Documentation of her maiden name and their marriage date came from Sue Anderson (descendant of Frederick Braun) from marriages of Rev. Helffrich. M L Kueker found this record too. I believe her brother Heinrich married Philip’s sister Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is buried in Orwigsburg as this couple was living near there when she died. One of their daughters is buried in nearby Tilden Township as is her husband — perhaps he moved there late in life.

Developing a fairly complete profile for Philip has taken quite a while and likely is not yet totally finished. His baptism was recorded in the records of Longswamp Church and it gave a date of birth of 20 May 1784. His Uncle Philip was a sponsor at that baptism and it was helpful in that way at clarifying that there was indeed an older Philip (my ancestor) of the previous generation.

Philip (born 1784) was named as John's son in Margaret's 1786 Orphans Court petition after his father died. And he was also specifically mentioned in the 1787 will of his grandfather Peter.

And I long have known that a Philip Mertz is buried in Tilden Township, Berks County with a date of birth on his tombstone exactly matching the date of birth from his baptism record. He died in 1862.

It was determining where he was all his adult life and learning the names of his wife and children which was not so easily determined. But over time, I have learned a lot more.

His find-a-grave memorial was helpful. No wife was linked to him on find-a-grave (until I submitted the edits to accomplish it) but two daughters were.

One was Catherine, wife of George Seaman. She is buried in the same cemetery as her father. I’m pretty sure I can see her maiden name on her tombstone and I found a church burial record saying she was the daughter of Philip and Elizabeth (Miller) Mertz and wife of George Seaman. That certainly was helpful.

The other was Sarah, wife of Jacob Charles Jones. She is buried in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County. Her find-a-grave memorial gives her maiden name as Mertz and, as noted, she was linked to Philip as her father — but how was all that known? It was only in 2021 when I decided to see if I could find evidence of that father-daughter relationship that I learned so much more about Philip’s life.

The first thing I found was a profile of her husband that said his mother was Elizabeth (Mertz) Jones (born 1786), wife of Carl/Charles. She too is on find-a-grave, with her surname spelled Tschons (the German form of Jones apparently). That was a a real surprise, a Mertz born in 1786 that I had never heard of before. When I saw that she was buried at Zions Red Church Cemetery in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, PA, I knew that was a familiar cemetery I had encountered before.

So I looked for everyone named Mertz also buried in that cemetery. Now one thing that is true about Schuylkill County is it is a place where I say there was “mixing of the blood”. As Mertzes spread out from Berks County to other counties in America, in almost all cases, everyone of that name in that new county shared a common ancestor — who may or may not have himself moved there. Not so, Schuylkill County — in this place we find descendants of several different Berks County Mertzes from the different family lines.

Sure enough, the Mertzes I remembered having found at Zions Red were not relevant to the story of Philip’s life — except for one. There was a memorial there I had never seen before for Elizabeth (Miller) Mertz who died in 1842 and it said she was the wife of Philip Mertz with all the information there coming from “church and burial records”.

At first this was perplexing. Could she be this Philip’s wife? The name was right but what was she doing in Schuylkill County when for all I knew Philip had always been in Berks County — born there, buried there.

Then I discovered several things that make me certain that I have figured things out.

• I found, on someone’s Ancestry Tree for Sarah, an actual fraktur (old German birth certificate) for her saying her parents were Philip and Elizabeth (Miller) Mertz and she was born in Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County.
• Looking at the geography, I now know that Tilden Township abuts West Brunswick Township. They are in different counties but that invisible line on a map now seems totally unimportant; it’s in a broad general sense the same place.
• It turns out that I have long known of a Philip Mertz in Brunswick Township in the 1820 and 1830 Census. I was never sure who it was but I also knew of a different Philip Mertz who did have Schuylkill County connections that I didn’t know what happened to him so had previously guessed it was that Philip. No. Everything now makes perfect sense, it was this Philip, who previously I had no reason to ever think had ever lived in Schuylkill County.

Philip is designated P3b.

[I now wonder if it’s possible that the mother-in-law of his daughter Sarah was Philip’s own sister. I have placed Margaret (Mertz) Tschons in my database as if she was but there is information that would seem to contradict that conclusion and at best it is only a tentative, preliminary identification.]

I’ve looked long and hard over the years, using all the little tricks in my kit bag, for Philip. Born in 1784 in Berks County, buried in 1862 in Berks County, shouldn’t he have been listed in Census in Berks County in 1810 (maybe) and 1820-1860 for sure?

The only listing I ever found that I thought might be him was in 1850. Philip Hertz, 59, lived in Cumru Township, Berks County with Elizabeth 40, Fryanna 20, Henry 11 and Caleb 5. Some of this seemed right to be this Philip, some not quite right but not so far off to make me question it. The name Mertz was in other instances mis-transcribed as Hertz. The name of his wife was right. And while I didn’t know any of those children, it is also true that there is no document giving all the names of Philip’s children. The age was off by a few years but that too has happened in other instances.

But I now know this was not him. There really was a Philip Hertz with those family members, it simply was not Philip Mertz. I also now believe I have found Philip in 1820 and 1830 in Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County. His age and his wife’s are right. They have many daughters, especially, and apparently a son and from Sarah’s fraktur, she was born in Brunswick in 1822. I have long been aware of those census listings but there was a different Philip, a distant cousin of this Philip, who lived in Schuylkill County who I have no idea what happened to him, so I thought I had found him. Now I believe the evidence is quite compelling, those Census listings are this Philip and that other Philip just goes missing. Maybe he died young.

I still though don’t know where he was in 1840-1860, still a mystery.

Philip is listed on find-a-grave. When I first looked at his memorial several years ago, no one was linked to him but then over time, two supposed daughters were (both correctly I believe) and now based on my latest findings, I have caused his wife to be linked to him.

Zion Macungie, PA Town and Church with Elisabeth Helt both single bp sponsor 1803.