I personally began my search re: the Piers family a couple of years ago. All I knew at the time is my husband's GG Father and Grandfather immigrated to Massachusetts in the 1930's-40's from Pugwash, Nova Scotia.

In my early research on the Piers family, I had discovered a current group of Piers in New York. I also found a current branch in Michigan. However, I disregarded any connection to them because I had known our branch came from Pugwash, Nova Scotia. - Later, I learned not to be so hasty in my conclusions.

My next discovery was there was Colonial family of Piers who lived in NY in Dutchess County (an area now called Putnam County) and Westchester County. Some records indicate seven brothers in all. Five of these Piers are listed as Loyalists in the American Revolution. I've read three of them settled in Nova Scotia on "Remsheg Grants". Remsheg is the area now known as Pugwash & Wallace, Nova Scotia. Two of them settled in New Brunswick and two remained in New York.

Since my husband's ancestors immigrated from Pugwash, I felt confident he descended from one of the three Piers who had recieved Remsheg Land Grants for their service in the American Revolution. (I believe the grants went to one father and two sons for their service in the American Revolution).

However, I had hit a roadblock in my research. I wasn't able to locate my husband's family through any public records, census records, marriage records; etc. I had a major breakthrough when a friend took me to an LDS Family History Center. When she typed in my husband's grandfather's name, he came up in their database along with his father (although neither were members of the LDS). There was a # assigned to his name. She entered his # on another LDS search engine and an entire family tree came up connecting us to Revolutionary War Loyalist, Alexander Piers. It became evident through reading the tree I was unable to locate my husbands family because for 30 years the spelling was listed as "Peers". Additionally, the Census takers listed the spelling as "Peers" on the census even when the family was using the "Piers" spelling.

Since that discovery & by using the Peers spelling I have been able to locate the public/census records of my husband's grandparents and great-grandparent's families.

Additionally, I have been able to obtain the second edition of an out-of-date book titled "The Valley of Remsheg" by H.R. Brown. It is a genealogical record of the 6 founding families of Wallace Bay, Nova Scotia. I was thrilled to discover a genealogical record of the Alexander Piers family from 1745 to 1979. The records in this book completely confirmed my previous findings. I also learned in this book that although our branch of the family spelled the surname Piers, other branches spelled it Peers. The book utilized the Peers spelling, but makes reference to the Pugwash settlers using the Piers spelling. Regardless of whether it's spelled Piers with 'ie' or 'ee', we are united through the ancestry of Alexander Piers/Peers. So, that makes us all one big-happy family!

At this point in time I've been able to document 11 generations of Piers. I sincerely wish this type of success to others researching their ancestry.