I don’t have the smoking gun proof that Charles was the son of Daniel but I found that fact in the 1944 SAR Application of Charles Francis Mertz and there are no discordant notes to make me think it wrong.

I do know from the 1830 and 1840 Census, Daniel had multiple sons. I also know that in 1850, William and Charles were listed on the same Census page and it is proven that Daniel had a son William.

I believe Charles pre-deceased his father, but Charles had heirs, so the one discordant note is that Daniel made no mention of Charles or his heirs in his will. However, he made no mention of son William either. Everything went to Daniel’s two daughters.

Charles is designated H4a2.

There is a find-a-grave memorial for Charles F Mertz at Union-West End Cemetery. It had a few errors when I first found it, which I believe I can get corrected.

The find-a-grave memorial for Charles originally said he died in 1853 (a mis-read of the date) and linked Mary Shreck to him as his wife. There was a biography for Mary saying she married Charles about 1849 and had previously been married to Eisenhart and in the 1850 Census, Charles, Mary and her Eisenhart children were listed.

It turns out there were two different Charles Mertz in Allentown in 1850. Mary was married to the other.

By 1850, he had a son William age 3 and a son James age 1. James would only have been 11 in 1860 and as he was no longer in Charles’ household, I assume he died young. Charles also had several younger sons but only William is designated.

Her mother must have been Mary Hess as she was listed in Emaline’s household in 1860 and 1880. A Mary Hess is buried in the same cemetery as Charles and Emaline, her age seems right, so I believe that is Emaline’s mother. It says on her find-a-grave memorial that she was the wife of John.