One of the things that fascinates me about genealogy is the migration of people from one place to another. All of my ancestors started out in different places in Europe. All of my father's German ancestors came at some point in the late 1680's to mid-1750's and settled in Eastern Pennsylvania. Descendants of these immigrants then later moved to Northumberland County (then including what is now Snyder and Union counties).

The thing that captures my imagination is that, up until about 1900, almost always a man married the girl next door (well within a four mile or so radius, I've calculated). Many of the marriages of my ancestors took place between two people who were not born where they eventually met and married, but both the woman's family and the man's family moved and became neighbors when that couple were young children or in their teens. What if any one of them had failed to make the move at the right time or went to the wrong place? I wouldn't be here to tell their story.

The Mertz family was quite typical. John David Mertz came to Berks County from Alsace in 1733. His grandsons moved to Northumberland County in the late 1780's and in each of the succeeding generations someone moved on. I have found a repeating pattern that the first Mertz in any new place was often honored with a very large monolith or obelisk as a tombstone. Here are four, I'm sure there are others I've not yet discovered.