Joseph A Meiser says David Martz whose wife was Magdalena Shissler had a son Jacob. He listed him after David who was definitely born in 1802 but shows Jacob as born in 1800. Meiser further says he married Mary Magdalena Malick and that he died young in 1838 and among his children was William K Martz born about 1823 who married Elizabeth Bowen.

So there is enough there for me to know that particular Jacob, though I believe his wife’s maiden name was Keefer, not Malick, and there are one or two children Meiser attributes to this couple who I do not think were theirs.

Jacob is designated P6a4.

I believe 1830 is the only Census where Jacob was listed. He was near his father David. The tick mark counts by age bracket make no sense, though. There were eight males present in the household but none older than 19: one under 5, one 5-9, two 10-14 and four 15-19. It looks more like the remnants of the household of a recently deceased father.

This household basically has to be David's son Jacob with his age misreported and there must be some brothers and sisters of his or his wife present too. I do not have any other idea who this Jacob would be otherwise and Jacob P6a2 would be otherwise unaccounted for. It has to be him.

Jacob died by 1840, but Magdalena Martz age 40-49 (she was only 36 if her tombstone has been accurately transcribed) was listed in Augusta Township with five young children.

Then in 1850, Magdalena age 52 (but wasn’t she only 46?), was living with William K age 27 in Sunbury. I don’t think there is a wife present in the household but there are three young daughters of William’s plus his sister Mary age 24 and brother Henry 13.

It is my opinion that William had at least two other sisters and one brother alive at the time. Susan who I can’t find, Sophia age 23 living in 1850 with the Markle family and possibly Jacob age 14 living with the Dewart family. I think William K couldn't support ALL of Jacob's children -- he had to farm some out.

I have a copy of the Registrar’s transcription of the will of Jacob Martz written 20 Apr 1838. He appointed his wife Magdalena and David Martz Jr. (I think referring to his brother) to be his Executors. He named none of his children but implied there were a good number and that all of them were minors.

In the Sunbury American newspaper of 7 Feb 1857, I found notice of a 30 acre tract being sold by Wm K Martz, Mary Ann Martz, Sophia Martz, Susan Dieffendaffer and Jacob Martz which sounds very much to me like the heirs of Jacob probably related to the death of their mother. Magdalena had died 30 Sep 1856.

I looked up the deed wherein this land was transferred and found it was for a 50 acre tract (the paper said 30) in Upper Augusta. I wonder, though, if this tract was part of a 130 acre tract that, in 1834, Peter Mertz and wife Hannah deeded to Jacob Mertz for $660. The 130 acres was part of a tract of 280 acres previously owned by David Mertz (P2), deceased, that Peter (David’s son) and Barbara (David’s widow), Executors of David’s will, had conveyed previously in two parcels -- 150 acres to George Mertz and 130 acres to Peter.

The question is which Jacob acquired that land? I have ruled out the possibility that Jacob was David’s son, because all of his surviving sons and/or deceased sons who had married and had children were named in David Jr.’s will and there was no Jacob. There was a baptism at Longswamp of an unnamed son of David Mertz and wife born 1 Jun 1782 with Jacob Miller and wife as sponsors. Often a sponsor was the namesake of a child, so it is quite possible this unnamed son was Jacob.

So it is possible that the 1782 birth was of a son Jacob and he is the one who bought land from Peter in 1834; but he never married and never was actually listed on his own in Census and died not too many years after that land purchase with no heirs and therefore was not named by his brother David.

But I think the better explanation is that there only was one Jacob alive in 1834 in or near Augusta Township and that was P6a2 and he was buying the land his cousin (once removed) was selling. And then in 1857, William K and others sold the 50 acres that remained. That leaves unexplained what happened to the other 80 acres.

There was a death notice published in the Sunbury Gazette dated 28 Apr 1838 saying Lt. Jacob Martz died on the 21st and that he was about age 36.

Jacob is not on find-a-grave, though for awhile I thought he was. There is a Jacob Martz on find-a-grave at Penns Cemetery in Sunbury. No dates are given, the tombstone photo there looks totally unreadable. The tombstone is very near Rebecca Martz so this must be the Jacob and Rebecca Martz who lived together in 1860 and 1870 in Sunbury. I have gone and looked at that tombstone close-up and I can clearly see that it says Jacob E Martz and I can see enough of the date to know it is the one who died, per Gearhart’s transcription, in 1870. So it is not Jacob (P6a2), nor is it Jacob (P6).

There is a Revolutionary War marker at Jacob E’s grave, obviously intended for the original Jacob of Augusta Township who may be in the same cemetery, but who knows? The memorial on find-a-grave may in fact represent all three of these Jacobs. But the tombstone is Jacob E.

From the property sale, Jacob had three daughters who survived past 1857: Mary, Sophia and Susan. Only two were living with Magdalena in 1840, according to the tick marks. But in the 1860 Census, we find Susan Dieffendaffer wife of Andrew and living with them was Mary Martz age 33. The death certificate of Frank Diefenderfer says his mother was Susan Martz and father Andrew. And she was Susan Diefendaffer on the 1857 land sale notice.  

Mary was 24 in 1850 [1826]. I believe she was the Mary Ann Gossler who died in 1913 and whose death certificate said she was born in 1826 daughter of Jacob Martz and Mary M Keefer.

William K is clearly one of Jacob’s sons, Henry from the 1850 Census another but he died before 1857 and Jacob from the property sale another.

Joseph A Meiser lists a John Martz born 1824 as an additional son of Jacob and Mary Magdalena (who Meiser says was Malick but it was actually Keefer). He says that John married Harriet, maiden name unknown. And he says further that among their children were Albert born 1849, Frank C born 1861 and daughters Mary J, Elizabeth, Harriet and Florence.

I know the John he is talking about. His wife was Harriet Savage and he indeed had those children. The problem is that John was alive and lived locally in 1857 -- so wouldn’t he have been a party to the sale of Jacob’s land? I don’t think there was a son John. I’m not 100% certain of the parentage of the John I know but for now I have him as P6c1.

Which brings me to Jacob’s son Jacob. We know he was alive in 1857 and we know that some of Magdalena’s children were not living with her in 1850, so her son Jacob must be the Jacob in 1850 in Sunbury, age 14, living with random people.

For awhile, I considered that this missing Jacob was the Jacob E mentioned above, the one who died in 1870 and is buried at Penns Cemetery nearby Rebecca. But I have found that Jacob (and Rebecca) in Census and he was age 46 in 1860, then 53 in 1870. Even if 53 is correct, he was born about 1817, too early to have been Jacob’s or especially Magdalena’s son. I also found a petition regarding Jacob E’s land after he died which names his siblings — a list having no resemblance whatsoever to Jacob and Magdalena’s other known children. I actually have come to believe that Jacob E was not a Martz at all but rather a Moritz — and he is designated U2a3.

So what happened to Magdalena’s son Jacob? WellI picked up on his rail, I believe, when I found a Jacob Martz of the right age who lived his married life and is buried in Trevorton. His wife was Mary Malick. Jacob is designated P6a2b.

This is the woman Meiser identifies as Mary Malick in one place and Magdalena Malick in another. In his will, her husband Jacob refers to her as Magdalena, which is how she appeared to be listed in the 1840 and 1850 Census.

I have already cited the death certificate of her daughter Mary Ann saying her mother was Magdalena Keefer. And the death certificate of her son William Keefer Martz says the same thing. I just see it as 100% clear her name was Mary Magdalena Keefer, I don’t know where Meiser got the idea it was Malick.

She was on her own in the 1840 Census after her husband died and lived with her son William K in 1850.

She is not on find-a-grave. There is a transcription of her tombstone from decades ago that says she was born in 1804, though, from Census, you would think it was a few years earlier than that. Her date of death as transcribed seems accurate since the land sale was advertised in Feb 1857.