Hi
Schmiel is likelier Shmuel in more modern Hebrew, Samuel to us. 

Schmerel is more likely to be Shmaryahu. No good American cognate.

But nothing is certain. I have an ancestor Shlomo which corresponds in the Bible to Solomon, but his civil records called him Samuel, probably because his older brother Sholom (a name which also had no good secular cognate) had already gotten the name Salomon. Go figure. 

Sam was a very common name for Jews to assume, even if their given name was nothing like Sam. 

david dubin
teaneck, nj