There’s no doubt about things now but when I started out researching Grandma’s ancestry, I knew very little. I sort of thought I knew the names of her parents because she told me one time when I asked her they were William and Ella (who we called Mammy). This was confirmed early in my research by J A Meiser’s “A Genealogist’s Guide to Burials in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania” wherein he stated the names of Grandma’s parents and grandparents. Meiser said her father was William Diehl, son of William Diehl and Rachel Kleckner and her mother was Ella Jane Yarger daughter of Henry and Catherine (Kramer) Yarger. (That was correct though I think Yerger is the more accurate spelling.)

I also asked Dad once where Grandma’s people were from and he said he thought the Diehls came originally from Union County. And while some of her ancestors were of Union County, Grandma and at least her mother’s people were of Middlecreek Township, Snyder County before moving to Northumberland.

I’ve explained elsewhere about the difficulty of finding William as a boy living with his parents since he was then called George. But I’ve confirmed the names of Grandma’s parents in any number of ways:

• On the 1910 Delaware Marriage register when she married she called herself Radie Mae Diehl and said her parents were Wm Diehl and Ella Yarger.

• On her application for a "Delayed Birth Certificate" (for people born before birth certificates were required) in 1955, she called herself Rachel Diehl and stated the names of her parents as George William Diehl and Ella Jane Yerger.

• Then on her 1965 Application for Social Security, she said her name was Mrs. Radie Mertz and she had been born Rachel Diehl and her parents were William Diehl and Ella Jane Yerger.

I have copies of all of these documents. The variations -- Radie versus Rachel, Yarger versus Yerger and William versus George William -- is interesting to note.

She was born in Snyder County, moved to Northumberland as a young girl and lived out her life there.

1900 and 1910. Radie lives with her father. In 1910, of special interest, she is said to be single; the census taker visited on 6 May 1910.

1920. Lives on Queen Street, Northumberland.

1930. She lives on Queen Street (the address is given as 159) with her two sons. A neighbor in the same building is Firm Crouser age 39

1940. Raide, age 49 lives at 155 Queen St with Charles O 25, Bessie 25 and Richard 1.

An email cousin of mine found and sent me a copy of Grandma's "Delayed Birth Certificate" from LDS film #1293508. It lists her parents as George William Diehl and Ella Jane Yerger. George William was a railroader born in Mifflinburg, Ella in Middlecreek. Grandma gave her father’s age as 25 and her mother’s as 20 when she was born -- close but not right -- I don’t think Grandma took this form seriously enough to get it exactly right.

This request for a "birth certificate" was filed by Grandma 9 Apr 1955. Her birth date was attested to by: Cora Y Eaton (said to be related) and Sarah C Stine (said to be unrelated) -- both of whom said they had known Radie 64 years. I believe Cora was a sister of Ella. I’m still working on who Sarah C Stine was. In 1930, a Sarah C Stine age 56 lived at 263 Third Street in Northumberland. She is living with and said to be the sister-in-law of Albert A Harmon whose wife was Alice. Sarah is described as single and apparently never married.

Also, Grandma filed a form SS-5 (Application for Social Security) 11 Mar 1965. She said her name is Mrs. Radie Mertz but at birth her name was Rachel Diehl. She was born 23 Aug 1890 in Snyder County. Her parents were Ella Jane Yerger and William Diehl. She was 74 on her last birthday. Her address was: 155 Queen St, Northumberland 17857. She checked the box for race as "Other" and not White or Negro. She was given a SSN. This is another form that Grandma did not take too seriously.

At St. John's Lutheran Church in North'd, the list of confirmations includes these of the Diehl Family: Radie confirmed 3/29/07, William confirmed 3/29/07, Mrs Ella prof 4/9/09 and then Wilma confirmed 3/27/17 (age 13) and Helen 4/16/16 (age 16). The Diehls had been living in Northumberland since 1900 if not before, so it is not clear why they didn’t join this church earlier.

One theory I have is that it was the 1902 death of Grandma’s younger sister Catherine at age 6 which may have precipitated this desire to join a church but it still took five years for the family to act. So it may have been that Grandma, upon reaching age 17, was the motivating influence and she joined with her father’s support and her mother followed later.

Boy, do I wish I had been doing genealogical research while Grandma was still alive and I could have asked her to clear up some discrepancies.

Birth date. The 1900 Census says she was born Aug 1889, but I recall it as Aug 23, 1890, confirmed by her application for Social Security, her Delayed Birth Certificate and her tombstone. The family had Willard Scott wish her Happy 100th on the Today show in 1990, so I’m quite sure it was 1890.

Given name. Another little problem is her name. I always thought that Grandma was named Rachel (my cousin Rachael Mertz being named after her) but for a long time every record I found gave her name as Radie or Radie M. When I asked my father, he said "No, her name was Radie." Dad's Birth Certificate said Radie Mae, as did several other “official” documents. But then on her Social Security application it said Rachel and her tombstone says Rachel. So I‘m pretty sure her name was Rachel Mae Diehl and Radie was a contraction consisting of the RA from Rachel and the DIE from Diehl. She preferred Radie.

Marriage Date. But the biggest problem I had for the longest time was about her marriage. In answer to my question, on Jack Mertz’s behalf, as to her marriage date, she just said "Autumn 1909". But I just assumed -- since she had been separated from my grandfather since before 1930 -- that perhaps it was a tender subject and she just didn't want to be more specific. But the truth is, I came to realize at some point that it was not Autumn 1909, as Grandma had said. It turns out there was another reason for her reluctance to talk.

The scandalous idea that perhaps Grandma was pregnant before she married was planted in my mind when I found the 1910 Census. The Census taker knocked at the door of John Philip and Rebecca Mertz on April 30, 1910 and they listed J O among their children living at home and when asked for each person’s marital status indicated that Pearl was divorced and their other children single. And 6 days later, the Census taker called on William and Ella Diehl and they listed Radie among their children living at home and when asked for each person’s marital status indicated that all of their daughters were single. This was six months prior to the birth of R Wilson Mertz on November 1, 1910.

So I then made it my personal cause to find out where and when she married. The records of St John’s Lutheran Church, where Grandma had belonged since 1907, seemed complete on marriages in the 1900-1920 period and she simply was not listed among them, yet that was the obvious place for her to have married. Even had she been married at home by the minister of that church, her marriage would have been listed.

(Grandma was born before birth certificates were required but by the time she married, marriage licenses were required.)

And then one day (in 2010), as part of my final review of the material for this book, I entered Radie’s name in a genealogy search engine and found her marriage record among some new records that had been recently (I think) added by Ancestry.com. Grandma and Grandpa eloped to New Castle County, Delaware (probably Wilmington) -- and married 10 July 1910. She was probably about 5 or 6 months pregnant.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
Radie took up marriage and family responsibilities at the young age of 19 and raised her two children in the apartment at 155 Queen Street, Northumberland (over her husband's -- later her sons' business), then separated before 1930 but never divorced her husband. She drove her car well into her late 80’s, loved her independence, dreaded having to go to a nursing home after she fell because there were too many old people there (she was in her mid-90s). She lived just past 100, though had declined quite a bit and quite rapidly after going into the Nottingham Nursing Home after that fall. Until then, she had lived continuously in her apartment.

Radie loved cooking for her family and always had Christmas dinner for the whole family (Wilson and Sox, their wives and 3 children each). During the summer that I worked for Dad at Tri-County, I regularly had lunch with Grandma who prepared a big meal every noon, always including her homemade apple sauce, for me and whomever else might be there -- sometimes Rachel Mertz’ husband (then boyfriend Bob Mull who was working at Tri-County too) and often the Cahn kids -- the orphaned (I recall) grandchildren (I guess) of Grandma’s sister Wilma (who married Harry M Cahn), and the James kids, grandchildren (I guess) of her other sister Helen (who married Adam James). She also drew baby sitting duties quite frequently. Mom and Dad would go away and Grandma would move in and take over for the several days that they were gone. She did this for her other son Charles, too.

Jack Mertz says he was the son of John Philip and Anna Rebecca Hopewell, proven by the 1900 and 1910 Census.

J O was born and raised in Northumberland but after his separation from Radie, moved to Sunbury and lived in an apartment over his Ford dealership. After Dad married and until he built his own home in Sunbury, he and my mother lived in that apartment during which time, I think Grandpa may have lived on one of his Mifflinburg farms.

1900 and 1910. J O lives with his father. In 1910, of special interest, he is said to be single; the census taker visited on 30 Apr 1910.

1920. Lives on Queen Street, Northumberland.

1930. He was listed in Sunbury along with his whole family including Radie and his mother. Separately, Radie was listed in Northumberland with her two sons. So, Radie, Wilson and Sox were double counted.

J O was a serial entrepreneur. Family tradition is that he peddled an ice cream wagon after school as a teenager and that led I believe to, I assume, ownership of an actual ice cream shoppe in Northumberland. By 1915 or so, J O being all of 25 years old, became the Northumberland “sub-dealer” to the Ford dealership operating in Sunbury. And by 1923, he had bought out that Sunbury dealer and became the sole owner of Sunbury Motor Company -- which still operates today owned by J O’s grandsons.

His pattern was to bring his younger siblings into his businesses and so, a glance at the 1920 Census, shows two of his siblings still living at home. They were Blair described as an auto mechanic and Anna described as an ice cream clerk.

He was an outdoorsman who owned a hunting cabin near Mifflinburg and later owned first a second home in Stone Harbor, NJ and later a second home in Ft. Lauderdale, FL -- both having a dock where he kept his sport fishing boat.

He owned several farms in the Mifflinburg area farmed by tenants.

One of my favorite recollections is that about the time he was becoming less active in the Ford business having turned over its operation, later its ownership, to his two sons -- J O went to the Sunbury Lincoln dealer and bought a Lincoln which he parked right there on the pavement below his apartment which happened to be just above the Ford dealership.

In the 1950’s, J O lived there with Edna, whose relationship to J O my mother struggled to explain to me, and when I would work after school at Sunbury Motors, Edna would often call down and ask if I could come up and do an errand. The errand was usually to go over to the A&P store on Market Street and get one or two items she needed -- mixer for their drinks more often than not. Inevitably, Edna would give me more money -- either $5 or $10 -- than her grocery list required, and inevitably she did not want her change. It was a nice supplement to the less than minimum wage my father was paying me.

Grandpa died the Thursday before Thanksgiving in 1963. JFK was shot and killed the next day. When Grandpa died, Mom and Dad didn't want me to come home for the funeral from college because I'd miss classes, but then when JFK was shot, I went on home.

Public Press 7 May 1915, a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs Oakley Mertz