Balthasar Pfeifer, a cobbler (Schuhmacher), his wife Anna, and children (Amalia, age 3; Johann, age 1¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 11 June 1766 aboard a galliot named Der Junge Mattias (The Young Mattias) under the command of Skipper David Wohlert.
Balthasar Pfeifer and his family are recorded on the 1775 census of Beideck in Household No. 53.
The sons of Balthasar Pfeifer are recorded on the 1798 census of Beideck in Households No. Bd09 & Bd80.
Johannes Pfeifer from Beideck is recorded on the 1811 census of Norka in Household No. 140. He had moved to Norka in 1801 and evidently married the widow of Anton Thielemann. Anton Thielemann's death in Norka is recorded in 1799.
The death of Johannes Pfeifer in 1820 is recorded on the 1834 census of Norka in Household No. 265 where he is identified as the stepfather of Anton Thielemann's sons.
The death of Heinrich Caspar Pfeifer on 11 December 184? [exact year is illegible] is recorded on the 1834-1850 Messer Family List in Household No. 10.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Balthasar Pfeifer came from the German region of Stolberg.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Pfeifer family among the Volga German colonies.
- 1775 Beideck Census (Household No. 53).
- 1811 Norka Census (Household No. 140).
- 1834 Norka Census (Household No. 265).
- 1834-1850 Messer Family List (Household No. 10).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 263.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Bd09, Bd80.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1892.
Brent Mai