Jacob Mertz and unnamed wife baptized a daughter Maria Eva on 2 Jun 1782 at Longswamp Reformed. The key question is: since his wife was unnamed, was the father Jacob, son of Nicholas or Jacob, son of Peter?

I had always assumed the father was Jacob, son of Peter because he was the younger of the two Jacobs and this was almost the last baptism by either Jacob. I also believed that the infant was the namesake of the sponsor and that Eva Mertz was the wife of Philip. That pointed also to the younger Jacob as the father since Philip was his brother. I didn’t understand why Philip would not also have stood as sponsor but that seemed a minor concern.

But I have now reconsidered the whole thing. I found the find-a-grave record of Maria Eva (Marts) Fritts who we are quite sure was the daughter of the older Jacob. It says she was born 20 Apr 1782. A photo of her tombstone gives her date of death and her age at death and I can clearly make out 79 years and 3 months but I cannot read how many days. I assume someone else was able to read the number of days and computed her exact birth date based on that. But based only on what I can read, it clearly implies a birth date within a range of a month or two before her baptism.

I have also reconsidered the sponsor. The older Jacob had a sister Maria Eve who I believe married Frederic Braun and who I know had died by 1783. Had she been the sponsor, she would have been listed as Eva Braun. So I suspect that she had died before this baptism event and Eva Mertz, wife of Philip, sort of stood in for Eva Braun who was in fact the namesake of the infant.

One last point: the younger Jacob had a daughter Magdalena baptized 21 Apr 1783. Now children weren’t always baptized “immediately” after their birth so the fact of Magdalena’s baptism doesn’t totally rule out that Jacob had two daughters whose baptisms were just 10 1/2 months apart, but it might seem to call it into question. That concern now goes away by thinking Maria Eva was the daughter of the other Jacob.

Joseph A Meiser in his treatise on the Mertz/Martz pioneer family of Northumberland County lists Maria Eva born 2 Jun 1782 as a daughter of Jacob the younger. Further, it says she married Frederick Haas. I have never been able to find any supporting evidence that there was a Frederick Haas whose wife was Maria Eva Mertz nor any evidence (other than the questionable baptism record) that the younger Jacob had a daughter Maria Eva or a son-in-law Frederick Haas.

I am leaving Maria Eva in my database with Frederick Haas as her husband for anyone else who believes this couple existed to find and know my thinking on the subject. My thinking is that this daughter and this marriage are both fiction.