I recently purchased and iPhone 6 and sync'd my data appropriately. However, all of my contacts were apparently still associated with my old work email. I have since moved on to another job and had to delete that email address - and with it - there went all my contacts. Through the current contacts app, I only have anything I have added after I deleted that work email address. I even tried resetting it from a previous backup from my computer, not iCloud.

HOWEVER, when I go to text and type in a letter, all my old contacts show up as options with their correct names, etc. So clearly this information is on the phone.

Is there a way to get the contacts that are somewhere deep in the phone where the messaging software is accessing it, and then merge it to iCloud?

I've already tried turning iCloud on and off and remerging. Unfortunately, it didn't work.