Pfeifer (Seelmann)

Widower Jakob Pfeifer, a farmer, and his sons Jakob (age 19) and Bassel (age 17) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard the ship Der Jager under the command of Skipper Gabriel Wild.

They settled in the Volga German colony of Seelmann on 15 July 1767 and son Jakob Pfeifer and his new wife are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 32.

The 1767 census records that the Pfeifer family came from the German village of Wiersdorf in the Kurmainz region. There is not a Wiersdorf located in and area that was part of the Electorate of Mainz (German: Kurmainz). There is a village called Wiersdorf in a region that was part of the Electorate of Trier (German: Kurtrier) that is today in Kreis Bitburg-Prüm, a district from which a number of Volga German families came.