The story of my search for the name of George Peter’s father is told under the heading “Discrepant Facts”. After 20 years of reseach, I only had two possible candidates to be the father of George Motz and presumably his two brothers, Michael and John: Jacob or Caspar.

Heinrich Motz. Then in 2020, Steve Dale, a descendant of Michael Motz, contacted me and he had irrefutable evidence that Michael Motz was the son of Heinrich.  He had found Michael’s baptism record at a church in Warwick Township, Lancaster County.  Later in that same church Michael and his wife Barbara baptized a daughter Eva.  And Eva becomes the carry-through that indeed Michael from Warwick was Michael who died in Centre County because Eva’s Centre County tombstone gives that exact same birth date as found in her Lancaster County baptism.  

Does that make Heinrich the father of George? I’m still looking for more evidence but the fact that he was Michael’s father moves Heinrich to the top of the list of suspects.

Later in 2020, I came in contact with two Motz researchers, Kimberly Allen and Tim Weeder, and I now consider their work on people named Motz to be comparable to my work on people named Mertz or Martz. It is all encompassing, covering everyone of this name whether related to the others or not, backed up by hard documented evidence and a tenacious approach to finding every relevant fact and weighing it in terms of the conclusions they’ve drawn.

They both believe 100% that Michael was Heinrich’s son. And they believe strongly that so was John though in his case there is a small birth date discrepancy that has to be considered. They are not as convinced that Heinrich was George’s father.

The problem is there are church baptism records which might seem to list all of Heinrich’s children and there was no George. (There is gap in the records where George might fit, but alas, no George.) Now my view is that those records were compiled form different other underlying source records and maybe the compiler simply didn’t find the baptism of George or perhaps his baptism just went unrecorded.

Another problem is clearly there were other George Motz, though the ones they know of can reasonably be ruled out and of course there were other older Motz who may well have had a son named George but no record of that George has ever been found.

In sum, there is no real evidence that Heinrich was his father — but also no real evidence that he wasn’t or that anyone else was.

I believe though a strong case can be made in support of the idea that Michael, John and George were brothers and all were sons of Heinrich:

1. George gets to Penn Township in 1776 at the same time as Michael and John.
2. George and Michael both baptized children at the same church.
3. George and Michael both had a close connection to the Haines family of Penns Township. George’s daughter, Anna Maria, married Lorentz Haines. When Michael baptized daughter Elizabeth, the sponsors were John and Regina Haines. The will of John Haines of Penns Township was written 5 Apr 1811 and proved 9 Feb 1815. He mentioned wife Regina and ten children: George, Margaret (wife of Peter Frees), Anna Mary (wife of Peter Straub), Catherine (wife of Henry Heimbach), Fredrick, Lorentz, Elizabeth (wife of John Smith), Peter, Christina (wife of Henry Mertz) and Jacob. (Henry Mertz was the brother of Peter Mertz who married Catherine Motz.) The Haines family was tight with the Mertz family and tight with both the G P Motz family and the Michael Motz family.
4. Not just Egle, but Fisher and (another local genealogist) Mary B Lontz got the idea in their heads they were brothers. Remember these people not just looked at real documents, they were the compilers of (some of) those real documents and they also talked genealogy with many local "old-timers" (not Egle, but Fisher and Lontz were local) so they were processing things they had heard in some way or another along with things they could see in writing.
5. George was named the Executor of the will of Peter Markely who was previously named in the records of the Warwick church where Heinrich worshipped.
6. In 1773, George Motes — of Lancaster County — requested permission to take up 100 acres of land “within a quarter mile from Michael Motes’ upon Chestnut Hill in Penns Township”. It’s not clear to me if this “warrant application” was made for a very specific 100 acres George had already identified or whether George was requesting permission to go find an available 100 acres near Michael Motes. It doesn’t really matter, the two things of importance here are that George was from Lancaster County and Michael Motes is of some importance to him.
7. Also in 1773, Michael Motz of Lancaster County sold to George Motz of the same place 100 acres adjoining his own land and that of George Herrold. Michael had only recently bought that land.

My Motz experts argue, yes, these are all coincidences and maybe George was related to Michael but not a brother.

1790. George Moatz lived in North’d Co. His brothers, Michael Motz and John Motes are also present, but could be in the very western reaches of then Northumberland Co whose westward boundaries at the time extended well beyond present day Snyder and Union Counties.

1800. George Moats lived in Penns Twp. There are extra people in his household especially a male under 10. It is one of his married children and their young son I am sure. His brothers John and Michael Moats have removed to Haines Twp (I assume Centre County).

In the “Annals of Buffalo Valley”, for the year 1776, the list of inhabitants of Penns Township includes: George Motz, inmate; John Motz and Michael Motz. The word inmate as used in that context meant apparently: married, renter. The early tax records of what would become Snyder County show that George Motz was taxed there in 1776, the first year the records cover, then in 1781 on 130 acres and by 1796 on 350 acres. John and Michael Motz were also taxed in the early years and then were gone by the 1780’s.

I have always thought it likely that George, Michael and John Motz may well have been brothers. Many other researchers did too, and so the question was, who was their father? For a long time, there were two theories as to who that was: John Caspar or Jacob. Early on in my resarch, I leaned toward Jacob as George’s father because I observed that both Jacob and George patented land in Penns Township in 1773. In addition, a man named Jacob Motz (or Mautz) clearly existed, while Caspar’s existence is less clear. There was no real evidence for either but neither was there any other candidate anyone could idenitfy.

Jacob Motz. Dr. Charles A Fisher analyzed early land records and issued a report to Paul H Motz of Cleveland in 1948. Fisher documented the arrival of Jacob Mautz on the ship Judith 15 Sep 1748. He did not believe he ever lived in North’d County, but while a resident of Berks County, he patented several parcels of North’d County land, one for 100 acres in Penns Township in 1774. Fisher believed Jacob had three sons: George Peter, Michael and John and they came and occupied the lands. I accepted this as a theory but considered it far from proven. And there was an alternate theory.

Caspar Motz. William Henry Egle was an early Pennsylvania genealogist and he published a series of newspaper articles “Egle’s Notes and Queries” in the 1880-1890 period in the Harrisburg Daily Telegraph responding to reader’s inquiries or just setting forth his own research. One such article was an extensive profile on the Motz family — specifically the brothers (he said) John, Michael and George.

”In 1769, Casper Motz was granted land near New Berlin on Penn’s Creek. He was doubtless the John Casper Mautz aged 16 who arrived PA in 1731 from Germany with his parents and settled in Oley Township, Berks County. If he ever settled in New Berlin, it was before the creation of Northumberland County as he was never listed among the taxables. Three brothers: John, Michael and George, presumably sons of Casper, appeared in this region around the time of the Revolution. George, the third of the presumed sons, lived near the present town of Middleburg and died there in 1806.”

I tried to further investigate both theories.

Egle’s version of things has a couple of problems. I have studied the lists of early Pennsylvania German arrivals at the Port of Philadelphia as published by Ralph Beaver Strassburger. On the ship Britannica, arrived 21 Sep 1731, we find: Jacob Mautz 24, Michael Moths 24, Johan Casper Muntz 16, Anna Maria Moths 22. I believe that John Caspar Mautz referred to by Egle was the person identified by Strassburger as Johan Caspar Muntz, age 16. None of those three people were old enough to be Casper’s parents and I cannot identify anyone else who could possibly have been his parents on that ship. So who was Egle referring to? (I have not determined the relationships if any of the four persons with the similar names.)

I only found two other things: Caspar Moot deeded land to Reuben Haines 13 Apr 1769, but was this really Caspar? And I found in early records an 1808 Buffalo Township (soon to be Union County) tax list that showed someone else having land adjoining Caspar Motz.

So, Caspar’s existence to my mind was sketchy at best as was any proof that he was the father of George Motz of Freeburg. And Egle’s stated facts seemed not to be accurate.

So of the two, I considered Fisher’s version of things more plausible and it seemed to check out. Jacob Moutz had a warrant for land in North’d Co in 1772. And another for 100 acres in Penns Twp in 1774. And another for 200 acres in Buffalo Twp in 1774. And Jacob Motz was a passenger on the ship Judith arrived Philadelphia 15 Sep 1748. (Unfortunately, the captain’s list for this ship, which might have shown an age for Jacob, was lost. Nor do we know whether he was accompanied by anyone else — a wife and child perhaps?) But in any event, if Jacob arrived America in 1748, he was older than the three presumed brothers, so the idea he was their father seemed plausible.

One other discrepancy may relate to his possible War service. The DAR lists him as “George Motz b 26 May 1743 PA d 6 Feb 1806 PA m (1) Maria (Mary) X PS PA” but I really don’t know if our George Motz served or not, maybe it was some other one?

























The DAR lists him as “George Motz b 26 May 1743 PA d 6 Feb 1806 PA m (1) Maria (Mary) X PS PA” I do not know if our George Motz served or not, maybe it was some other one?

Charles A Fisher in ”Snyder County Pioneers” said that George was buried with his wife in Freeburg at St. Peter’s Church (where his son John Motz, Peter Mertz and wife and some Hilbishes were buried). A Mormon church (LDS) database record for him (that may or may not be reliable) gives the same information and the date of birth and date of death I show for George. But I was not able to find him when I went to that cemetery and he is not listed among the buried by Wagensellar who transcribed all Snyder County tombstones around the year 1900. I did find his son’s grave and immediately behind him was Catherine and her husband Peter, one more piece of evidence for the Catherine-George relationship.

The baptism of daughter Susan in 1786 and daughter Barbara in 1789 at Zion Morr’s were both picked up and listed by Charles Fisher in his Early PA Births.

George’s will, written 4 Feb 1806 proved 22 Feb 1806, is on file in Northumberland County. We can learn certain names from his will: his wife was Mary, his son was John, a son-in-law was Larents Hanes, his youngest unmarried daughters were Susanna and Barbara, his other daughters were married and in total he had 6 children.

And we know that G Peter Motz was listed in Fisher's marriages book as the father of Anna Maria Motz who married Lawrence Haines.

So he had one son and five daughters. His two unmarried daughters were Susan and Barbara, leaving three married daughters, one of whom was Anna Maria. One I beleve storngly was Catherine. I have no idea who the other daughter may have been or even her given name.

Here is a commentary I wrote to my two fellow Motz researchers on my analysis of my DNA cousins who have Motz in their tree.

I went to Ancestry (Oct 2020) and did a search of all my DNA cousins for any who had the Motz surname in their tree. I found about 50 of them and for my purposes have learned what I wanted to learn from those without using other spellings.

So, as you both understand, there are maybe five types of outcomes of this kind of search.

1. Some people have a private tree or a very limited public tree and I learn nothing.
2. Some people maybe have the Motz name somewhere in their big tree but they do not in fact descend from Motz. (Like maybe their sister married a Motz.)
3. Some people have Motz as an ancestor who may be related to my Motz but there is some other non-Motz closer relationship to me and that is likely why I am seeing them as a DNA cousin.
4. Some people actually descend from Peter Mertz and Catherine Motz so they are my close cousins but not helpful in me better understanding if I am Motz for sure.
4. Some people have a fairly extensive tree (doesn't mean it's correct) and they have a Motz who I can find in your tree as my relative and that appears to be the only way we are related, more distant than Peter Mertz/Catherine Motz.

Group 5, of course, is the group of interest to me. If I only found one or two of them, well I'd find that interesting but always have this nagging doubt that maybe I missed some other real connection. I couldn't assume those few people to be compelling.

And until I met you both, that's where I was. I had found one cousin who descends from Michael Motz of Centre County and two who descend from my Catherine's brother John. I felt pretty confident that had to be the connection in those cases but I'm a born skeptic so the nagging doubt was there.

But now my Motz connections have exploded, thanks to you.

So I told you there were about 50 hits, but I actually felt I had enough after reviewing the first 23 or so, down to all cousins with 13 cm overlap or higher.

Nine of the 23 descend from Anna Catharina (Motz) Nehs and her husband Matthias. I just think that is incredibly compelling. So if I have it right, George Peter is my 4G-GF, Heinrich (and Barbara Nasz) 5G-GF and (Heinrich’s sister) Catherine’s father Hans Martin Motz (and Anna C Berlin) 6G-GF.

So it is interesting that I have nine cousins with her and only one with Michael (who is one generation closer to me) and two with John (who is two generations closer). Several possible explanations:

Maybe Michael only has 150 living descendants and Anna Catharina has 12,000. Who knows?

Maybe Anna Catharina is so strong because Matthias Nehs is closely related to Barbara Nasz and so I get a double dose from Matthias and Catharina.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my Mother grew up in York County and her ancestors were a good mix of York County and Baltimore/Harford County (Maryland) people. And in fact, two of the nine had some other closer York County connection to me like a 5G-GF connection. I can't really count them. But it still leaves seven wherew Catherine may be my only connection.

And one or two others had additional York County names in their tree that are familiar to me but so far as I know I'm not a direct descendant of those families but maybe I missed something or have something wrong in my own tree. For example, I saw the Klinefelter name in several of these trees. My ancestor Peter Koller, after his first wife (my ancestor) died, married two Klinefelter sisters (no, not at the same time, successively). So I know the name well but do not believe I carry Klinefelter DNA, but as I say and you both know, what I'm doing here is not an exact science.

And finally, there is one more explanation it seems to me. I have this theory (call it hair-brained if you must) that there are "super carriers" out there. Like Heinrich got some DNA from Martin but Anna Catharina got a super dose. And by the time Heinrich's DNA got down to me and some of his other descendants, it was pretty diluted. But Anna Catharina pushed her super dose down the line better than Heinrich did and so I'm more likely to be seen as a cousin to her descendants than Heinrich's.

So the other cousins that are noteworthy are:

the one I told you about yesterday that descends from Maria Barbara (Motz) Wetzel.

a woman who descends from Simon Motz who married Christina Frye (they're in your tree). Makes 7G Hans J Motz and Eva Eyerman the connection.

and one other had a large tree, I saw no connection, but he had Susannah Motz b.1787 in Virginia in his tree. He knew nothing about her except she married Jacob Teeters. I did not find them in your tree, just wondering if it rings any bells -- or whether I missed them.

This Susanna is interesting though. In my tree which I have on Ancestry just so cousins can see my direct ancestors, I have the wife of George Peter Motz as Anna Mary. Not Anna Mary Fritz -- and I notice in your tree you have her as Fritz (?). There is an intriguing record though:

"CD 129 -- Church Records of Berks County -- 1/30/1776, Anna Maria Fritz, daughter of Johannes, married George Motz, son of Heinrich. Records of Rev. Heinrich Moeller."

Now I wasn't ever convinced this was my George, but the "son of Heinrich" part sure jumps off the page now and it never did before. But when I go to my DNA ThruLines (which sometimes is totally way off base), they show Johann George Fritz as my ancestor, father of Anna Maria. Now that's ludicrous because this record says "daughter of Johannes" -- but here's the even stranger part, Susanna. ThruLines tells me that McHargue Moore is my cousin. She descends from Jacob Teeter and Susannah Motz. She has Susannah as a dead-end but ThruLines uses other people's trees to tell me that Susannah is none other than George Peter's daughter Susanna. He had such a daughter but she was one of the named unmarried ones -- unmarried in 1806 when George wrote his will. And yet Susannah (Motz) Teeters supposedly had kids starting in 1800. So it's all nonsense, unless some of these facts are not facts at all. The only fact is that McHargue and I do share some DNA, but whose?

Anna Maria, wife of George P Motz, is perhaps my biggest brick wall — what was her maiden name, who was her father? I don’t know.

But I have clues — perhaps too many.

1. I have found a church record as follows: "CD 129 -- Church Records of Berks County -- 1/30/1776, Anna Maria Fritz, daughter of Johannes, married George Motz, son of Heinrich. Records of Rev. Heinrich Moeller." And then there is this: "CD 196 -- Early PA Birth Records -- George Moatz and Anna Maria were the parents of daughter Elizabeth born 9/11/1783 in Berks County."

This is an incrediby intriguing record. Obviously it is exactly the names of the people I am looing for and the timing is exactly right (their oldest child Catherine was born in November 1776). Plus there are these two additional facts. George Motz, son of Heinrich. It is my belief that Heinrich was the father of my ancestor George Motz. Anna Maria daughter of Johannes. My 4G grandparents, George and Anna Maria Motz had only one son who they named John. Yes, if my theory is right, George had a brother named John but his brother Michael, it would seem, was more important to him. Was John named for Anna Maria’s father.

But there are complicating issues. Wasn’t George from Lancaster, what’s he doing in Berks? And by 1783, wasn’t George established in Penns Township, why would he go back to Berks to baptize daughter Elizabeth? (Remember George has one daughter we don’t know here name, the third unnamed married daughter referred to in his will.). (And note an Elizabeth Motz is buried in the same cemetery where supposedly George and Anna Maria are buried. The transcription of her tombstone shows only a birth day, no year, and a date of death, no year. So she could be anybody but the birth day does not match the known birth day of Elizabeth of Berks County and there is also the fact that she was Motz, not some married name, so wouldn’t seem to be the third married daughter.)

My Motz experts believe this George can be found among the taxables of Berks County into the early 1780’s while my George Motz was in an overlapping time period being taxed in Penns Township and therefore was a different George Motz.

2. On 3 Oct 1791, upon the decease of Peter Markley of (now) Snyder County, the court named Elizabeth Markley and George Motz as administrators of his estate. This makes me wonder whether George was Peter’s son-in-law. I would guess that Elizabeth was Peter’s wife. Peter Mercle was listed in the 1790 Census in Northumberland County on page 81 (Nicholas Mertz was on page 80 and George Moatz on page 84) -- probably all in Penns Township.

So a guess was that that Anna Mary may have been Anna Mary Markley.

3. It turns out George was also an Executor for Frederick Truckenmiller’s estate and maybe the fact that a Peter Markley with wife Elizabeth were named several times in the same church records where Heinrich Motz and family were mentioned only ndicates that Peter and George were just friends.

And it also turns out that Andrew Moor/Moore, in 1801, appointed his two sons John George and Philip Morr and his “good friend” George Mootz as his Executors. George seemed to be everybody’s favorite Executor.

4. When I wasn’t sure of daughter Catherine’s maiden name, I observed that she gave all her sons the same middle name Peter and maybe that was her maiden name. It wasn’t, it was Motz, but could it have been Anna Maria’s maiden name?

5. Working with my Motz experts, from many different references we also identified many additional surnames that seemed to have some association with George Motz, including Wetzel, Haines, Meiser, Peter and Gemberllng to which of course we added the above Truckenmiller, Markley, Fritz (or Friess) and Morr names to have a master list of names to subject to a DNA matching project.

I searched for all persons with any one of those surnames in their tree and examined all those trees. I took many of those people as well all my known cousins who share Motz with me and looked at our shared matches to see if any one of these additional names seemed to crop up with some frequency.

It’s hard to summarize these findings in any conclusive way. No matter the name, there would be a group of cousins who indeed had that name in their tree and, in fact, Snyder County ancrestors of that name but whoever that analysis suggested as perhaps my common ancestor wth those folks, could apparently be ruled out with addtional findings about that suspect person. Nothing worked.

Anna Maria, despite an effort that analyzed hundreds of cousins’ trees remains a brick wall.










Finally, there is a George Motz in Lancaster County in the 1790 Census.