The Sievers family is a noble Baltic German family that owned a number of estates in the present-day Baltic States, including the Wenden Castle. It hails from the Duchy of Holstein. * (1710–74) owed his rise to a brief liaison with Tsarina Elisabeth. He was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1760. * His daughter (1746-1818) captivated Giacomo Casanova but married her cousin Jacob Sievers who administered the north-west of modern-day Russia and built the connecting the Msta and Volkhov rivers. Her second husband was Prince Nikolai Putyatin. She also had a natural daughter who married historian Nikolai Karamzin. * Jacob's nephews , and Jacob were all generals prominent in the Russian service during the Napoleonic Wars. * Count Emanuel von Sievers (1817-1909) a senator of the Ru