Characteristics common to many of our 60 families are:

The ancestral region -- Siauliai & surrounding uyezds

Very similar-sounding surnames

Very similar & repeating progenitors' given names

The ancestral region, as explained on this site, for every one of the 60 family trees is confined to a small region centered on Baisogala in Siauliai District, plus a minor concentration in surrounding Districts.

The surnames all have the same Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex code and all have very similar sounds when said out loud.  In one archival document from Lithuanian archives transliterated and translated by a single person, the surnames as written were always transliterated to the same English name.  For example, in the 1858 Revision Lists for the Siauliai District, every person's name in the Lists was spelled "MIRVIS."  It is clear, therefor, that the variant spellings which one sees in various countries were acquired upon immigration into that country, or shortly thereafter, in order to acclimate the surname's spelling to the country of immigration, and did not reflect basic different spellings in the shtetlach of origin.

The given names of the earliest ancestors of the family trees which covered the early or middle 1800's period, were concentrated in a small group of given names:  Zvi, Zeev, Zvi Zeev, Avraham, Yehuda Leib.  And these given names repeated for several generations as grandchildren were named after their grandfathers.  Furthermore, an examination of the birthdates of these repeating given names suggests that they are based ultimately on prior, unknown ancestors who had these names.  The most ancient of these names seem to be Zvi or Zvi Zeev.

Hence, our conviction that most of these 55 families are ultimately one large family.  Our task is to find out just how they are related.

Genealogical researchers with surname links to MERVES, MERVICH, MERVIS, MERVISH, MERVITZ, MERVOS, MERVOSH, MERWIS, MERWISE, MERWITZ, MERWITZER, MIRVES, MIRVIS, MIRVISCH, MIRVISH, MIRVISS, MIRVITZ, MIRWICH, MIRWIS, MIRWISH, MIRWITCH, MIRWITZ, MURVUS or any other variation of this generic surname should contact the Mirvis Research Group for additional information, and ask to join in our activities.

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