The mother of my great-uncle Hugh Myddleton Heyder was Wilhelmina Blessig.
Hugh was an expert researcher and genealogist. In 1954 he wrote a book on the history of the Blessig family of Strasbourg, St. Petersburg and Liverpool, based on his researches and those of Wilhem III Blessig.
When my mother died I became the guardian of Uncle Hugh's trunk, which contained the results of his many years of genealogical research, including the typewritten Blessig book, and a translation of the Heyder Family History. When I read the Blessig history I found it such an interesting story that I decided that I would update it and publish it on the web.
This site contains Hugh's archive of Blessig Family photographs, and a downloadable copy of sections of the book as it currently stands, before any significant updates have been made.
The book is in PDF format and requires Acrobat Reader to view
or print it, and it contains most of the images from the photo album.
I have split it into sections to simplify downloading: the largest section is
about 5 Megabytes.
Blessig Family History Introduction and Contents
PJ Blessig I, Descendants by Catharina van Zanten
PJ Blessig I, Descendants by Emilie Forsch
Index to a History of the Blessig Family
A companion document, Gustav Gnadeberg's "History of Spurnal Manor in Livonia" tells the story of (and the mysteries) of Spurnal Manor, the home of Constantin Blessig and his descendants from 1876-1939.
I would welcome any comments or updates on this material, and will try to incorporate anything I am sent.
Charles Williams
Last Updated 4 January 2005