Looking for Jeremiah Meacham

From the Bristol Evening Post, Tuesday, Oct 4, 1949:

Attention All Mechams!!--Searching for the birth-record Jeremiah Meacham born about 1613 in Somersetshire area: willing to pay for information.--L. R. Mecham.

In response to this ad the following was published in The Daily Mirror Fri. October 7, 1949:

Jerimiah was never in deep water--so he can't go to Heaven

Two young Americans now in London are very worried about their English-born sevententh century ancestor, Jeremiah Meacham--for they fear he is not in Heaven.
To ensure that Jeremiah is admitted into Heaven, his two descendants, both of the Mormon faith, are seeking a record of his birth. When they find it, a copy will be sent to Utah, U.S.
There a child volunteer, representing the departed Jerimiah, will be baptised by immersion, thus enabling him to be admitted to Heaven according to the Mormon faith.
One of the descendants, Mr. Vennor J. Meacham, 26, explained yesterday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in London:
"Because our church was founded only in 1830, it means that all my ancestors--and yours too--have not been baptised correctly by complete immersion, so they are not in Heaven.
"That is why our Church has a genealogy department in England, employing sixty people daily doing research into parish and county records tracing ancestors of Americans to be baptised by proxy.
"I'm sharing the cost of a search for the records of Jerimiah--probably one of the Pilgrim Fathers--with my second cousin Mr. L. Ralph Mecham, a student of Utah University, aged twenty-one.
"But we've had no luck at all with Jerimiah, a weaver from Crewkerne, Somerset. He left for America early in his life.
"Now we're advertising for all Meachams to contact us at [address]"
Doing It Here
Missionary Vennor Meacham added: "English folk, too, are busy having their ancestors traced for baptism purpose.
"But what we can't understand is that some English people are having all their Ancestors baptised, but don't care to get themselves baptised.["]
Mr. Meacham explained that he and his relative were both Mormon missionaries.

The following is given as an explanation to these arcticles, found on page 88 of the same book.

Failing in an effort to gain chance information by writing some thirty-five "Meachams" etc., in the Somerset and Bristol area and after exhausting many Genealogical Society records, Leonidas Ralph Mecham, then President of the London District, contrived with Vennor Joselyn Meacham Jr., British Mission Secretary, a last effort on their common ancestral line. A series of ads in the Bristol Evening Post was the result.

A reporter for The Daily Mirror, in London, upon reading the ad sensed a story and called at the Mission Headquarters inquiring about it. Vennor spent about two hours with him explaining the purpose of the ad, which led from temple work into many principles of the "Mormon" faith. The next day this article appeared in his paper as his version of the interview.

The Bristol Evening Post was much perturbed at being "scooped" on their own ad by not only The Daily Mirror but by another Bristol paper.

The Daily Mirror item created much interest, perhaps the most important being that the custodian of the records at the Somerset House,an elderly gentleman got in touch with the missionaries and after hearing their story stated that he would be glad to help them all he could.

They were able to locate many different Jeremiah Meachams born around the year 1600 but in every case their record continued on in England and therefore could not be the emigrant ancestor.

LATEST DEVELOPMENT

Practically all of the valuable records of Taunton were destroyed by German bombs, but Bryan Lees, (a close friend of the missionaries, who was employed doing research work for the Church in England, and since then emigrated to Zion and at present working for the Genealogical Society of Utah) , came across a rare list of Taunton Wills among which was the will of Ambrose Meacham of Crookherne. In his will he named a son "Jere:",(Jeremiah).

This particular son not being mentioned in any of the later records or deaths gived credence to the theory that he amy be the one who emigrated to America between 1630 and 1642 and could possibly be the original ancestor.