanovna Nourok.  They married in 1892, both for the second time, and the Count subsequently adopted Matilda's daughter from her first marriage, Vera.  If my family stories are correct, Matilda was born with the name, Esther Nourok, in the Kaunas region of Lithuania or perhaps in Riga, Latvia.

If anyone has information about Matilda's family, I would be most pleased to hear from you.

Thanks!
Rav Benzi