Karnovich

The history of the Yaroslavl branch of the Karnovich family starts with Stepan Efimovich Karnovich (1707–1788), who was, in 1756, listed as a valet at the court of the heir to the Russian throne. In 1761, he became Major general in the Russian Imperial Army, and, as a favorite of Emperor Peter III, he was awarded the title of Count in the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, but neither he nor his descendants later sought further formal acknowledgement of this title. S.E. Karnovich already owned 345 peasant households in Little Russia, when on March 13, 1762, Emperor Peter III granted him the palace and an estate in the Yaroslavl province, consisting of 3 bigger villages and 19 smaller ones.^[2]

Evgeny Karnovich (1823–1885), Stepan's great-grandson distinguished himself as a noted Russian writer, historian, journalist and editor.

On the other hand, Stepan's great-great-granddaughter, Olga Karnovich (1865–1929), became famous Russian socialite and a morganatic second wife of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia. In 1915, she was awarded with the hereditary title Princess Paley, in the Russian Empire, by her husband's nephew, Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia. In 1916, an Imperial decree approved the decision of the Yaroslavl Assembly of Nobles to include Sergei Valerianovich Karnovich (1853–1918) and his sister Olga in the Karnovich family genealogy chart, confirming their nobility birth right. Their sister, Lyubov Valerianovna Golovina (b. 1851 – died after 1920) was a friend of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.^[3]

• Stepan Efimovich Karnovich (1707–1788), Major General in the Russian Imperial Army, Count in the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp
• Evgeny Karnovich (1823–1885), Russian writer, historian, journalist and editor.
• Olga Karnovich (1865–1929), later Princess Paley, morganatic second wife of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia