Pfeiffer (Pfeifer) - Gascoigne
Family Tree

There can be nothing more interesting than knowing who your ancestors were, It matters not if they were nobles, landed gentry, farmers, labourers, servants or even convicts, as each played an important role in shaping the world as it is today. By the early 1800 Great Britain was becoming crowded, life was very harsh,  people were thrown into prison and even given a death sentence for something as trivial as stealing a loaf of bread, which in it's self could very well have meant the difference between life or death from starvation for their children. To populate it's expanding empire and get rid of it's so-called convicts, the British government of the day exported it's convicts as far away as Australia. Religious persecution saw many others leave Europe for Australia and other parts of the world such as, America, Canada and South Africa - But few ever  forgot their roots.

Our Pfeiffer & Gascoigne ancestors both immigrated to Australia in the latter half of the 1800, and married into local families. The two Pfeiffer brothers, Konrad (Conrad) Pfeiffer & Friederiech Baltaser Pfeiffer (who later changed his name to Frederick Baltaser Pfeifer) migrated to Australia aboard the  schooner “Tauran” via Liverpool, England, arriving in Sydney on 2nd January 1858.

Konrad married Anna Elisabetha Hauser in 1875 and had one daughter; Mary Henrietta (Ettie) Pfeiffer, who died at the young age of 19. Friederiech went on to marry Henrietta Marie Coppen in 1874 and settled in the gold mining area of Talbot, Victoria. They had four children; Henry William, Frederick Conrad, Augusta Wilhelmina & Alice Maria.

Other Pfeiffer's (Pfeifer) left Germany and headed to the USA. A USA census conducted in 2006 showed that Americans descended from German immigrants numbered over 50 million or 17.1% of the total USA population. A well known member of the Pfeiffer family is the actress Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (born 29 April, 1958) whose acting career spans more than 25 years.

William Gascoin (Gascoigne) and Grace James both aged 29 and their then four children Elizabeth (Lizzie) aged 7 John aged 5 Charles aged 3 Annie aged 1, along with William’s younger brother George aged 24, who was still single at the time, chose to emigrate to Australia, which was crying out for immigrants and to attract them, was offering assisted passage. They boarded the "Ninevah" sailing from Plymouth on 10 April 1879 and arrived in Sydney 90 days later on 9 July 1879: their ship carried 403 assisted immigrant. Contract price for the assisted voyage was £14.19.0. for each statute adult.  Following their arrival, four more children were born, Ethel, Alice (who died at the age of one), William and Bertha.

In 1896 John Gascoigne married Augusta Wilhelmina Pfeifer this marriage forged the link between the Pfeifer and the Gascoigne families.

In 1902 William Gascoigne took off on his own to South Africa, clearly there were opportunities there as he was followed by his wife Grace James along with their son John Gascoigne and wife Augusta Wilhelmina Pfeifer and their then four children. The Gascoigne / Pfeiffer family merger went on to produce eight children in total who in turn went on to marry into the Mackinnon, Dicks, Jubber, Kelly, Reinertsen, Connor and Turnbull families.

This family tree with all its branches is a work in progress, and is reliant on attracting input from family members, both close and distant, in order to fill in the gaps, expand the tree and to document personal stories that can be shared with all family members off-line. And to re-unite the family members with long lost relatives. 

Important: For privacy and security reasons, no details or photo's of living relative with the exception of the one or two already mentioned will ever be published on this web site. The charts listed below are that of our deceased ancestors. Charts of our living relatives are only available to confirmed relatives off-line. 

It is hoped that the information provided on this site is sufficient to attract our living relatives so that contact can be established.

If you have previously downloaded any of the charts, it is suggested that you delete the previous charts on your computer, and replace them with the current one's as they are continually being updated.

To establish contact, email: Kenneth Bruce Mackinnon. In order to reduce Spam the @ in the following email address has been replaced by a full stop, simply copy the following email address in to your mail system and replace the full stop with @ : ken.allteq.com.au