Sampson Sievers - Early Years and Family

Early Years and Family

Edward Sievers was born July 10, (June 27 by Old Style), 1900 in Saint Petersburg. His mother was Mabel Annie Sievers (born Gare), an educated English woman and British citizen, who was hiding in Russia from a hired murderer. She met her future husband, the high-ranking military official Jasper Johan Daniel Sievers, at a ball in Saint Petersburg. Jasper Sievers seems to be of Saxon origin and was the head of the military headquarters of general Ruzskiy who commanded the Northern District at Riga. He was also a personal friend and adviser of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II. Tsar Nicholas II visiting the family of Sievers used often to taken the little Edward on his lap.

Mother Mable Annie (Anna Vasilievna, who was 26 y.o. in 1898 was of noble origin and brought up the son the strict rules of Anglican Protestant faith. July 23, 1900 the little Edward was baptised at the Anglican church of Saint Petersburg by local Anglican priest William A. Macloid. The baptism protocol from the Anglican church says that the family resided at Malaya Italyanskaya (Little Italian) street in Saint Petersburg.

From the archive protocol on his father it follows that little Edward Alexander had two sisters Mary-Julia (born same day and year as him, they seem to be twins thus), Olga (two years younger though born same the 10th day of July, 1902) and youngest brother Alexander (born like all on the 10th, though February 1906). From the questioning protocol of 1932 follows that sister Olga Sievers had been residing in London, where she moved in 1922 for treatment, where also lived his aunt Hary Editha. It also follows that in 1932 his mother (then 55 y.o.) still lived in Leningrad being lecturer at the Phonetic Institute.

Sievers finished Saint Petersburg Reform (Protestant) Gymnasium (Realschule) in 1916.