Philip Mertz was named often in the records of Longswamp Reformed. He was often a baptism sponsor, starting when he was single and then later with his wife Eva. The overwhelming majority of these baptisms were for what I came to realize were grandchildren of Hans Peter Mertz. And, when he and Eva baptized their own children, one or the other of the sponsors at those baptisms were people I eventually concluded were the sons or daughters of Hans Peter.

And that was the key to identifying Philip. If I think of John David (the 1733 immigrant) as Generation I of my line in America, then his sons Nicholas and Hans Peter were Generation II. These brothers had their Generation III children starting in the later 1730’s and continuing into the 1750’s. None of these baptisms were recorded (it was before records were being kept apparently) but it is when we see those Generation III persons as adults baptizing their children in the 1760’s-1780’s that we come to know them. And it turns out all of Nicholas‘ children are known because they were all named in Orphans Court petitions after his death. The others, by definition and by process of elimination, had to be children of Hans Peter.

The birth years of Hans Peter’s children are not known with any precision. There are a few small clues for some of them. For example, Philip was first named on a tax list in 1767 and he was then single. I believe that points to an approximate 1746 birth. And it places him somewhere in the middle on the list of the sons of Hans Peter. He is designated P4. He was my 4G GF.

Philip Mertz of Longswamp Township, Berks County has been often confused with an entirely different man, John Philip Mertz of Rockland and/or Maxatawny Township, Berks County. But they were two separate people. It took me awhile to even begin to suspect that, though, and then even more time to fully convince myself that it was an absolute fact. The first person I know of who dared to raise the question -- "were there two men named Philip Mertz in Berks County in the late 1700’s?" -- was Patrick Pearsey whom I met on the Mertz message boards in about 2001. I encountered a posting of his as I was struggling to answer my own concerns about what I call “discordant notes” about my Philip -- facts that seemed inconsistent for them to be the biography of one man. So when I saw Patrick’s question, I thought: “why didn’t I think of that?”

This was the first time that I had reached a point in my research where I realized that there might be mistakes in what other researchers said (though over time I have come to realize that these kinds of mistakes are way too prevalent). But now realizing that Jack Mertz, my father’s cousin who was the first genealogist I ever met, and many others, seemed to be wrong when they said our Philip was the son of John Henry Mertz, I had to figure out how to prove that there were two different men of that era of that name and I had to learn enough about each of them so as to not further confuse them ever again.

The facts seem irrefutable now, but were not obvious until I had collected them all and then laid things out:

1. Philip Mertz, grandson of John David, married Eve or Anna Eva, baptized several children at Longswamp Church throughout the 1770’s and then in about 1785 (when he was first listed as a Northumberland County taxpayer) moved from Berks County to Freeburg, Northumberland County (Freeburg is now in Snyder County), baptized several more children there in the late 1780's and died in 1803 in that place. He was listed in the 1800 Census in Northumberland County. He was named continuously with wife Anna Eva from 1776-1784 at Longswamp Reformed Church, and from 1785-1789 at Zion Morr’s Church in Freeburg.

2. John Philip Mertz, son of John Henry, born in 1738, married Catherine Quirin in 1765, baptized children with her at Mertz Church in the period preceding and then overlapping the timeframe when Philip and Eva were doing the same. He was listed in the 1790, 1800 and 1810 Census in Berks County and continued to be a baptismal sponsor at Mertz Church as late as 1812 when he and Catharine sponsored the baptism of their grandson Benjamin, son of Philip (Jr.) and wife Sarah. He was named continuously with Catharine from 1764-1812 at Mertz Church.

Whether my ancestor Philip was also named John Philip, I don’t know for sure. I have never seen him referred to as such in any actual document but it was common practice among Germans for a man to be given the first name John and a middle name that he would then go by.

Knowing then that Philip was absolutely not John Philip whose father was John Henry Mertz, the problem then became: who was this Philip of Longswamp and Freeburg? His wife was Eve or Anna Eva but who were his parents? And while I believe there is no doubt now as to who his father was, there is not yet any absolute proof of it -- it is circumstantial and the result of logical deduction. The major clue to the answer to this question is simple and obvious. When Philip and Eva are found in Berks County, it was always at the Longswamp Church. Among the earliest members and deacons of this church were David, Nicholas and Peter Mertz. David Mertz came to America from Alsace in 1733 with his family including sons Nicholas and Peter.

And I concluded pretty quickly that the best candidate to be Philip’s father was Peter, son of David. One simple reason for this theory was that Philip named his oldest son Peter and a custom among early German families was that a man’s first son was named for the man’s father. But that was speculation and not proof.

Then, in the course of my efforts to see if I could come up with the proof of this relationship, I encountered and corresponded with an aspiring professional genealogist named William Zehner and he undertook at my behest an inquiry into this subject -- specifically to obtain and analyze the will of Peter Mertz. I had seen an abstract of that will that said he divided his estate equally among his children (unnamed) “except that my son John’s children Philip and Gertrude are first to receive 15 pounds each beforehand.” I was intrigued by the mention of a Philip – but apparently a grandson of Peter’s, rather than a son.

William Zehner found that 1787 will and other relevant documents and concluded that Johannes (John) was a son of Peter Mertz and predeceased him. So, when Peter died, he specifically looked out for Johannes’ orphans Gertrude and Philip. This Philip was one and the same as the Philip baptized at Longswamp in 1784 for whom Philip and Eva stood as sponsors. And then William Zehner stated about that baptism record: “This child Philip, rather than having been the Philip who died with eleven heirs in Penns Township about 1804 appears instead to have been the namesake and nephew of that Philip Mertz of Penn Township, whose wife is known to have been Eve from his will there.”

This stated conclusion — which verified what I had believed all along, but which used Johannes, known son of Peter, as a “connective link” led me to go back to the Longswamp records and try to understand all the “connective links”. I made an analysis of everyone linked by any of those baptismal records where someone named Mertz was named (as child, parent or sponsor). It turns out there were many, many examples in those records where one of Peter’s children stood as sponsor for the birth of the child of a sibling. They were brothers and sisters, doing what siblings in those times did. A common practice among the Germans back then was to name a child after a brother or sister and to have that brother or sister sponsor that child's baptism. And so we find Philip and Eve as sponsor to baptisms of children of Peter's children and they to his and each other.

There is no birth record or will or any other document to absolutely identify Philip as the son of Peter. But this much is fact: there was a Philip in Longswamp closely associated with the known sons and daughters of Peter and Nicholas and of that next generation. He was not named as a son of Nicholas in what appear to be totally complete listings of his children in Orphans Court petitions. He named his first son Peter. I believe it can only be that he was Peter's son.

In addition to Philip who moved in about 1785 to the area that became Freeburg and/or Washington Township, Snyder County — but was then Northumberland County — other Longswamp Mertzes also made the move to this Central PA county: his brothers Nicholas, Jacob, Peter and David and his cousin Jacob and Jacob’s son Conrad -- all with their large and growing families.

The DAR lists him as “Philip Mertz b 14 Oct 1738 GR d a 14 Jan 1804 m (1)Anna Eva X 1LT PA”

This is simply a mishmash of unrelated or erroneous facts. It was John Philip, son of John Henry, who was born 14 Oct 1738. I don’t know when my Philip was born but it was quite a number of years later. The GR stands, I believe, for Germany. Wrong again -- neither Philip was born in Germany, both were born in Berks County. The rest of the information is correct for my ancestor Philip and it is also correct that my Philip should be listed as the DAR Patriot.

The reason I believe it was my Philip who was the Patriot is that I have studied various listings of Berks County Revolutionary War Militia units. It is all a little confusing because I think companies formed and re-formed as needed and membership varied each time. But Philip Mertz was a 1st Lieutenant (as indicated in that DAR listing) at some point under Captain Charles Crouse. Crouse’s unit is said to have been largely of Longswamp. Other Mertzes served in the same unit including: Nicholas, Peter, John and Jacob. Nicholas and Peter were Longswamp only names.

But the clincher is that when Philip and Eva baptized their several daughters after moving to (now) Snyder County, the contemporaneous church records from that time and place named him Lt. Philip Mertz.

Two different biographies of Lt. Philip Mertz are given in Snyder County Pioneers by Charles A Fisher. Each draws upon his will and Freeburg Church records to name his wife and children. It is the same list in each biography so it as if he wrote one and then got new information and wrote the other -- but both got published. But both are wrong as to Philip’s origins. One says he was the brother of Nicholas and he (Philip) came to America in 1749. He was the brother of Nicholas but they both came to America in 1733. There was a Philip Mertz who did arrive in 1749 and I’m not certain, though I have an idea, where he ended up -- but he wasn’t my Philip. Fisher’s other biography says Philip of Freeburg was the son of John Henry Mertz -- thus confusing him, as did many others, with John Philip born in 1738.

Philip was listed on the 1779 Pennsylvania Septennial Census in Longswamp Township.

THE FREEBURG MERTZES. Philip appeared on the 1785 tax list for Penns Township, his last mention in the records of the Longswamp Church was 1784 and he was last listed as a Longswamp taxable in 1784, so I think we can pretty precisely date his move from Berks County to the Freeburg area.

It was Peter's impending death in 1787 that seems to have triggered the mass migration of his sons and nephews to Northumberland County. Philip, Jacob and David appear to have left in 1785 before Peter's death, the others probably just after.

Philip is nowhere to be found in the 1790 Census. I know he was already in Northumberland County. He was living apart from most of the other Mertzes (in Augusta Township) but should have been near Nicholas (in Penns Township). But he was not listed. He is not the Phil Merz of Maxatawny Township, Berks County as the counts by age bracket are all wrong and besides, Phil Merz was in fact John Philip Mertz, son of John Henry.

In 1800, Philip Mertz was listed in Penns Township along with three other Mertzes: son Peter, brother Nicholas and nephew Isaac.

In 1810, Philip had died and Eve Martz, widow, was listed in Penns Township with a daughter 10-15. Henry and Peter were neighbors.

Philip Mertz of Penns Township, Northumberland County wrote his will 19 Dec 1803 and it was proven 14 Jan 1804. He said he was very sick. He split his plantation between sons Peter and Henry and said that Abraham was previously taken care of. He gave his house to wife Eve. He described his land in terms of neighbors’ George Mote's line and Peter Hilbish’s line. Peter and Henry were then obligated for payments to his eight daughters: Catherine (wife of John Weyand), Susanna (wife of Peter Reweel), Eve (wife of Nicolas Arbogast), Elizabeth (wife of Adam Holsapple), Margaret, Gertrude, Mary and Sara.

Philip is often said to have died in 1803 and perhaps just as often 1804. The truth is we don’t know his exact date of death, no tombstone or death record having ever been found. But the date he wrote his will and the date his will was proven -- just about four weeks later -- brackets his death. Most likely, he died in early 1804.

I have placed a memorial for Philip on find-a-grave. I do not know where he was buried, it may well have been on his farm, but I placed him at St. Peter’s Church in Freeburg where many of his family are buried. The purpose of my memorial was to have a place to set the record straight that Philip and John Philip were two different men.

I know the names of Philip’s daughters from his will and, for many of them, from their baptisms. All are listed in my database and additional information about them can be found there. His daughters, briefly, were:

Catherine, oldest daughter I think, since she was listed first in Philip’s will, married John Weyand. Susanna married Peter Reeves. Anna Eva married Nicholas Arbogast. Elisabeth married Adam Holtzapple. Margaret married Michael Reeves. Gertrude married Ludwig Arbogast. Anna Mary married Peter Mertz but I do not know who he was. Sara was the youngest, I think, and I am certain she married George Miller and moved to Mazeppa, Union County. Margaret, Gertrude and Anna Mary were the three daughters whose baptisms appear in the records of Zion Morr's Church in Freeburg.

Philip had three sons. Peter stayed in Freeburg, was the father of many children and had many descendants, including myself. Henry also stayed in Freeburg. He did not have a large family, had only two sons, and I believe neither of them had any children or at least any who survived to adulthood. The third son was Abraham. I’m not sure where he ended up.

Several sources (all of which have been found to have errors) state that Philip's wife was Anna Eva Rosemann (many variant spellings) and some say she was the daughter of Jacob. That her name was Anna Eva (sometimes Eve) is certain, but I simply don’t believe she was a Rosemann.

I think this myth started with Ralph Fraley Martz (RFM), who, in his 1973 book Martzes of Maryland said Philip Mertz married Ann Marie Eva Rossman 1 Jun 1773. Next came Charles A Fisher, who, in his 1982 book Central Pennsylvania Marriages said Lt. Philip Mertz of Snyder County married Anna Maria Rossman, daughter of Jacob.

I think RFM, in his years of researching people named Mertz or Martz, took a series of actual facts and scrambled them into total nonsense. Here are a few facts:

• There were two different men named Philip Mertz who came of age in Berks County, PA in the 1760’s. They often were confused with each other by early genealogists.
• One of them, the one being profiled here, married a woman named Anna Eva and moved to Northumberland County in the late 1780’s.
• The other lived out his life in Berks County where he attended Mertz Church, named for his father. Numerous baptism records of that church document the name of his parents as John Henry and Anna Maria (Rosemann) Mertz.
• Anna Maria came to America with her brother, Jacob, on the same ship John Henry came on and Jacob had a son also named Jacob who was later mentioned many times in those same church records.

It is my opinion that Ralph Fraley Martz simply scrambled his notes or his memory and mistakenly stated that it was Anna Eva, wife of Philip, who was surname Rosemann. Fisher went one step further and threw Jacob into the mix as her father. But there is simply no evidence whatsoever that might even hint at Anna Eva’s maiden name, let alone the name of her father.

The curious thing to me is where RFM came up with that exact date — 1 Jun 1773. It also is a fact lacking any documentary evidence. And there are two “facts” that suggest an earlier marriage date for the couple:

• From the order of names in his will, I believe Catherine was Philip’s oldest daughter. When she died in 1852, her Mifflin County death record said she was 80 years of age. This implies, if totally accurate, a date of birth of about 1772.
• Perhaps more conclusively, there was an 18 Mar 1770 baptism at the Zion Lutheran Church in Alburtis, (now) Lehigh County: the infant was Philip Seidel son of Johann Nickel and Anna M Seidel, the sponsors were Philip Martz and Eva. Now it could be argued this record didn’t conclusively say Eva, his wife — but their names were listed in the same style as most others in that period with a few instead being of the style including a idea name of the females sponsor. I think Philip and Eva were already married by March 1770.

Philip and Eva were clearly of Longswamp, where they worshipped, until their move to Northumberland County.