Also known as Andrew Shade, the Americanized version of his name.

She is on find-a-grave as Elizabeth Mertz, wife of Andreas Schadt (aka Andrew Shade).

It seems widely believed that she was a Mertz, as that is the name of Andreas’ wife on the Family Search tree that covers the Schadt family.

In 2017, I was contacted by a descendant to see if I could help identify Elizabeth, i.e. who were her parents?

I was unable to help. However, I did find this couple covered in a database called Strausstown Roots, a database I have encountered before and found it generally reliable and seemingly based on real research, though sometimes deficient in not citing all their specific sources.

Strausstown Roots gives the same dates as find-a-grave for both Andreas and Elizabeth, but gives her name as Elizabeth Wertz. Moreover, when Andreas and Elizabeth baptized their oldest son Jacob, according to this source, the sponsors were Jacob and Elizabeth Wirz.

I was told by her descendant that there is a church record citing her death and I am led to believe her maiden name was given there. And it sounds like Strausstown Roots may be citing that same death record — so it it Mertz or Wertz? (I would want to see the actual manuscript handwritten record rather than a transept to try to get to the bottom here. I would also want to know if any other records of that (or those) church(es) — the death record and the baptism record — named any Mertz or Wertz.)

After searching for as much evidence as I could find, my conclusion is:

The Schadt’s clearly lived in western Berks County — different records have them in Tulpehocken, Stouchburg and Bernville. So there is a huge geography problem with believing an Elizabeth Mertz was living in that area to meet and marry Andrew Schadt — there were no Mertzes that I know of in that part of Berks County until a good bit later. I would guess maybe her name was Wertz, although I think that could be researched further as suggested above.

But after revisiting this in 2020 because I am a DNA match to a woman who descends from Elizabeth and Andreas and examined her tree, I see not other way we might be connected. That is the kind of thing that makes me more willing to accept that maybe she was a Mertz but is by no means conclusive.

So, I'm buying in.  I'm not sure we'll ever find the hard evidence both of us might like to have that Elizabeth was d/o Conrad but in the Mertz world, that is often the case.  It takes analysis of all the evidence that can be found looking for clues something is true but also looking for what I call discordant notes (evidence that would seem to contradict what you want to believe).

I'm convinced she was Merz, I suspect that cemetery transcription you sent was done by someone familiar with old German script and perhaps at a time when things were more readable.  Her tombstone says Merz.

The geography supports the conclusion.

Today, the Borough of Bernville is surrounded by Penn Township to its east and Jefferson Township to its west.  Bern Township is further to the east of Penn, Tulpehocken is further to the west of Jefferson.  It didn't feel right to me, too much distance Bern to Tulpehocken.

But not so in the 1780’s.  Penn Township was created from Bern in 1841 and Jefferson was created from Tulpehocken in 1851.  So in the 1780’s, Bernville was smack on the Bern/Tulpehocken border.

I found a profile of Andreas Sr. today that speculates maybe he was buried at the Christ Little Tulpehocken Church in Bernville which was founded by Rev Caspar Steover, Jr.  The burial is speculative but I take it there may be evidence that associates the Schadt's with that church.

I only know two children for Conrad -- Heinrich born 1765 and Johannes born 1772 and perhaps Magdalena in 1766 (another DNA connection and someone's speculation).  But the point is Elizabeth would fit right into Conrad and Margaret's prime child bearing years.

And last night I remembered finding Conrad on the 1779 Septennial Census in Bern Township.  Today I found, digging deeper, he was taxed as a blacksmith in Bern Township in 1781 and 1782 and served in a Bern Militia unit in 1784.  His brother Henry was also listed in that unit.  Henry married Margaret's sister but mostly was named often in Longswamp records in the 1780's and so far as I know never had children.  

Let me know what you think.  Sorry if I caused you any stress regarding whether you had your facts right, I think you do.  I know I had put some comments about Elizabeth on Conrad's profile I wrote on his FamilySearch Tree profile, I have now edited those out.  

And one more thing.  I have Conrad in my database born about 1746 -- having no better date, just a guess.  But doing this for you, I realize his marriage record says "second son of Nickel" and he was listed before Henry in the OC petitions after Nicholas died so I now think he was older than Henry who I have as born in 1743.  But then both Henry and Conrad were minors when Nicholas died in 1860 so it's a little tight but 1742 might be a better estimate than 1746.