Census Records and Alternate Spellings

"Looking for the Meirs"
This document was the First Place Winner in the Genealogy Forum Writing Contest in Fall, 1997. Submitted by Frances Miers Muller (BLUSUMMIT@aol.com).

If I had not attended the Institute of Genealogical Studies in Dallas in the summer of 1996, I might not have found my "lost" Miers family. Desmond Walls Allen and Leslie Smith Collier both urged us to make a list of all possible spellings of our surname before starting a census search. This was not a new theory to me, but I had not physically made a list of the various spellings, only looked up the more common spellings.

I started my list while still in Dallas with the common spellings of the name MIERS. After returning home, I reread letters I had received from other researchers and added a few more spellings to the list. From a list of names on the 1790 Census, I copied a few more spellings. From an earlier census search, still more spellings were added. After collecting twenty three different ways to spell MIERS, I was ready to return to the National Archives in Laguna Niguel, CA

The only facts I had for my great grandparents, John Harvey and Mary Crawford MIERS, were the county recording of their wedding on 28 June 1855, in Jacksonport, Jackson County, Arkansas, and the Confederate Widow 's Pension Application made in 1900. The Pension Application had led me astray for several years because one of the witnesses had declared that they were neighbors for thirty years in Wood County, TX. If they were in Wood County, it was only between 1863 and 1870 as you will see from the following essay.

At the archives, I started with the 1860 census index for Arkansas. I had alphabetized my list of "Miers" which made it easy to go down my list comparing it to the names in the index. At the institute, we had been cautioned not to be tempted to look at the film until all the spellings had been checked and the possible names written down with all reference numbers. When I had finished writing the possible names, I reorganized the list by film or roll number. This way, I could search all spellings of the names on each roll of film. For example: MIERS, MIARS, MYERS and MEYERS might all have lived in the same county or counties listed on the same roll.

I found my MIERS family. They were in the census index with the name: Mears, J.H. in Jacksonport, Jackson County, Arkansas, where they had married. Not only did I find them, but there were three children: Jesse, 4; James, 2; and Fannie, 2/12. My dad, Wesley S. MIERS, had said several times that the family had moved to Texas when, in 1862, his grandfather had returned home to find the Union troops near their home. Till now, I did not know from where they had moved to Texas. This also gave me a probable location of my grandfather's birthplace.

Using the same method, I moved on to the 1870 census index for Texas, listing all possible spellings for John MIERS or J. MIERS. After reorganizing this list by roll number, I found my family listed as John Meyers, in Ellis County, not Wood County as was mentioned in the Civil War Widow's Pension Application. Here, my grandfather, William Burwill, is shown to be nine years old and another brother, Henry, 4, born in Texas. Jesse is now twelve and James and Fannie are not listed and presumed to have died.. I was really excited now and could not wait to move on to the 1880 census.

As before, I copied all possible spellings from the 1880 census index from Texas and organized by roll number. The 1880 census is the first time soundex is used, but I was able to use the same method. The Soundex code for Miers is M620. I found them listed by the name of : J. H. MIRES. Only initials are used here instead of given names. This gave me a middle initial for the children. Jesse is listed as J.T. and is twenty two years old. William is listed as W.B. age eighteen. Henry is not listed, but now we have S.A., female, age nine. I knew this to be my dad's Aunt Sally who, in her adult years, shared the fragments of family history with my dad. There was also shown J.H., age four. This would be John Harvey, Jr. I was really feeling familiar with the family by now.

Unfortunately, there is no 1890 census, but because of my dad's information, I know that another child, Walter, was born 5 July 1884 and that John Harvey, Sr. died in Walnut Springs, Bosque County, Texas, 27 January 1892. This is verified by his gravestone in Walnut Springs. Mary Miers, identified by her birth date, is shown on the 1900 Soundex for Texas as living with her son-in-law, James Wilkie, in Waco. As Mary only had one daughter who lived to adulthood, this is Sally's first husband. I have a photograph of him with Sally, but no name is shown. Now, through the census search, I can label this photograph.

Without making the list of all possible spellings of the surname MIERS, I would not have found this family. As shown above, I found them as MEARS in 1860, MEYERS in 1870, MIRES in 1880, and MIERS in 1900. Mary died on 22 July 1910. The "Miers" spelling is used on the gravestone of John Harvey MIERS in Walnut Springs and the wedding record of John Harvey MIERS and Mary CRAWFORD in Jackson County, Arkansas, is written as John MIERS. Mary's gravestone in Oakland Cemetery in Dallas carries the name MIERS. All their children living into the twentieth century used the spelling of MIERS.

This search is not finished. I have read that parts of the 1890 census are available for Ellis County, Mary may be on the 1910 census since she died in July and the older sons need to be searched. Perhaps this essay will help others to learn that their lost families are not really lost, only listed by another spelling.

Submitted by Frances Miers Muller (BLUSUMMIT@aol.com).

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