Johann Philip Mertz born 14 Oct 1738 was baptized at Mertz Church 25 Oct son of Johann Heinrich and Ana Maria (Rosemann) Mertz. He was listed on the Mertz Church monument that honors John Henry and his family and he was also named in his father’s will.

Philip is designated H1, the oldest son of the immigrant John Henry (H).

A man named Philip Mertz died in Northumberland County, PA in late 1803. From his will, it was clear that he had grown children, suggesting he was, say 60-70 years of age. Local genealogists also knew that he had come to Northumberland County from Berks County in about 1785. And so decades ago, before anyone had access to all the computerized church, tax and other genealogical records that exist now, the first place they thought to look in Berks County for record of this man was Mertz Church. And there they found this man, John Philip born 14 Oct 1738, son of John Henry Mertz. And so they, and subsequently hundreds of other so called genealogists who have merely copied their work without any thought as to its accuracy, give that birth date and that father to Philip of Northumberland County.

POPPYCOCK. With a little work, anyone who now does have access to all those computerized records can easily determine that John Philip Mertz born 1738 son of John Henry lived his life in Berks County, never far from Mertz Church. He married Catharina Quirin and with her baptized many children there in the 1760’s to 1780’s and was still there to stand as sponsor, with Catharina, at baptisms of grandchildren in 1796, 1803 and 1812. He can be found on tax records and in the 1790, 1800 and 1810 Census in Maxatawny Township.

It is also easy to find record of a different man, also named Philip Mertz, who was named with wife Eva many times at the Longswamp Reformed Church in Longswamp Township. They baptized children there in the 1770’s and early 1780’s and he was named in early tax records of Longswamp Township. And then he disappeared from those records only to pop up in Northumberland County with wife Eva and children whose names matched the ones they baptized together.

John Philip Mertz never lived anywhere but Berks County.

1779. Pennsylvania Septennial Census. Philip Mertz, Maxatawny Township. (Philip Mertz was also listed in Richmond Township, probably this one owned some land there too.)

In 1790-1810, Philip was consistently listed in Maxatawny Township. In 1790, he was Phil Merz and the headcount of his household included four older males and one younger. In 1800, he was indexed as Philip Martz. And in 1810 as Philip Merk.

And then he disappeared.

I don’t know exactly when Philip died. It was after the 1810 Census. At Mertz Church, on 19 January 1812, Philip Mertz and Catharine were sponsors for Benjamin Mertz, born to Philip Mertz, Jr. and his wife Sarah.

This was the last mention of Philip and I think he died soon thereafter. Catharina too died, I think, about the same time. Those early years after 1810 also mark the departure of two of Philip’s sons from Berks County. I do not think that was a coincidence.

I created a find-a-grave memorial for John Philip and placed him at Mertz Church. He may be buried there or he may be on his nearby farm. But I wanted a memorial for him to set forth the truth and distinguish him from the other Philip Mertz.

I have reviewed the Mertz Church records to identify Philip’s daughters and compared it to emails from Louis Flackler and Patty Mertz which had a list based on Pennsylvania Births, Berks County, 1710-1780, by John T. Humphrey. There were a few inconsistencies between the various sources, so here is my consolidated list as best I can construct it.

1. Catharina was born 2 Apr 1765 and baptized at Mertz Church 14 Apr 1765. There is record of Henry Hartmann & Catharina, nee Merz, who had a daughter Catharina, born 25 Dec 1800, baptized 24 May 1801 “in church at Gnadenhütten on the Mahoning, by Nills Tillofson”. I don’t know who the Catharina nee Mertz was, possibly Philip’s daughter.

2. Maria Elisabeth was born on 12 Aug 1766 and baptized at Mertz Church 30 Aug 1766.

3. Anna Maria was born on 25 Aug 1769 and baptized at Mertz Church 17 Sep 1769.

4. Christina, according to one transcription, was born on 16 Jun 1776 and baptized at Mertz Church 26 Jun (presumably 1776). A marriage record of Christina Maerzin to Jacob Lesher dated 13 Aug 1799 most certainly was her. And then a burial record for her in 1833 gives a birth date for her of 15 Jul 1774. Something is clearly suspicious about her Mertz Church baptism record.

5. Hana was born on 15 Dec 1783 and baptized at Mertz Church 4 Apr 1784.

6. Ester, according to one record, was born 31 Jul 1776 and baptized 16 Mar 1777. But since her birth date was just 45 days before her sister, Christina, the record must be wrong for one or the other. A different record suggests Ester was baptized 31 Aug 1788, so I think that may be the better record and a later birth date for her is suggested, perhaps a decade later.

From their baptisms, we know of two sons for sure: Jacob born 17 Dec 1770 and Philip born 19 Oct 1772. Yet, in the 1790 Census, Philip had four other males living with him and also four in 1800 — one age 10-16 and three 16-26.

Through the research and hard work of Louis Fackler, we first theorized and then basically proved that another son was Daniel born 1779. A summary of the analysis that led to this conclusion is given as part of my discussion of Daniel. Daniel moved to Dauphin County, PA just after 1810.

I have also come to the conclusion that the fourth son was William born 1767 who moved to Columbia County, PA also just after 1810. The evidence for my conclusion that William was Philip’s son is that DNA of a descendant of William indicates conclusively he was closely related to the Mertz Church family of Mertzes (John Henry and Jost). Moreover, when William and his wife Elisabeth baptized their son Johannes in 1796, Philip and Catharina stood as sponsors. Finally, from all the work I have done on all the Mertzes of Berks County, Philip is logically the only one who could have had this son born 1767. Notice, in fact, the gap in the birth years of all the other known children between Maria Elisabeth 12 Aug 1766 and Anna Maria 25 Aug 1769.

There is one other possible son I need to mention. In the 1790, 1800 and 1810 Census, we find in Maxatawny Township a John Mertz and I am not 100% certain who he was. He was age 26-45 in 1800 so born between 1755 and 1774. Geography would suggest he may have been a son of Philip, the only other Mertz in Maxatawny. I believe this John of Maxatawny had a son John in 1791 so that pushes his likely birth date back to late 1760’s. And that is the rub — could Philip and Catharina have possibly had yet another son born in the 1766 to 1769 gap. It can’t be ruled out but for now my theory is that John of Maxatawny was John (J1), son of Johannes the immigrant (designated J) and that is my best current guess.

So here is my list of Philip’s sons:

H1a William born 1767
H1b John Jacob born 1771
H1c Philip Heinrich born 1772
H1d Daniel born 1779

The wife of John Philip Mertz, according to the records of Mertz Church, was Catharina Quierin. But who was she?

A clue to her origins can be found in Annette Burgert’s book Eighteenth Century Emigrants from Northern Alsace to America. It is one of several books authored (or co-authored) by Burgert. Each book focuses on a specific geographic area of German Europe and Burgert’s methodology was to try to identify a specific person or family who could be documented: 1.) in European church and/or other records, 2.) on passenger lists of German immigrants who came to Pennsylvania and 3.) in American church and/or other American records. The idea is that this person or family could be tracked directly from their point of origin in Europe to the place they settled once in America and includes evidence of when they emigrated.

And so in her Alsace book, Burgert cites records of the Wolfskirchen Lutheran and Diedendorf Lutheran churches, both in Alsace. At Wolfskirchen, the records show that a Pritius Quirin died in 1719 at age 71. His wife was Rosina (died 1712) and they had at least three children: Daniel who married in 1693, Johannes and Nickel who it said “ist ins Neue Land gezogen” — which I assume means went to the New Land.

Also at Wolfskirchen, she documents that Nickel Quirin, son of Briccius married 27 Jan 1711 Maria Magdalena, daughter of Daniel Fisher of Pistorff and they had seven children: Johann Mathias b.1712, Maria Louisa b.1714, Maria Elisabetha b.1716, Anna Christina b.1718, Catharina Margaretha b.1721, Margaretha b.1723 and Maria Magdalena b.1725. And at Diedendorf, Nickel Quirin and wife Magdalena Fischer had Catharina Elisabetha b.1729 and Johann Heinrich b.1731.

Burgert then documents that Nickel Quirin arrived Philadelphia on the ship Halifax in 1752 and that Nickel Quierin and wife Margaretha nee Bauer had several children baptized at Mertz Church starting in 1757. Then, also at Mertz Church, Philip Mertz married 29 May 1764 Catharina Quierin.

Now I have a lot of respect for the work Burgert has done. She has been especially valuable to me as she absolutely tracked my immigrant ancestor David Mertz and his family from Alsace to Longswamp Township, Berks County and another of my immigrant ancestors Peter Hülpüsch and his family from Wiedt, Germany to Montgomery County, PA.

The strong implication from Burgert, given her typical format, is that Nickel Quirin of Wolfskirchen and Diedendorf whose wife was Magdalena Fischer was the 1752 immigrant on the Halifax and he also was the Nickel Quierin named in Mertz Church records. And she doesn’t specifically state that Catharina who married Philip Mertz was his daughter, but since he did baptize a daughter named Catharina (two of them actually), the clear implication is she was.

But in the case of Nickel and Catharina Quirin, I think there is a little more to the story. It’s not that simple. Consider that Nickel’s daughters named Catharina were born in 1721 and 1729, respectively. But Philip Mertz was born in 1738 and he married Catharina in 1764 and they had children in the years 1765-1783. It seems a stretch to believe that Catharina was much older than Philip. It should also be noted that Catharina never has a middle name in any American records, she was always just Catharina.

Moreover, Nickel Quirin of Alsace married in 1711 and had children in the years 1712-1731. Even if he married a second time, he seems too old to have been having children in America from 1757 into the 1760’s. It seems more likely that Nickel Quirin whose wife was Magdalena Fischer was a different man than Nickel Quierin whose wife was Margaretha Bauer.

It should also be noted that besides Catharina and Nickel there were several additional persons named Quierin named in Mertz Church records. All were listed as baptism sponsors for a child of Philip and Catharina at Mertz Church. All were instances where two presumed single people, one name Quierin and one named Mertz were the named sponsors. In my experience, this often was a case of the two sponsors perhaps being in a dating relationship and I have seen many examples where the two named sponsors later married.

So we find:

Heinrich Mertz and Anna Maria Quierin sponsored the baptism of Anna Maria, daughter of Philip and Catharina Mertz and later of their son Philip Heinrich.

Anna Mertz and Henrich Quierin sponsored two additional baptisms of daughters of Philip and Catharina.

Jacob Mertz and Susanna Margaretha Quierin sponsored the baptism of Johann Jacob, son of Philip and Catharina.

Wilhelm Mertz and Maria Elisabetha Quierin sponsored the baptism of another daughter of Philip and Catharina.

Jacob Mertz and Maria Elisabetha Quierin sponsored the baptism of yet another daughter of Philip and Catharina.

Wow, that looks like a lot of “dating” among Philip’s siblings — Anna, Jacob and Heinrich Mertz — and what we might guess were Catharina’s siblings — Anna Maria, Heinrich, Susanna Margaretha and Maria Elisabetha Quierin.

Note that some of these Quierins have names matching or similar to the children baptized by Nickel and Magdalena in Alsace, but it is not a perfect match.

And so I kept digging for some additional information to perhaps explain the possible discordant notes. And I found something that I think explains everything. I found a biography of Nickel Quirin in the “Rastatter-Schimmels Family Tree” on genealogy.com. It seems to be quoting directly the work of Patrick Pearsey, another genealogist whose work I respect a lot, so I’ll credit him.

Pearsey says that Nickel Quirin of Mertz Church whose wife was Margaretha Bauer was indeed of the Wolfskirchen family but in fact was the son Hans Jacob, another son of Pritius. This Nickel was born in 1714 and was the Nickel who arrived America in 1752 on the Halifax. He marred Anna Margaretha Bauer in 1738. Pearsey seems to be citing Wolfskirchen records for most of his facts.

In addition, Pearsey cites the will of Nicholas Query who died in Montgomery County, MD. It was written 13 Oct 1788 and proved 15 Dec 1788. He mentioned two sons: Daniel and Henry. And he named their five sisters: Mary Ann March, Christine Schindler, Catherine March, Elizabeth Humbert and Susannah Tice.

I believe that Catherine “March” was none other than the wife of Philip Mertz. The name Mertz, derived originally it is thought from the name of the third German month März, was sometimes (rarely but it did happen) “Americanized” as March. So I would assume the husband of Mary Ann also was named Mertz.

And based on a lot of analysis I won’t go into here, I think it may have been George Mertz (another brother of Philip’s) who married Mary Ann, or Anna Maria, Quierin. They never were listed as a “couple” at any of those baptisms but I have other evidence of this theory. Though it is far from proven.

So, I think the truth of the matter is this:

Pearsey is right that Nickel of Mertz Church who died in Montgomery County, MD was not Nickel, son of Pritius. In fact, he was Pritius’ grandson. This younger Nickel was the 1752 immigrant and he came with his wife Anna Margaretha and some of their children born in the 1740’s in Alsace and then he proceeded to have even more children once in America.

Arguably, all of the Quierins named as baptismal sponsors at Mertz Church were Nickel’s children, all named in his will.

Heinrich, the baptism sponsor, was the son Heinrich named by Nickel in his will. Mary Ann in the will (who had married a Mertz) was Anna Maria, Elizabeth in the will was Maria Elisabetha and Susanna of the will was Susanna Margaretha. And, of course, Catharine March of the will was Catharina nee Quierin, wife of Philip Mertz.

I think any suggestion that Catharina was either Catharina Elisabetha or Catharina Margaretha is false. Her name was Catharina, she was the daughter of Nickel and Margaretha (Bauer) Quirin.

Nicholas Quirin (which?) is said by some to have been an ancestor of Dwight David Eisenhower.