Hi Cactus Flower!
No guesswork, please! Bitte keine Vermutungen!
It's true, immigrants were forced to take another name, if they had a unspeakable name, but there is no hint, that they took Meyer!
Es stimmt, dass Einwanderer gezwungen wurden, einen anderen Namen anzunehmen, wenn sie einen (für Amerikaner) unaussprechbaren Namen hatten. Gibt es Hinweise, dass sie den Namen Meier wählten?
Below is a list of the evaluation of (German) telephon-books.
With so many Meye's in the world...I don't think possible that all
Meyers/Meiers could have been farm managers??? Do you?Is my thinking that perhaps many Meyer-??? or ???-meiers may have taken the
name Meyer once in America ... perhaps intent on keepoing up with the
Jonses?
Sources: Duden and DTV-Atlas
D= Germany; CH= Switzerland; AU= Austria
Evaluation of the 200 most common German surnames/ Auswertung der 20 häufigsten deutschen Familiennamen.
Country; name; ranking place; relative 0/00; absolute frequency
Duden:
D; Meyer; 5; 5.2
D; Maier, 30; 2.2
D; Maier; 34; 2.1
D; Mayer; 39; 2.0
DTV:
D; Meyer; 5; 3.3
D; Meier; 30; 1.4
D; Maier; 35; 1.2
D; Mayer; 38; 1.2
CH; Meier; 2; 21705
CH; Meyer; 8; 11774
AU; Maier; 21; 6365
AU; Mayr; 24; 5768
That may be enough!
By the way:
I found under Wood County, Ohio, 1895 History:
" Michael Stahl ...located there a verv early day, when Indians still roamed through the forest".
Can anybody find out, if Stahls still live in Ohio?
Please answer bilateral.
Kind regards
Klaus (Stahl)