I’ve always been aware of the fact that many people believe that Johannes had a son Peter and that he married Catherine Philips. In the Annals of Berks County by Morton Montgomery, it says that Peter, son of Johannes, was born in Oley and died in Orwigsburg and in 1793 married Catharina Phillips of Bern and their children were: Christina, John, Peter, Samuel, Kate, Rosina and Elizabeth. The problem is that I have learned from experience not to trust everything that was written in these old county histories, in many cases there were major errors in what was sad.

But in this case, the information about Peter is confirmed by a different county history. In The History of Dauphin County, PA, there is a biography of Daniel Martz and his son Jacob Rogers Martz of that place. It reads like many other county history books. It simply names Daniel’s ancestors, who it says were of Berks County, without citing any but the most basic facts and/or source references. I read it and at first totally dismissed it as possible myth.

But the more I studied it, I have come to ascribe some credibility to it. It says Daniel was the son of John who was the son of Peter who was the son of Johannes. It lists the same children for Peter as Morton Montgomery did but adds a little bit of additional biography to several that actually checks out.

And about John, it says: “John Mertz, son of Peter and Catherine (Phillips) Mertz, was born in 1801, in Berks County, and followed the calling of a miller. He was a man of education and refinement, as shown in the papers in the possession of his grandson, Jacob Rogers Martz. His position in the community was one of some prominence….He was a devoted member of the Lutheran Church. He married Sarah Powell, and their family consisted of the following children: Catherine, Daniel, Priscilla, John, William, and Charles. The death of John Mertz, the father, occurred in 1880.”

I was especially intrigued by the reference to the papers in the possession of his grandson and I have tried to see if somehow they could be found in some Internet archive (with no luck) but it’s possible those papers include some “family bible” kind of records perhaps tracing the family back to Johannes, the immigrant.

In addition, Charles A Fisher who wrote a book titled Early Pennsylvania Births 1675-1785 lists Peter born 9 Mar 1769 as a son of Johannes and Rosina as if he had found an actual birth record. Now I know this Fisher source quite well. He most definitely used church records, which typically give a birth date and the name of the parents, as one basis for his statements.

But Fisher also used tombstones as another basis. If Fisher found a tombstone of a person and it gave either his birth date or his age at death (from which a birth date could be computed), Fisher used that as a basis to include them in his book. Yeah, I agree, a tombstone is proof that such a person existed and when he was born — but how does Fisher then infer who the guy’s parents were?
So I have always had a little skepticism about whether to believe that Johannes had a son Peter and whether I could trust these sources as to the names of his children. I have learned over the years to not trust something just because someone, I don’t care who, says it is so. I wanted at least some evidence.

But then as part of my Mærtz Hierarchical Project, an attempt to identify every male of this name born in America before 1850 and link them back to their immigrant ancestor, I became aware of some things I had never known before:

1. There was a Peter Mertz buried in Orwigsburg and whose tombstone indicates an 1833 date of death. He’s listed on find-a-grave.
2. His wife was named Catherine. She is not on find-a-grave, but an Orwigsburg church record of her death says she was the wife of Peter.
3. Christina Mertz Zimmerman (1799-1884) is also buried in Orwigsburg and a pastoral note recording her death says she was the daughter of Peter & Catherine Philip Mertz.
4. And then it dawned on me that the 1793 marriage I had long been aware of said to be of Peter Mertz and Catherine Filbs was actually Peter Mertz and Catherine Phillips (her name corrupted to Filbs) and moreover that marriage was documented by the same pastor who had married Melchior Mertz (Peter’s presumed brother) to Anna Maria Keller.

This all gave real credibility to the statements made by Morton Montgomery about Peter and I take the connection with Melchior to be compelling. Peter is designated J3.

[As an aside, on the Internet, I found a book detailing the story of Susanna Cox who was hung in Berks County sometime in the late 1790’s (as I recall) for the crime, I think, of killing her baby — which baby was apparently the result of Susanna being raped. The book alleges that there is some evidence that the rapist was Peter Mertz and they surmise he was this Peter, son of Johannes.]

Peter is hard to find in Census. He may be the Peter Mertz listed in Cumru Township, Berks County in 1810 and then Pine Grove Township, Schuylkill County in 1820. He should also be in Schuylkill County in 1830 since he died there in 1833, but I can’t find him.

Peter is on find-a-grave.

His memorial on find-a-grave cites his tombstone as to his age at death and it says 17y, 5m, 7d with a comment there too that says “hard to read.” Clearly the 17y part is wrong so arguably maybe it was, for example, 67y. But if Charles Fisher is right about Peter’s date of birth, the tombstone should say 64y, 3m, 5d. and in fact I had always assumed Fisher got Peter’s birth date from his tombstone so in any event that is how he must have read it. I have no explanation of how these two apparent readings of the same age on a tombstone are so wildly different.

According to the county history, which may or may not be totally accurate, his daughters were Christina, Kate, Rosina and Elizabeth. On one list I have seen Christina was called Christian but I’m pretty confident Christina was the Christina Zimmerman (1799-1884) about which the pastoral note said daughter of Peter & Catherine Philip Mertz.

Christina is buried in Orwisgsburg in the same cemetery where her brother Samuel is buried and she is linked to her parents on find-a-grave.

According to the county histories, his sons were John, Peter and Samuel. Both histories list his children in the same order: Christina, John, Peter, Samuel, Kate, Rosina, Elizabeth. I am assuming that is their birth order.

Complicating the search for Peter’s sons is that Schuylkill County seems to be a place that does not confirm to a pattern that is fairly dependable in other places — that all of the Mertzes or Martzes of the place had a common original American ancestor. Not so Schuylkill County and even not so south central Schuylkill County (Cressona, Schuylkill Haven, Orwigsburg, and Brunswick and Manheim — North and South — Townships).

Maybe this is because Schuylkill County adjoins eight other counties — Lebanon, Dauphin, Northumberland, Columbia, Luzerne, Carbon, Lehigh and Berks — and Mærtzes were early residents in most of those. And the south central part of the county specifically adjoins Berks County where I have enumerated five different original American ancestors.

In any event, there was a least one other unrelated Mertz line in Schuylkill County in addition to Peter’s. The other was that of Henry who I have designated N3a. His sons, known from his wife’s father’s estate file included: John, Jacob, Henry, Philip, Samuel and Joseph. Obviously, there is a little overlap in those names with the names of Peter’s sons.

And to further complicate matters, there was a Samuel Martz and a David Martz, both born in the mid-1790’s, who both showed up first in Manheim Township (where Henry lived). My best guess is they were Henry’s brothers. Both of them had sons named John and Samuel (and other more unique names like Joshua, Reuben, Solomon).

Nonetheless, I believe I have been able to track Peter’s sons and not confuse John and Samuel with all the others of those two names.

J3a John born 1801. He may be the easiest to identify since we learn so much about him from the Dauphin county history, that he married Sarah Powell and that he, for the most part, never lived in Schuylkill County. I’m fairly certain therefore I have found John, first in Bern or Tulpehocken Township, Berks County, later Marion Township (Stouchsburg area). His family then ends up in either Stouchsburg or the nearby Myerstown area of Lebanon County. Remember, Catherine Philips was said to have been of Bern in the county history.

So we know John was born in about 1801, I assume Peter’s sons were named in birth order and I observe that, assuming I have correctly identified Peter in 1820, he had two sons age 0-9 in that decade — these three “facts” taken together indicates that Peter and Samuel were born later than 1801 maybe even after 1810.

J3b Peter born 1812. I first became aware of Peter when a woman named Sue Angelo wrote me about her husband’s ancestor Daniel Mertz who she referred to as David (those two names often get read as the other in old handwritten manuscripts):

“There were two people around the same age in Schuylkill County in the late 1800s per Censuses named David Mertz.  I believe, by process of elimination and burial location that the David in my husband's line (his GGG Grandfather), is the David listed on the 1850 and 1860 Census as the eldest son of Peter and Eliza Mertz.  I have located Peter and Eliza's graves in Schuylkill Haven Union Cemetery, Peter was born in 1812.  They are located in North Mannheim Township in 1850.  I am unable to go back any further in this line and was wondering if you could be of any help.  I did read your writings on your website and I am guessing that Peter could be a son/grandson of your possible N3a Henry (son of Conrad, grandson of Nicholas) based off the location.  I would love to find some concrete proof of this.”

At the time Sue visited my website, I had not learned the names of Henry’s children which we now know did not include a Peter and I had not focused on the list of supposed children of Peter’s which does. I think the better candidate to be Peter’s father is Peter.

J3c Samuel born 1817. There were several Samuels listed in various pre-1850 Censuses in Schuylkill County and the aforementioned Henry had a son Samuel too complicating matters. Further, there is a Samuel born in the mid-1790’s who lived in Barry Township in 1850, so who was who? But one Samuel stayed close to Orwigsburg and is buried there. I have gone with him as Peter’s son.

I think the woman indexed as Catherine Meet in 1850 is her, age 78, living with Diana Zimmerman age 40 and other Zimmermans. Whether Diana was really Christina, Catherine’s daughter, with her age mis-reported or whether there is some other explanation, I don’t know.