Johannes was born in Berks County, moved its his parents to Columbia County in about 1811, was first listed on his own in the 1740 Census and lived his entire adult life in Briar Creek Township.

John is on find-a-grave.

I have management responsibility for his memorial so I visited the Martzville Cemetery and uploaded a photo of his tombstone. It gives his date of death and states his age at death. The arithmetic computes to a date of birth of either either 17 or 18 Aug 1796, close enough for me to the 19 Aug 1796 as transcribed in the Mertz Church records. Despite this one day discrepancy, I believe it is John’s connection to William which proves that it was indeed the same William named in Mertz Church records who moved to Columbia County.

There is a PA death certificate for Rebecca (Martz) Bower born in 1838, daughter of John Martz and Lydia Hagenbuch. She was the Rebecca age 12 living with her parents in the 1850 Census. She is linked to her parents on find-a-grave. Per Star of the North Bloomsburg newspaper dated 11 Nov 1857, she married Hiram Bower 26 Oct.

From Census, there was also a Mary E born about 1841 but I never knew what happened to her. Then in 2020 I happened to stumble upon a record for her in the Family Search Tree that said he married Daniel Hill and was the daughter of John and Lydia Martz. I have seen too many instances where someone knowing a woman was born Martz and of about a certain age would go to Census in the decade when you would expect to find her with her parents and finding someone of the right name made the two a match — and were totally wrong because there were several people of about that age who shared that name. They pick the wrong one.

And I this case, when I saw the death certificate of Mary (Martz ) Hill and it said the name of her father was Daniel, I thought an error had been made here. But after more research, I have concluded Mary (Martz) Hill, wife of Daniel Hill, likely was the daughter of John and Lydia Martz. John actually had a brother named Daniel but I don’t believe he and wife Leah had children nor does it appear they married until the 1850’s. Yes, maybe the unmarried Daniel had a daughter he named Mary and gave her to John to raise — but while possible, it seems just as logical to think an error was made by the informant on her death certificate confusing the name of hr husband with that of her father. But what really convinced me of things is that Mary named a son John Martz Hill, she named him for her father.

There is also an Irene Martz, born 1846, who married Henry Rook on Family search linked to John and Lydia as yet another daughter. It is total fiction as best I can tell.

There is a PA death certificate for Isaac Martz born in 1846, son of John Martz and Lydia Hagenbauch. He is the Isaac age 4 living with his parents in the 1850 Census. That Census also shows a son Lahman age 14. Both Lahman and Isaac are linked to Johannes on find-a-grave. There may possibly have been other sons but I don’t know of any.

H1a1a Lahman born 1837
H1a1b Isaac born 1846

Her maiden name comes from the death certificates of two of their children.