The wife of John Philip Mertz, according to the records of Mertz Church, was Catharina Quierin. But who was she?

A clue to her origins can be found in Annette Burgert’s book Eighteenth Century Emigrants from Northern Alsace to America. It is one of several books authored (or co-authored) by Burgert. Each book focuses on a specific geographic area of German Europe and Burgert’s methodology was to try to identify a specific person or family who could be documented: 1.) in European church and/or other records, 2.) on passenger lists of German immigrants who came to Pennsylvania and 3.) in American church and/or other American records. The idea is that this person or family could be tracked directly from their point of origin in Europe to the place they settled once in America and includes evidence of when they emigrated.

And so in her Alsace book, Burgert cites records of the Wolfskirchen Lutheran and Diedendorf Lutheran churches, both in Alsace. At Wolfskirchen, the records show that a Pritius Quirin died in 1719 at age 71. His wife was Rosina (died 1712) and they had at least three children: Daniel who married in 1693, Johannes and Nickel who it said “ist ins Neue Land gezogen” — which I assume means went to the New Land.

Also at Wolfskirchen, she documents that Nickel Quirin, son of Briccius married 27 Jan 1711 Maria Magdalena, daughter of Daniel Fisher of Pistorff and they had seven children: Johann Mathias b.1712, Maria Louisa b.1714, Maria Elisabetha b.1716, Anna Christina b.1718, Catharina Margaretha b.1721, Margaretha b.1723 and Maria Magdalena b.1725. And at Diedendorf, Nickel Quirin and wife Magdalena Fischer had Catharina Elisabetha b.1729 and Johann Heinrich b.1731.

Burgert then documents that Nickel Quirin arrived Philadelphia on the ship Halifax in 1752 and that Nickel Quierin and wife Margaretha nee Bauer had several children baptized at Mertz Church starting in 1757. Then, also at Mertz Church, Philip Mertz married 29 May 1764 Catharina Quierin.

Now I have a lot of respect for the work Burgert has done. She has been especially valuable to me as she absolutely tracked my immigrant ancestor David Mertz and his family from Alsace to Longswamp Township, Berks County and another of my immigrant ancestors Peter Hülpüsch and his family from Wiedt, Germany to Montgomery County, PA.

The strong implication from Burgert, given her typical format, is that Nickel Quirin of Wolfskirchen and Diedendorf whose wife was Magdalena Fischer was the 1752 immigrant on the Halifax and he also was the Nickel Quierin named in Mertz Church records. And she doesn’t specifically state that Catharina who married Philip Mertz was his daughter, but since he did baptize a daughter named Catharina (two of them actually), the clear implication is she was.

But in the case of Nickel and Catharina Quirin, I think there is a little more to the story. It’s not that simple. Consider that Nickel’s daughters named Catharina were born in 1721 and 1729, respectively. But Philip Mertz was born in 1738 and he married Catharina in 1764 and they had children in the years 1765-1783. It seems a stretch to believe that Catharina was much older than Philip. It should also be noted that Catharina never has a middle name in any American records, she was always just Catharina.

Moreover, Nickel Quirin of Alsace married in 1711 and had children in the years 1712-1731. Even if he married a second time, he seems too old to have been having children in America from 1757 into the 1760’s. It seems more likely that Nickel Quirin whose wife was Magdalena Fischer was a different man than Nickel Quierin whose wife was Margaretha Bauer.

It should also be noted that besides Catharina and Nickel there were several additional persons named Quierin named in Mertz Church records. All were listed as baptism sponsors for a child of Philip and Catharina at Mertz Church. All were instances where two presumed single people, one name Quierin and one named Mertz were the named sponsors. In my experience, this often was a case of the two sponsors perhaps being in a dating relationship and I have seen many examples where the two named sponsors later married.

So we find:

Heinrich Mertz and Anna Maria Quierin sponsored the baptism of Anna Maria, daughter of Philip and Catharina Mertz and later of their son Philip Heinrich.

Anna Mertz and Henrich Quierin sponsored two additional baptisms of daughters of Philip and Catharina.

Jacob Mertz and Susanna Margaretha Quierin sponsored the baptism of Johann Jacob, son of Philip and Catharina.

Wilhelm Mertz and Maria Elisabetha Quierin sponsored the baptism of another daughter of Philip and Catharina.

Jacob Mertz and Maria Elisabetha Quierin sponsored the baptism of yet another daughter of Philip and Catharina.

Wow, that looks like a lot of “dating” among Philip’s siblings — Anna, Jacob and Heinrich Mertz — and what we might guess were Catharina’s siblings — Anna Maria, Heinrich, Susanna Margaretha and Maria Elisabetha Quierin.

Note that some of these Quierins have names matching or similar to the children baptized by Nickel and Magdalena in Alsace, but it is not a perfect match.

And so I kept digging for some additional information to perhaps explain the possible discordant notes. And I found something that I think explains everything. I found a biography of Nickel Quirin in the “Rastatter-Schimmels Family Tree” on genealogy.com. It seems to be quoting directly the work of Patrick Pearsey, another genealogist whose work I respect a lot, so I’ll credit him.

Pearsey says that Nickel Quirin of Mertz Church whose wife was Margaretha Bauer was indeed of the Wolfskirchen family but in fact was the son Hans Jacob, another son of Pritius. This Nickel was born in 1714 and was the Nickel who arrived America in 1752 on the Halifax. He marred Anna Margaretha Bauer in 1738. Pearsey seems to be citing Wolfskirchen records for most of his facts.

In addition, Pearsey cites the will of Nicholas Query who died in Montgomery County, MD. It was written 13 Oct 1788 and proved 15 Dec 1788. He mentioned two sons: Daniel and Henry. And he named their five sisters: Mary Ann March, Christine Schindler, Catherine March, Elizabeth Humbert and Susannah Tice.

I believe that Catherine “March” was none other than the wife of Philip Mertz. The name Mertz, derived originally it is thought from the name of the third German month März, was sometimes (rarely but it did happen) “Americanized” as March. So I would assume the husband of Mary Ann also was named Mertz.

And based on a lot of analysis I won’t go into here, I think it may have been George Mertz (another brother of Philip’s) who married Mary Ann, or Anna Maria, Quierin. They never were listed as a “couple” at any of those baptisms but I have other evidence of this theory. Though it is far from proven.

So, I think the truth of the matter is this:

Pearsey is right that Nickel of Mertz Church who died in Montgomery County, MD was not Nickel, son of Pritius. In fact, he was Pritius’ grandson. This younger Nickel was the 1752 immigrant and he came with his wife Anna Margaretha and some of their children born in the 1740’s in Alsace and then he proceeded to have even more children once in America.

Arguably, all of the Quierins named as baptismal sponsors at Mertz Church were Nickel’s children, all named in his will.

Heinrich, the baptism sponsor, was the son Heinrich named by Nickel in his will. Mary Ann in the will (who had married a Mertz) was Anna Maria, Elizabeth in the will was Maria Elisabetha and Susanna of the will was Susanna Margaretha. And, of course, Catharine March of the will was Catharina nee Quierin, wife of Philip Mertz.

I think any suggestion that Catharina was either Catharina Elisabetha or Catharina Margaretha is false. Her name was Catharina, she was the daughter of Nickel and Margaretha (Bauer) Quirin.

Nicholas Quirin (which?) is said by some to have been an ancestor of Dwight David Eisenhower.

Johann Philip Mertz born 14 Oct 1738 was baptized at Mertz Church 25 Oct son of Johann Heinrich and Ana Maria (Rosemann) Mertz. He was listed on the Mertz Church monument that honors John Henry and his family and he was also named in his father’s will.

Philip is designated H1, the oldest son of the immigrant John Henry (H).

A man named Philip Mertz died in Northumberland County, PA in late 1803. From his will, it was clear that he had grown children, suggesting he was, say 60-70 years of age. Local genealogists also knew that he had come to Northumberland County from Berks County in about 1785. And so decades ago, before anyone had access to all the computerized church, tax and other genealogical records that exist now, the first place they thought to look in Berks County for record of this man was Mertz Church. And there they found this man, John Philip born 14 Oct 1738, son of John Henry Mertz. And so they, and subsequently hundreds of other so called genealogists who have merely copied their work without any thought as to its accuracy, give that birth date and that father to Philip of Northumberland County.

POPPYCOCK. With a little work, anyone who now does have access to all those computerized records can easily determine that John Philip Mertz born 1738 son of John Henry lived his life in Berks County, never far from Mertz Church. He married Catharina Quirin and with her baptized many children there in the 1760’s to 1780’s and was still there to stand as sponsor, with Catharina, at baptisms of grandchildren in 1796, 1803 and 1812. He can be found on tax records and in the 1790, 1800 and 1810 Census in Maxatawny Township.

It is also easy to find record of a different man, also named Philip Mertz, who was named with wife Eva many times at the Longswamp Reformed Church in Longswamp Township. They baptized children there in the 1770’s and early 1780’s and he was named in early tax records of Longswamp Township. And then he disappeared from those records only to pop up in Northumberland County with wife Eva and children whose names matched the ones they baptized together.

John Philip Mertz never lived anywhere but Berks County.

1779. Pennsylvania Septennial Census. Philip Mertz, Maxatawny Township. (Philip Mertz was also listed in Richmond Township, probably this one owned some land there too.)

In 1790-1810, Philip was consistently listed in Maxatawny Township. In 1790, he was Phil Merz and the headcount of his household included four older males and one younger. In 1800, he was indexed as Philip Martz. And in 1810 as Philip Merk.

And then he disappeared.

I don’t know exactly when Philip died. It was after the 1810 Census. At Mertz Church, on 19 January 1812, Philip Mertz and Catharine were sponsors for Benjamin Mertz, born to Philip Mertz, Jr. and his wife Sarah.

This was the last mention of Philip and I think he died soon thereafter. Catharina too died, I think, about the same time. Those early years after 1810 also mark the departure of two of Philip’s sons from Berks County. I do not think that was a coincidence.

I created a find-a-grave memorial for John Philip and placed him at Mertz Church. He may be buried there or he may be on his nearby farm. But I wanted a memorial for him to set forth the truth and distinguish him from the other Philip Mertz.