Mertz Genealogy - Person Sheet
Mertz Genealogy - Person Sheet
NameJohn Hartman Kleckner 
2777
2777Birth8 November 1830
Death13 March 1909
BurialNew Rosemont, Espy, Columbia Co, PA
Father3G GF George Kleckner (1797-1874)
Mother3G GM Rachel Elizabeth Hartman (1807-1853)
Parent-Proof notes for John Hartman Kleckner
I first knew this son John H as a child of George and Elizabeth from the 1850 Census, he was 19. His death certificate though gives his name as John Hartman Kleckner and said he was the son of John and Rachel Hartman.
My Comments notes for John Hartman Kleckner
I only more or less stumbled upon John’s death certificate but it proved to be one of those memorable moments in genealogy.
From my earliest efforts to research the Kleckner line, I had always known that George Kleckner’s wife was named Elizabeth. I had even seen a few Internet Trees saying she was Elizabeth Hartman -- but I have learned to be very skeptical of such things, as way too many times they prove to be wrong.
I also found several trees that gave exact birth dates for Elizabeth Hartman and all her siblings. Elizabeth’s matched the date of birth given on her tombstone -- and yet those trees did not acknowledge her marriage to George Kleckner. How could someone know her date of birth but not the name of her husband? I think there must be a church record (or family bible?) somewhere that gives all the dates. I have never been able to find that record, but my skepticism about her being Elizabeth Hartman abated somewhat.
Then I saw a message board post saying that John H Kleckner was actually John Hartman Kleckner. If that really was his name, that would add more evidence as to the name of his mother. But was that his correct full name? Too often, “facts” like that prove to be wrong.
But I decided to research John H further. In trying to learn more about him, I found reference to a file at the Columbia County Historical Society -- so I wrote them and asked them to copy anything from that file that established his middle name. And they sent me, among other things, his death certificate.
Now Pennsylvania death certificates are not so easily obtained. You have to write the state and virtually tell them everything about a person -- things that may be what you are trying to learn -- before they will even look. And you must state your relationship to the deceased. They do not seem to accept that these documents can be hugely important to genealogists. So I always consider writing the State of Pennsylvania to get a death certificate a last resort. Someone else, though, had done it -- and dropped a copy of it into the John Hartman Kleckner file at Columbia County.
And this is what it said: he was John Hartman Kleckner, son of George Kleckner and Rachel Hartman. But her name was Elizabeth, right? Well consider her daughter, our ancestor. She was named Rachel E Kleckner. I believe both women were Rachel Elizabeth -- the mother came to be called Elizabeth, the daughter Rachel.
From my earliest efforts to research the Kleckner line, I had always known that George Kleckner’s wife was named Elizabeth. I had even seen a few Internet Trees saying she was Elizabeth Hartman -- but I have learned to be very skeptical of such things, as way too many times they prove to be wrong.
I also found several trees that gave exact birth dates for Elizabeth Hartman and all her siblings. Elizabeth’s matched the date of birth given on her tombstone -- and yet those trees did not acknowledge her marriage to George Kleckner. How could someone know her date of birth but not the name of her husband? I think there must be a church record (or family bible?) somewhere that gives all the dates. I have never been able to find that record, but my skepticism about her being Elizabeth Hartman abated somewhat.
Then I saw a message board post saying that John H Kleckner was actually John Hartman Kleckner. If that really was his name, that would add more evidence as to the name of his mother. But was that his correct full name? Too often, “facts” like that prove to be wrong.
But I decided to research John H further. In trying to learn more about him, I found reference to a file at the Columbia County Historical Society -- so I wrote them and asked them to copy anything from that file that established his middle name. And they sent me, among other things, his death certificate.
Now Pennsylvania death certificates are not so easily obtained. You have to write the state and virtually tell them everything about a person -- things that may be what you are trying to learn -- before they will even look. And you must state your relationship to the deceased. They do not seem to accept that these documents can be hugely important to genealogists. So I always consider writing the State of Pennsylvania to get a death certificate a last resort. Someone else, though, had done it -- and dropped a copy of it into the John Hartman Kleckner file at Columbia County.
And this is what it said: he was John Hartman Kleckner, son of George Kleckner and Rachel Hartman. But her name was Elizabeth, right? Well consider her daughter, our ancestor. She was named Rachel E Kleckner. I believe both women were Rachel Elizabeth -- the mother came to be called Elizabeth, the daughter Rachel.