Joseph A Meiser and Allen Tallman list John as the son of John (son of David and Barbara) born about 1807 and Tallman shows a marriage for this John to Sarah in about 1825. Tallman further says that Sarah was listed in the 1850 Census in Lower Augusta Twp with two grandchildren -- William and Sarah -- children of Sarah's son John. Meiser also shows Sarah as John’s wife, shows four children for this couple, and also adds that Sarah was in the 1850 Census with those two grandchildren.

But we know that all of this is wrong. At St. Peter’s (Blue) Lutheran Church, from the records on Ancestry, Johannes and Elis baptized son Johannes born 7 Apr 1815. And there was that Orphans Court filing in 1827 whereby Elizabeth, widow of John deceased petitioned for a new guardian to be appointed for son John, under 12, since John Arter had been discharged. John was born in 1815.

At least Tallman and Meiser were aware that John had died before his mother’s will was written in 1852 naming her children not including John so he clearly pre-deceased her. But they ignore that neither his mother’s will nor the property division for John’s uncle named any heirs for John. No children, no grandchildren. Lastly, they ignore that the Census listing for Sarah in 1850 gives her age as 54, thus born in 1796, and it is not a typo. Sarah was not this John’s wife.

I do not know when exactly John died but I can’t find him in the 1840 Census. He was named in Bell’s History of Northumberland County: “In the 1830’s, Jesse, David and John Martz operated a blacksmith shop on Market Street in Sunbury.” I believe both John and Jesse died in the late 1830’s and that is about when David moved to Venango County.