Joseph Meiser lists Henry as Johannes’ oldest son and says born 1797. I think that birth date is his guess based mainly on the fact that Heinrich was already baptizing children by 1817. But there are perhaps contradictory clues.

But the first question is was Heinrich actually the son of Johannes? There is no direct evidence that I am aware of but the indirect evidence is that he was a Mertz of Howerters and obviously a good bit younger than Johannes. And as I say in many other places, I have studied all the other Mertz families in Pennsylvania (and other places) and there is not a known other Heinrich of about this Heinrich’s age that I can’t account for.

And then the second question is when was he born? Let’s start with Meiser’s guess, 1797. If so, he was not Catharine Sterner’s son as she and Johannes married in January 1788. And they had son Benjamin, who, per his tombstone, was born in April 1799. That leaves a very narrow window for Heinrich if he was Catharine’s son and was their oldest son.

Let’s look at Census. Henry was 26-44 in 1820 — implies born prior to 1795 or so. And he was 40-49 in 1830, pushing his implied birth back to prior to 1790. But Johannes was born in 1776, so clearly he didn’t have a son born before 1790.

So, one solution to these contradictions is to think maybe Johannes had a first wife prior to Catharine, perhaps marrying her in, say 1795 or 1796, had son Heinrich and then his first wife died and he married second Catharine in 1798. It solves the contradictions but there is no evidence of any previous marriage of Johannes.

Heinrich is designated P3a1.

Henry was tough to find in Census but I am now convinced I did find him.

There was a Henry Mertz in Upper Mahantango Township, Schuylkill County in 1820. This township immediately abuts the Mahanoy area of Northumberland County where Howerters Church was and Meiser suggested (erroneously) that John may have lived on the other side of that county line — so there are a lot of reasons to believe this is Henry, son of Johannes.

Both he and his wife were 26-44.

But then I found him as Henry Matz in the same place in 1830 age 40-49. That clearly is too old so could cast some doubt on whether Henry of Census is the right Henry. But the head count of children seems about right.

But consider this. I cannot find any trace of him — anywhere — in 1840. But I have found an 1841 marriage record for his wife Sophia, of Upper Mahantango. I think Henry died before the 1840 Census and Sophia and her children were living with a relative of hers.

And finally, I found Henrich’s son Nicholas in the 1850 Census. He should have been age 28 but he was age 23, another reporting error, but everything seems to fit except the age.

I think he died before the 1840 Census. As of summer 2015, he is not on find-a-grave.

He baptized daughter Maria in 1817, I don’t know what happened to her.

Henry and wife Sophia baptized a son John George (born 27 Feb 1816, baptized 21 Apr 1816) at St. Johns Lutheran and Reformed Church in Friedensburg, Schuylkill County. I have no idea what happened to him but there are several Georges born in the 18-teens that I can’t place.

At Howerters, they also baptized son Heinrich in 1819 and son Nicholas in 1822. I don’t know what happened to Heinrich. Nicholas went on to be confirmed in 1839 at Howerters and was reported as head of household in the 1850 Census in Upper Mahantango — and then he too disappears from the record.

On the Schuylkill County Genweb Archives site, I found Marriages of Schuylkill County and Vicinity, 1832-1854, as published in Die Stimme des Volks, Orwigsburg, PA. There I found:

7 Nov 1841. Henry Roop married Sophia Mertz nee Badern both of Upper Mahantango.

I think her name might better be spelled Mattern since Amelia Mattern lived with Nicholas in 1850.