I only give a sketch in my database of Rachel’s ancestry because her family is fully documented and very well researched in: http://www.hilbishgenealogy.com/

Her date of birth comes from her baptism record. I onetime found her name in the “Cambria Tribune Obituary Index” dated 12/1/1883 from which I concluded she died in November 1883. But Beverly Royer has pointed me to the church records of St Luke’s Lutheran Church in Lilly, PA which, as transcribed, say that Batchel Martz Sr. died 17 March 1889 (might be her burial date) and was age 78. Upon inspection, the name does look like Ratchel and her presence as a communicant is also noted in those records and she was called Rachel Sr. in that instance.

I believe George was the son of Samuel Mertz of the Middleburg family of Nicholas Mertz. It would be nice if Samuel had left a will or perhaps an estate file or property division after he died which would have named all his children. I have never found that any such thing exists.

Nor have I ever found early church records for Nicholas’ family. So all we can say is that from Census, Samuel had several sons, one of whom, from his age, could well have been George.

But there are some pieces of evidence that suggest that George was Samuel’s son:

Geography. When George and Rachel married, they were both said to have been of Beaver Township, Union County, PA. Based on my extensive analysis of ALL the early Mertz families, the only Mertzes geographically close to Beaver Township well into the 1800’s were the families of Philip Mertz and his brother, Nicholas. I have studied all the sons of Philip and Nicholas and for most of them, I can name all of their sons. Samuel is about the only one of the right age whose sons I cannot name for sure. (Well, I don’t know all of George’s brother Isaac’s sons, but I know Isaac had a son named George, this was a different George.)

Occupation. George was a shoemaker. Samuel was a shoemaker. It is also interesting that the only other Mertz in Beaver Township in the early decades of the 1800’s was Israel Mertz, a shoemaker. Israel was Isaac’s son, but it is interesting that he adopted his Uncle Samuel’s occupation. I think Samuel was a very proficient shoemaker and taught his son and nephew the trade.

Cambria County Martzes. The fact that his name became Martz once he moved to Cambria County is an oft-repeated pattern. Many, many people who started out Mertz in Berks County and in the case of Philip and Nicholas stayed Mertz in (what became) Snyder County became Martz when someone moved to a new place. But the question is how can I know that George Martz of Cambria was one and the same as George Mertz of Beaver Township?

Biographies of several of George’s children say they were born in Union County, PA. (The geography here is that when Philip and Nicholas moved from Berks County, they moved to what was then Northumberland County but then in 1813 all of what had been Northumberland that lay west of the Susquehanna River became Union County. It was Union County when George lived there. And then later, the southern part of Union County became Snyder County.)

A woman named, after her marriage, Catherine Trotter, lived in Cambria County. Her obituary said her maiden name was Martz, that she had been born in Union County and that she moved to Cambria County in 1836. In 1860, after Samuel Mertz had apparently died, Samuels’ widow Susanna and his unmarried daughter Mary lived in Catherine’s household.

Also in Catherine’s obituary, it said she had many relatives in the Lilly area. George lived in Lilly.

I believe, strongly, that George was Samuel’s son and he is designated P5d1.