A man named David Mertz died in Northumberland County in 1822. His wife was named Barbara. It seems obvious that he was the David Mertz who was a sponsor with Barbara Miller -- both single -- in 1774 and 1776 at Longswamp baptisms. The earlier baptism was for David, son of Jacob Mertz and wife and the later one for Susanna, daughter of Philip Mertz and wife Eva. And then David Mertz and wife Barbara baptized children of their own starting in 1781.

There is no question in my mind that Jacob, David and Philip were brothers. They were not sons of Nicholas and so by the process of elimination, they must have been sons of Hans Peter. For most of Peter’s sons, their birth date is not known with any real accuracy. But David at least gave us a real clue by stating in his 1820 will that he was nearing the age of 75 (thus born about 1745). Some of his brothers were named as single men on a 1767 tax list, and I would have thought David, had he been born in 1745, would also have been named on that list but in David’s case it wasn’t until 1770 (I’m not sure there was a 1768 or 1769 list) until David was named (also single). So maybe he was using the term loosely when he said he was nearing 75. In any event, having nothing better to go on, I have made David the second oldest son of Hans Peter, he is designated P2.

TOO MANY MEN NAMED DAVID MERTZ. There were several David Mertzes to keep track of in the latter half of the eighteenth and very early nineteenth centuries, though somewhat separated by age. There was of course the immigrant John David. But I believe he died by about 1752 or so. Starting in 1772, David Mertz was named frequently as a sponsor at various Longswamp baptisms of Mertz children. He was the David Mertz who married Barbara Miler and, counting John David Mertz as Generation 1 in America, this next David was Generation 3 -- the only David of his generation.

It is the multiple Davids of Generation 4 and 5 where things get confusing. It is at times tough to know who was who, a problem made more difficult because genealogists know that you can't always trust the meaning of the term Jr. or Sr. next to a person's name in those old days -- it at times simply meant older or younger, not necessarily father of or son of.

There is a widely disseminated genealogy report entitled "merztdav.txt" written and submitted to the Northumberland County Genweb site by Allen Tallman. For a long time, I simply ignored this document because when I first glanced at it, I saw that it contained many factual errors and also had flawed conclusions based on established facts.

The biggest and unfortunately quite harmful mistake made by Allen Tallman was the assertion that the David Mertz who died in Northumberland County in 1822 was known as Heinrich in Berks County, and that he was the son of John Henry. So Tallman made up the name Heinrich David, even though never once did that name appear anywhere else. Tallman acknowledged that there were birth year discrepancies between Henry and David. And he seemed totally unaware that this David who he said (correctly) married Barbara Miller -- was named several times, with Barbara Miler, as baptismal co-sponsors at Longswamp Reformed.

One of the arguments Tallman made to make the case that David Mertz was really Heinrich David is that when he witnessed his brother Jacob's will, he signed as Heyn David Mertz. And those three words in that order can, in fact, be found in that document. But Tallman, himself, listed the two witnesses to Jacob’s will as: Andrious Heyn and David Martz. And, on closer inspection, it is the phrase “Andrious Heyn David Mertz” that appeared in Jacob’s will. The two names are simply run on together. So Tallman totally contradicted his conclusion with his own evidence. His name was not Heinrich David.

Now this piece of fiction, that there was a man named Heinrich David Mertz, has been picked up and copied from one cut and paste genealogist to another so many times that his name appears today in over 1000 family trees on the Ancestry.com website. To me, it’s a sad commentary on the lack of real research being done by so many people who consider themselves genealogists.

But Tallman’s work was where I learned that David gave his age in his will. That was very helpful. And Allen Tallman also did a great job of tracking David’s descendants and I have found all of the documents he referred to and I have found this source to be quite accurate on those descendants, if not David himself.

THE AUGUSTA TOWNSHIP MERTZES. The story of this David is told in Genealogical and Biographical Annals of Northumberland County by J L Floyd (though this source also has many erroneous conclusions about the early Mertzes). "David Mertz came with his brother Jacob from Berks County toward the close of the eighteenth century, settling on Shamokin Creek, three miles south of Sunbury. He was a blacksmith, married Barbara Miller and they had 5 sons: David, Henry, Peter, Abraham and George -- all of whom but Henry moved to Dayton, OH -- and two daughters: Susan married John Richstine and Elizabeth married Abraham Arter."

Floyd, Tallman and Meiser all seem to agree that David who married Barbara Miller was the David that bought farm number two in Manor Pomfret -- brother of Jacob who bought farm number three. I agree with that conclusion although I disagree strongly with the suggestion they all make that either David or Jacob had anything to do with the John Henry Mertz family of Rockland Township.

The Manor Pomfret was reserved for the Penn family when what is now Northumberland County first began to be settled. It encompassed what is now Sunbury and a fair amount of land to its east. Somewhere I got in my mind that the IOOF orphanage where my mother worked when she first came to Sunbury was more or less about where farm number one would have been back when David and Jacob acquired farms two and three. The orphanage no longer operates but as of 2015, the old buildings still stand.

From the time of their arrival in Northumberland County, this line of the family almost exclusively spelled the name Martz -- but I have chosen to place David in my database with the Mertz spelling and his descendants Martz.

David was named in the Pennsylvania Septennial Census of 1779, living in Longswamp Township, single.

In all other census, he was in Augusta Township, Northumberland County.

In 1790, he was listed together with Conrad, Jacob Sr. and Peter Mertz, all of whom were recent arrivals from Longswamp Township. In 1800, his neighbor was Jacob Martz. In 1810, his neighbors included several Martzes: Jonathan, Jacob (Jr.), David Jr. and Margaret (widow of Jacob Sr.). In 1820, no female of the right age was present though in his household, though his wife was still alive. Neighbors were John, Jonathan, David Jr. (45+) and Henry.

David Martz was not on find-a-grave, but several of his children were and in many cases it was said about his children that their father was Heinrich David Martz. I contacted several of the people who maintain those memorials and got some of them to see the truth and change what they had written. But to better disseminate this message, I then created a memorial for David himself and set forth the truth there.

I have a copy of the Registrar’s transcription of the will of David Mertz written 11 Sep 1820 proved 9 Aug 1822. He said he was verging on 75 years of age. He mentioned wife Barbara, sons Peter, George and Henry and granddaughter Rebecca Arter -- and it is clear there were other unnamed children. The will was witnessed by Jacob Mertz and Jacob Mertz Jr. David’s brother Jacob had long since died. So I think it must have been David’s nephew Jacob, P6b, and his great-nephew, P6a2.

David and Barbara had two daughters.

1. Maria Elizabeth was baptized in Longswamp Township in 1781; she predeceased her father as reference was made to her daughter Rebecca Arter. Elizabeth was also mentioned in her brother David's will in 1851: “Rebecca Arter the daughter of my sister Elizabeth Arter, formerly Martz”.

So Rebecca is an important person in helping sort out the too many Davids. She was mentioned in the wills of both David married to Barbara Miller as his granddaughter and of David who died a bachelor in Ohio as his niece. Clearly the latter David was the son of the former David.

Maria married Abraham Arter. (Maria’s brother John married Abraham’s sister Elizabeth). Abraham is buried in the St Peters (Blue) Church Cemetery, Northumberland County. Maria is probably also buried there too but no marker has been found. Her daughter Rebecca married John Adam Shissler but I have never tracked that family. John and Rebecca were living in Sunbury in 1853.

2. Susan was born on 21 Apr 1788, probably after the family had moved to Northumberland County. She died in 1874 in Peoria, IL.

Susan married John Richstine. She and her husband moved first to Butler County, Ohio in about 1836. They then moved to Montgomery County, OH in about 1844 to live with Susan’s brother David. Finally about 1855, they moved to Peoria County, IL where their son John had previously moved. There they lived out their lives.

Susan and John had two children who married Mertzes. Their son Henry married Catharine Mertz and their daughter Elizabeth married John Mertz. John and Catharine were brother and sister, children of David Mertz and Magdalena Shissler.

The previously cited biography of David, published by J L Floyd, said David had five sons: David, Henry, Peter, Abraham and George. All of those but Henry moved to Ohio. David Jr. died in Germantown, Montgomery County, OH in 1851 and from his will as well as a division of his property after his death, all of the then surviving heirs of David Sr. were mentioned.

And we learn from those documents that David Sr. also had a son John who pre-deceased him. I think John was the oldest son thus designated P2a, followed by David Jr. P2b, Abraham P2c, Henry P2d, Peter P2e and George P2f.

A lot of sources identify David's wife as Barbara Miller and his brother Jacob's wife as her sister Margaret Miller. A study of the Longswamp Reformed records clearly shows a close connection between the Mertz family and the Miller family especially as it relates to David and Jacob. We do know her name was Barbara and the fact that Barbara Miller (single) and David sponsored baptisms in 1774 and 1776 fits a pattern I have noticed that such a record is, in many cases, a precursor to a later marriage. I believe she was Barbara Miller, I really have no proof of that. [See also Margaret Miller, wife of Jacob Martz (P6)]

David and Barbara are one of many examples of my theory that baptisms were like the “singles bars” of the late 1700’s – two single people named as sponsors often later married. But interestingly, David Mertz had stood before 1774 as sponsor with Elisabeth Carl and then Barbara Drescher, then 1774 with Barbara Miller. In 1775, he appeared with Magdalena Klein and then in 1776 with Barbara Miller again -- a long and winding courtship.

A very interesting 1836 deed records that Peter (P2e, David’s son) and his wife Hannah Martz sold a tract of 150 acres to Jacob Martz (P6a2, I think). This tract was part of a larger tract inherited by Thomas Hamilton and Margaret Miller and Margaret’s moiety half became vested in David Martz whose estate sold it to Peter. I think the Margaret Miller here was the mother of Barbara (Miller) Martz. Yes, elsewhere I suggest that Margaret (Miller) Martz was the sister of Barbara (Miller) Martz and that Margaret’s mother was named Magdalena. I cannot explain this discrepancy — was there a mistake in one or the other documents and Magdalena was Margaretha or vice versa?

In 1820, she should be listed in the 45+ age bracket but no female of that age was present in her husband’s household, so there must be a typo in the enumeration of females by age bracket.

1830. Barbara Martz lived in Augusta Township. She was 80-90. A neighbor was Peter Martz 20-30.