John SOUTHEE was born about 1680 in Ickham, Canterbury, Kent
- he married Elizabeth PETMAN

they had a son John SOUTHEE in 1717 in Ickham, Canterbry, Kent
- he married Mary REYNOLDS in 1744

some of the known children of John & Mary Southee were:
* 1745-1828 Thomas Southee
- he married Elizabeth MARSH

1749-1772 Elizabeth Southee
- she died on Consumption aged 23 in Littlebourne, Kent

1751-1790 John Southee
- he died aged 39 in Littlebourne, Kent

1754-1757 Mary Southee
- she died aged 3 in Littlebourne

** 1760-1802 William Southee
- he married Ann MORLEY

1762-1765 George Southee
- he died an infant

1763-1763 Robert Southee
- he died an infant

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* 1745-1828 Thomas & Elizabeth Southee
- had a son John Edward Southee born in 1772 in Canterbury, Kent who married Mary SPENCER.
- They had at least 10 children in Canterbury, Kent

- had a son, Robert Southee (born about 1789) who is believed to have emigrated to Australia.

- had a daughter, Ellen Sarah SOUTHEE (born 1819) who emigrated to Russia (her father Thomas himself died in Russia)

Ellen married Serge POLTORATZKY in 1844 in the Russian Orthodox Church in St Petersburg.
Serge was the only son of Dimitry Poltoratzky and Anna KHLEBNIKOVA (he had 5 sisters) one of the richest men in Russia at that time, (he owned seven large estates and at least two houses in Moscowa) he was a literary scholar and bibliophile who ended his days in exile, shuttling between France and England
- the children of Ellen & Serge were:
1844-1845 Alexander John Thomas Poltoratzky
1847-? Helen Maria Louisa Poltoratzky
1850-1916 Frances Hermione Poltoratzky, another prolific writer of the family
1853-1881 Albert Poltoratzky
1857-1919 Olga Sarah Poltoratzky
1863-1930 Lionel Edward Poltoratzky

A biography of Ellen was written by her granddaughter Edith Martha von AMLEDINGEN (youngest daughter of Olga Sarah POLTORATZKY & Alexander von ALMEDINGEN - Originally named Marta Aleksandrovna Almedingen in later life she used von Almedingen as her last name)

Olga, Edith's mother, was fascinated by her father`s native Russia and in the early 1880s moved there, marrying Alexander Almedingen (of a family that had moved "from Spain... to Saxony, from Saxony to Austria, from Austria to Russia"), who had turned his back on his family`s military traditions to become a scientist. After her father abandoned his family in 1900, they lived in increasingly impoverished circumstances, well described in her memoir Tomorrow Will Come, but she was able to attend the Xenia Institute and eke out a living in the increasingly desperate times of revolution and civil war.
.. In September 1922 she managed to get permission to leave the country and went to England where she became a well-known children`s author.
.. In 1941 she won the $5,000 Atlantic Monthly nonfiction prize for Tomorrow Will Come.
.. Five years later she moved to Frogmore, a house near Upton Magna in Shropshire, where she remained until her death.

Olga wrote:
The Lion of the North (1938)
Tomorrow Will Come (1941)
Frossia (1943) - It revolves around Fossia, a young girl growing up in post 1917 revolution Ukraine and based upon Martha Edith von Almedingen's own life before she went to live in Britain
Fair Haven (1956)
Little Stairway (1960)
The Unnamed Stream and Other Poems (1965)
Little Katia (1966) - based on Olga's great aunt, the story describes the life of a 19th century Russian girl of minor nobility, adopted by a relative and brought up at a vast country estate
Young Mark (1967

Ellen's granddaughter Edith also became a novelist, translator, lecturer, poet, playwright, and short story writer. Her writings include:
Poloniae Testamentum
The Crimson Oak - set in a time of Russia's history where education was only allowed to the rich, and peasants were allowed very little at all
Leonardo da Vinci: a portrait
A candle at dusk - for children - In spite of his recent betrothal and his fear of a Saracen invasion, an eighth-century Frankish boy obtains his father's skeptical permission to live for a time at the neighboring abbey in order to learn to read.
Fanny (Frances Hermione de Poltoratzky, 1850-1916)
My St. Petersburg - she survived the revolution and later wrote about her experiences
Stephen`s Light
Ellen (Ellen Sarah Southee de Poltoratzky, 1819-1908)
The Scarlet Goose
Die Ritter von Kiew
I Remember St Petersburg
Land of Muscovy
Anna tells of her great grandmother
Frossia
Too Early Lilac
The ladies of St. Hedwig`s
Little Katia - based on her great-aunt Catherine Almedingen`s best-selling autobiography 'The Story of a Little Girl'
Young Mark - for children
Young Catherine
The lion of the north
Fair Haven
The little stairway
Almond tree
Dark splendour
Dasha
Dom Bernard Clements - a portrait Emperor Alexander II
Ground corn
Inmost heart
Little stairway (1960)
Rock
She married Pushkin
Stand fast beloved city
The unnamed stream and other poems
Very far country
Within the harbour
- there were 68 books published. CLick here for the complete list

Ellen died in Italy in 1908
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
** 1760-1802 William & Ann Southee
- had a son John Southee born in 1798 in Elmstone, Preston, Kent who married Ann BROOKS in 1821. They had at least 3 children in Birchington Kent the last one, Mary, born in 1825 died in infancy. Ann died two years later aged 27

- William remarried in Birchington to Sophia SHARPE

- they had 5 known children before they all emigrated to New Zealand in 1840 on the Lady Nugent and settled in Taita, Lower Hutt
- (The two boys of his first marriage to Ann - John aged 18 and James aged 16 - remained in Kent)
- a daughter, Elizabeth was said to have been born on board, she is recorded on the passenger list as an infant)

- they had 3 more children in New Zealand

- their 9 children were:

1830 William Southee
- born in Birmingham
- he was 10 when he emigrated
- he married Elizabeth Mary 'Betsy' DAYSH in Taita 1854
- they had 2 children. Esther Jane Southee who married George GASKIN and had 13 children & Alfred Percival Southee who married Rosa BURLING and had 11 children
- William died 15 months after Alfred was born and is buried in St James Churchyard, Lower Hutt
.. Betsy remarried in 1862 to John RAYNER and they had 10 children in Masterton and Carterton from 1863 to 1881

1831 Henry Thomas Wilkinson Southee
- born in Birchington, England
- he was 9 when he emigrated
- he married Eliza CATTELL in 1858 (not verified)
- he married Letticia WIGGINS on 23rd May 1864 in Napier
- he married Catherine LYONS in 1902
- he married Esther Alice HARROD in 1920
- he died in 1928 aged 91 in the Manawatu

1832 Mary Ann Southee
(NOTE birth date does not match death details of being 100 years in 1925 which would mean a birth date of Dec 1824. She was a daughter of Sophia who married her father in 1929 and she was recorded as 7 on the ships list in 1939)
- born in Birchington, England
- she married Richard CLIFTON in 1854
- they had 3 children
- Richard died aged 26, killed by a falling tree during the Hutt Valley floods of 1858
- Mary Ann remarried in 1862 to Reuben SHORT (1828-1922)
- the had 3 children
- their GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY was held in April 1912
- Mary Ann died in 1925 aged 100y & 6 months (see above birth details) and is buried with Reuben in Terrace End cemetery Palmerston North

1833 George Southee
- he was born in Birchington, England
- he was a drover
- he married Maria Ellen SUNNEX in 1855 in Lower Hutt
- Maria was a daughter of William SUNNEX & Eliza WEBLEY, early settlers of Taita from Maidstone, Kent who had emigrated on the Tyne in 1841
- George & Maria had 12 known children
- George died in 1904, he is buried in Akatarawa, Upper Hutt
- Maria remarried in 1907 to Robert James FERGUSON

1836 Alfred Southee
- he was 4 on the ships passenger list but nothing else known about him at this time. There were a few Alfred Southees in the Hutt Valley at the same time therefore more research required

1840 Elizabeth Southee
- was listed as an infant on the passenger list of the Lady Nugent in 1840. There are reports she was born on board the ship
- she married James Otho BARBER in 1862
- (I have 5 children so far)
- Elizabeth died in 1873 aged 33 in Wellington
- not know if James remarried
- he died at home at 3 Hobson St Wellington in 1901 aged 67

1844 Eliza Southee
- born in Wellington New Zealand
- she married George FITCHETT in 1864
- George was born in 1841 in Leamington, England to John Celdiston FITCHETT & Louisa BUDDLE
- their children are not known at this time (I have one daughter, Caroline Annie Fitchett, born 1865, she married George COUSINS)
- George Fitchett died in May 1894 aged 53
- Eliza remarried in August 1894 to George COUSINS (her son-in-laws father)
- she died on 27th November at 19 Hawker St Wellington aged 52
- he headstone reads:
IN LIVNG MEMORY OF
Eliza Cousins
died 27 Nov 1898 aged 52 years
ALSO George Cousins
died 24 July 1917 aged 67 years
IN MEMORY OF
Caroline Annie Cousins
passed on 14 Sept 1944

1846 Joseph Southee
- born in Wellington
- he married Elizabeh Anna ROBINSON in 1874
- 8 children found
- Joseph died in 1892 aged 46 in Wanganui
- not known if Elizabeth remarried
- she died in 1916 aged 64

1847 Caroline Southee
- born in Wellington
- Caroline died in 1865 aged 18