Heinrich was baptized at Mertz Church by his parents John Henry and Anna Maria Mertz. He was listed on the Mertz Church monument that honors John Henry and his family and also named in his father’s will. Henry was born in 1749, he is designated H4.

The question is where did he end up? Of the various Henry or Heinrich Mertz, for example, in the 1790 Census, which one was him? I believe the answer is the one in Allen Township, Northampton County.

This is the man that some say was the same man that appeared in Northumberland County by 1790 where he came to be known as David Mertz. Poppycock! This nonsense was started by Allen Donald Tallman.

The problem was that when people started doing genealogical research on the Mertzes and Martzes of Northumberland County, known to have come there from Berks County in the late 1700’s, they started with the flawed idea that Mertz Church was the home-base of all Mertzes of Berks County and no one even considered looking at the records of the Longswamp Reformed Church. Had they looked there, they would have found a David Mertz who was obviously the David Mertz who appeared in Northumberland County. And they would have found his brother Jacob. And it all would have made sense.

But instead they went looking for David at Mertz Church. They thought they found Jacob there, not realizing it was the wrong Jacob. But they found no David. They did though find a Heinrich, Jacob’s brother, and since no Heinrich came to Northumberland County, they concluded Heinrich was David.

Even when Tallman found the will of David wherein he stated his age indicating a 1745 birth date, and even though that didn’t match the known 1749 birth date of Heinrich, still Tallman was not swayed from his mistaken conclusion. So Tallman invented a name for this “composite” man -- he named him Heinrich David Mertz -- a name that now appears in many hundreds of Ancestry.com Family Trees. It’s an absurdity -- there was no such man.

Henry Mertz of Rockland Township, single, was reported on the 1779 Pennsylvania Septennial Census. I’d think it was his father except for being single.

So then what happened to Heinrich? Where did he go? Or, did he die young? The idea that he went to Northumberland County is laughable of course but demonstrates the problem of tracking all the Berks County Mertzes as they moved elsewhere as adults. Heinrich, I think, actually moved to Northampton County but that is certainly not proven beyond all doubt. (No Northampton County is not Northumberland County -- they just sound similar.)

One problem with Heinrich born 1749 is keeping him separate from his cousin Heinrich (son of Jost) who was born a little later -- possibly as early as 1755, perhaps as late as 1763. These two men led parallel lives, living in Berks County and worshipping at Mertz Church through the 1770’s and into the 1780’s and then both probably moved elsewhere. To add to the confusion, they both married women named Elizabeth.

It gets worse. There were two more Heinrich Mertzes born and raised in Longswamp Township with ages overlapping the two from Mertz Church, 1743 or so in one case, 1765 for the other. The two Heinrichs of Longswamp were reared in the Reformed religion, the two from Mertz Church, Lutheran.

The starting point to figure this out is the 1790 and then later Census. And indeed, in the 1790 Census there were four Henrys listed: one in Longswamp Township, one in Manheim Township — those two being Berks County though Manheim would eventually become part of Schuylkill — and then one in Allen Township and one in Salisbury Township — those two being part of Northampton County though Salisbury would eventually become part of Lehigh. The question is who was who?

After much study of the different Henry Mertzes of the Berks and Northampton County area, it is my opinion that this Heinrich, son of John Henry, had moved probably by the early 1780’s to Allen Township (he baptized children there in the early 1780’s and was listed there on a 1786 tax list with 90 acres). There he lived out his life and died there in the mid-1820’s. I believe he was in fact the Henry Mertz reported there, in Allen Township, in the 1790, 1800, 1810 and 1820 Census.

I will admit that this is not absolutely proven and I am always on the lookout for more information to possibly add evidence to my theory or suggest contradictory evidence which may cause me in the future to rethink my conclusions here.

But the evidence supporting the idea that it was this Henry (H4) in Allen Township is that in 1800 he was age 45+, which I think excludes several of the other Henry’s. I also know that the death of Elizabeth Mertz, wife of Heinrich, was listed in the records of Schoenersville Church in 1826. She was age 74, thus born 1752 and therefore very much the right age to be the wife of Henry born 1749.

And there is one more piece of what I consider compelling evidence. One of the “genealogical best practices” I preach is that if saying a certain person in some new place is in fact a person of that same name in some previous place, there needs to be some carry- through besides just the name to connect the two. Some association, for example, of someone else who is also of both the old and new place.

And there is an important carry-through in this case that I think strongly supports my contention that Heinrich Mertz born 1749 who as a youth was associated with Mertz Church was indeed the Henry Mertz who lived his adult life in Allen Township. Her name is Anna Rosina, Henry’s sister, who also was baptized at Mertz Church and who married Jacob Seip.

Two baptisms at Schoenersville in Allen Township tell the story. In one, Henry and Elizabeth Mertz sponsored the Lutheran baptism of John Seip, son of Jacob and Rosina. John was born 16 Jan 1786 and baptized 26 Mar 1786. In the other, at the Reformed baptism on 20 Jan 1782 of Heinrich Mertz, son of Heinrich and Elizabeth the sponsors were Jacob and Rosina Seip.

This in my opinion was not a random coincidence, the absolutely most logical explanation is that Henry and Rosina were siblings.

Note however, the one discordant note. Besides his son Heinrich, there was one other baptism by Heinrich and Elisabeth in an Allen Township Reformed church. Heinrich of Mertz Church was Lutheran (as was his sister Rosina who did baptized her son John as Lutheran).

Nonetheless, for now, I believe Henry H4 is Henry of Allen Township. My best explanation is that maybe his wife was Reformed and after their marriage they chose to follow that religion rather than his.

Heinrich disappeared from Census after 1820. Releases filed on the estate of Henry Mertz of Allen Township in the late 1820’s also would seem to indicate a mid-1820’s date of death for Henry.

I know that because a woman named Ursula Wacht, who lives in Germany, found some records I would never have found that help establish the names of some of the children of a Henry Mertz who died in the mid-1820’s in Allen Township, Northampton County. She found in some Probate Records several releases to the administrator of Henry Mertz’ estate that they had been paid their share of the estate.

On 3 Nov 1828, Aster Shemberger, wife of Peter, daughter of Henry filed her release.

In Feb 1829, George Mertz, by his attorney, signed his release.

On 25 Apr 1829, Anna Flexer and her husband Jacob signed their release. [When recorded, it looks for all the world as if it was dated 1789, about when any release on the estate of Henry’s father might have been dated, but Anna was not Johan Heinrich’s daughter so it must be terribly poor penmanship.]

In Oct 1829, Daniel Mertz gave his release.

But there is one more record relevant to identifying the names of Henry’s children. Cindy Kimes found this citation in the Northampton County Probate Records, Vol 10, page 299 at the Aug 25, 1826 Court. “Henry Mertz of Allen Township in Northampton county. Died intestate, leaving a widow Elizabeth (since deceased) and five children: Daniel, Ann, John, George, and Henrietta Martz all of full age. Estate insufficient to pay debts; administrator, Michael Weaver, files petition to sell house and land in Allen Twp to pay debts of deceased.”

So there was also a John who either died by 1828-1829 when the others filed their releases or else failed to file a release or it went unrecorded.

From their releases Aster and Anna were two daughters of Henry’s that I am sure of. I believe Anna is the Anna Maria Flexer (1780-1855) buried at Jerusalem Western Cemetery with a Jacob Flexer of the same age buried nearby.

I find several things interesting about Anna Maria which I think add evidence to my conclusion her father was the son of John Henry (H). Her name was Anna Maria, named for her mother? And she is buried at Jerusalem Western where her Uncle George Heinrich is also buried.

Anna Maria’s husband Jacob, in fact, seems to have been of Macungie Township and something I always consider is how a young couple ever came to meet. Where was the geographic overlap in their lives? Macungie Township and the Jerusalem Western Church are both today in Lehigh County, not all that far apart. So Anna Maria met a man who lived closer to her uncle than her own family and they are buried in the same cemetery as her uncle. I think this is more evidence that Henry of Allen Township was Henry originally of Mertz Church.

Aster may or may not be Ester, born 14 Jul 1789, daughter of Henrich and Elisabeth of Whitehall Township, (then) Northampton County (this from a list of Lehigh County births from different sources, it could be a different Henry). But I suspect Ester is Aster. Moreover, she must have been Henrietta as her name was given in the Michael Weaver petition.

I know the names of two sons from their baptisms by Henry and Elisabeth:

John Henry, son of Heinrich & Elisabeth Mertz, born 7 Dec 1781, baptized at Christ Church (Reformed) in Schoenersville (near Allen Township). However, I know nothing more about him.

Daniel, son of Heinrich & Elisabeth Mertz, born 11 Apr 1784, baptized at Zion Stone Church (Reformed) in Kreidersville, Allen Township, Northampton County.

From the estate releases, I can add George but I truly know nothing more about George. And from Michael Weaver’s petition, we know there was a son John.

Before I had found that petition, I actually thought there must have been a son John from the fact that a younger male, John, joined Henry in the 1810 Census in Allen Township and continued there through 1850 when he was age 66 [born 1784]. I believe this is John from the petition.

Finally, this John, later moved to Lower Saucon Township in 1860 where a Jacob Mertz born maybe in the late 1790’s also lived. I don’t otherwise know who Jacob was, so I’m really going out on a limb here and saying Jacob and George were one and the same person. Heinrich’s brother John George ended up with a grandson named George Jacob so such a name is possible.

So the three sons I have designated for Heinrich are:

H4a Daniel 1784
H4b John born 1785
H4c Jacob born 1800

One of the two cousins named Henry married a woman named Maria Elisabeth and among the baptisms at Mertz Church in the 1770’s, Maria Elisabetha Hoffman(in) stood as sponsor at several Mertz family baptisms with one or another young Mertz men. I believe, though, it was Heinrich, son of Jost, whose wife was thereafter always called Maria Elizabeth (or some version thereof).

Henry’s wife was named (just) Elizabeth at the baptisms of their children. And the records of Christ Reformed in Scheonersville record the burial of Elis Mertz in 1826 age 74.

There is, though, one other curious record I have found. At Delong’s Reformed Church, Henry Mertz and Anna Eliz. Reichart were sponsors at the 22 Oct 1780 baptism of Henry Emmerich, son of Ludwig and Rosina.

I don’t know who this Henry was but it’s possible I think it was this Henry and his future wife.