Last week, Michael and Janet Smith of Conroe, Texas, walked into the Kiowa County Independent office with a sense of purpose. They weren’t tourists, and they weren’t just passing through. They were seekers, drawn here by the pull of ancestry, the urge to connect threads of family history scattered across continents and generations.
Their search began long before arriving in Eads. For Janet, it was deeply personal. Her mother, Lola (Meir) McNeal, grew up on a homestead near Haswell, graduated from Eads High School, and later built a life in Nebraska. Janet knew pieces of this story, but there were gaps, mysteries about how her family came to this part of Colorado in the first place.
“My wife, Janet McNeal Smith, grew up near Central City, Nebraska and was aware of the fact that her mother’s dad (Carl Meir) was the first child in their family born in America and that her mother grew up between Haswell and Eads, Colorado,” Michael explained. “However, we never knew the journey they took to get here.”
The Smiths’ quest to fill those gaps took them across the ocean. With records from Ancestry.com, they learned that Janet’s great-grandparents, Conrad Henry and Wilhelmine Meir, left their home in Deckbergen, Lower Saxony, Germany, in 1893 with five children in tow.
In May 2025, Michael and Janet flew to Germany themselves. What they found was moving beyond expectation. “With great excitement, we found the town still existed and even the church they were baptized in and where the family attended was still standing and well maintained,” Michael wrote.
They sat in that church, imagining the last service Conrad and Wilhelmine might have attended before leaving. They walked through the cemetery, envisioning the tearful goodbyes, the courage it must have taken to leave family behind knowing they might never return. “The promise of America was something they must have strongly believed,” Michael reflected. “So, they left all they knew in Germany, took a ship to America, then traveled via train to Bern, Kansas where they had an uncle that had a farm. Immediately, everyone went to work to get them established.”
But Kansas wasn’t the final stop. In 1916, the family struck out again, homesteading on the windswept prairie near Haswell, Colorado.
Last week, the Smiths came to Kiowa County to see for themselves where Janet’s grandparents — Carl and Evelyn Meir — had lived and raised their family, including Lola.
At the Haswell cemetery, they found the graves of Janet’s great-grandparents. Nearby, they noticed the name “Voss” on stones belonging to another branch of the family. To their surprise, one marker bore the name of Terry Voss — who, it turned out, was still living. A quick internet search led them to her home in Eads, and when she wasn’t there, kind neighbors pointed them toward Weisbrod Extended Care.
That chance encounter opened doors. At Weisbrod, Terry introduced them to her sister-in-law, and soon they were connected with Gail Voss at the Eads Senior Center. “What a thrill to make the family connection!” Michael wrote. Gail not only knew the Meir history, she directed them to the original Haswell homestead.
Standing before the weathered house, Janet and Michael felt the weight of generations. “The home is in bad shape but is still standing. We walked to the home and took photos and looked in all directions — not a neighbor (or a tree) in sight! How difficult it must have been to just survive there. Even just getting to school in Eads must have been a major effort. But — they did it.”
Lola, Carl and Evelyn’s daughter, graduated from Eads High School before attending college in Lincoln, Nebraska. There she met Harvey McNeal of Gothenburg, Nebraska. The two married and purchased a farm near Clarks, Nebraska.
Carl and Evelyn eventually left Haswell as well, buying a farm near Central City, Nebraska. It was there that tragedy struck Carl was killed in a car accident in 1968. Evelyn carried on, providing the home where Janet spent many of her fondest childhood days with her grandmother.
For the Smiths, tracing this journey from Germany to Kansas, then to Haswell, and finally Nebraska, was more than piecing together facts. It was an act of remembrance. “Traveling the path from Deckbergen, Germany, to Bern, Kansas, then to Haswell, Colorado, and finally in Central City, Nebraska we feel a connection beyond what words on a page can invoke,” Michael wrote. “These people really existed. Their faith, hope, dreams, and disappointments were real and very much a part of who we are and what drives us.”
The Smiths admit they still have questions: Who was the relative in Kansas who helped Conrad and Wilhelmine when they first arrived? Why did the family leave Kansas for Colorado? Where did Janet’s great-aunts and uncles eventually settle?
But already, the search has given them something more valuable than answers. It has given them belonging.
“Sadly, so many people have lost that connection,” Michael reflected. “I’d encourage anyone with the opportunity to pursue their family history and make the connection with their past. It’s worth the effort. I feel we’ve honored her great-grandparents’ sacrifice by seeking to understand their journey. I’m sure they would be proud to know that we undertook the effort to know them after all of these years.”
For Janet and Michael, this journey has bound them closer to the past, and to family both remembered and newly found. And for all of us, their story is a reminder: knowing where you come from isn’t just history — it’s a gift that shapes the future.
If anyone reading this article has a connection to the Meir family or additional information to share, Michael and Janet Smith would be grateful to hear from you. They can be reached directly at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
