When George Mertz of Frederick County wrote his will, he named his wife Ann Mary. When this couple baptized several children at Evangelical Lutheran Church in Frederick, her name was consistently Anna Maria.

There are some family trees on Ancestry.com that say she was Mary Ann Query. Often what you find on such trees is pure fiction, but in this case, I think that is right. Annette Burgert has documented the family of Nicholas Quirin of Alsace who came to America in 1752. Descendants of Nicholas were named several times in the records of Mertz Church. It is where the family started out in America. (interestingly, though, they came from the same exact place in Alsace as the “other” Berks County Mertz family who settled in Longswamp Township.)

The will of Nicholas Query of Montgomery County, MD 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 know Catherine March, for sure. She was the wife of John Philip Mertz of Berks County, PA. Since in those days, brothers often married sisters, a logical speculation would be that perhaps Mary Ann married one of Philip’s brothers.

I have often observed that when two single people were named together as baptism sponsors, they later married. The records of Mertz Church show several baptisms in the 1770’s at which the sponsors were Heinrich Mertz and Ana Maria Quieren. When William Mertz baptized daughter Catherine in 1777, the sponsors were George Mertz (his brother I believe) and Catherine Hahn (sister presumably of William’s wife, Catherine Hahn). So everything would seem perfect if Heinrich married Ana Maria Quieren and George married Catherine Hahn.

But that isn’t what happened. We know that George’s wife was named Anna Maria and I am quit sure Heinrich's wife was named Elizabeth. My theory is that when Heinrich didn’t work out for Anna Maria, she moved down the line of brothers and next up was John George.

So I believe that Mary Ann Query, daughter of Nicholas, married John George Mertz of Berks County and moved with him to Frederick, Maryland. Why Nicholas called her Mary Ann in his will when otherwise she was always Anna Maria (or Ann Mary) I don’t know, but that is a small anomaly I can live with.

John George is a known son of John Henry. His baptism was recorded at Mertz Church. He was listed on the Mertz Church monument that honors John Henry and his family, named simply George, and was also named in his father’s will assuming he was the son referred to as J George. He is designated H5.

But I have never been able to figure out what then happened to him. It was only when trying to learn more about the various Martz families of Frederick County, MD that I came to the conclusion that John George, son of John Henry of Berks County, was one and the same as George Martz, progenitor of an important Frederick, Maryland family. He moved there by 1781, when he was first mentioned in a Lutheran Church baptism record there.

There is one transcription that I have seen of his baptism record which listed his name as “Georg Valentine”. Moreover, it totally mis-stated his mother’s name, as if John Henry momentarily had a different wife. His mother was listed in that baptism as Anna Maria Darmstern. But that is not a known name and it seems very likely that was a transcription or pastoral error. John Henry’s one and only wife was Anna Maria Rosemann.

I believe that two separate baptisms were mistakenly scrambled together and that this man’s name was John George and that the name Valentine does not apply.

There were at least two distinct (and unrelated) families in Frederick, Maryland by the 1780’s and there was a George in both families. One key distinguishing fact about the two families is that one practiced the Reformed faith (according to Ralph Fraley Martz though the record is a little ambiguous) while the other was absolutely Lutheran.

Thus begins my listing of evidentiary facts as to why I believe John George Mertz, formerly of Berks County, had come to and would live out his life in Frederick County.

1. Most early Germans who came to America in the mid-1700’s were of either the Reformed or the Lutheran religion. In many places, two congregations, one Reformed and one Lutheran, shared a church (but not a minister). For that reason, many people consider them closely related and fail to see the importance of the distinction between them.
But it is what makes George Martz, the Lutheran, stand out in Frederick County. He was not related to the other Martz families of that place and time. He was of a different line, a very rare example of two unrelated families ending up in the same exact place in America.
2. Family tradition among descendants of George Martz (the Lutheran) is that their Frederick County progenitor came to America from Germany with a brother who settled in Pennsylvania. Family tradition among descendants of William Martz who moved to Somerset County, PA not too long after the Revolutionary War is that he came from Berks County with a brother who settled in Maryland. William Martz of Somerset County was indeed the brother of John George Mertz. I think William and John George may well have come together from Berks County and then went their separate ways but ended up not too far apart, albeit in different states. I think the family tradition associated with William is the more accurate of the two but both family traditions are portraying the same event.
3 If John George did not come to Frederick County, he otherwise totally disappeared from the record. Yes maybe he died, but if he lived where was he? Now I should add that there was also a George Mertz in Lancaster County, PA in the 1790 Census that I can’t specifically identify but I know of nothing to indicate he was this John George.
4 Ralph Fraley Martz in his book The Martzes of Maryland cites a church record purporting to say that George who died 22 Feb 1822 in Frederick was born 2 June 1752. Since that is the birth date of John George, the proof of my assertions would be self-evident. Unfortunately, like many things RFM said, that statement appears to be totally fictitious. However, there is a church record giving that date of death and saying that George was age 70. That seems to me to be more than coincidence.
5. A man named Nicholas Quirin died in Montgomery County, MD in 1788 and in his will named two daughters named March — Catharine and Mary Ann. I know Catharina as the wife of John Philip Mertz, brother, if I am right in my assertions, of John George. In several Frederick County, Maryland records, George’s wife was named Anna Mary or Anna Maria. I believe Mary Ann March was in fact Anna Maria Martz, wife of George. At Mertz Church, in Berks County, where both the Mertz and Quirin families worshipped, there is clear evidence of Anna Maria Quirin. Nicholas’ reference to her as Mary Ann is the anomaly.
6. But the clincher to all of this is that the earliest mentions of him at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Frederick were to Joh. George Mertz — later it was George Martz — but it started out true to his name as known in Berks County. The birth/baptism of daughters Esther and Christina listed the father as John George Mertz, it was John George who witnessed the baptism of Jacob Tuefs (sp?) and I believe the 21 Sep 1784 record of John George Mertz at that church is his acceptance into its membership.

Turning to the 1790 Census, there was a Geo Martz, a George Martz and a George Mertz in Frederick County. One of the Geo or George Martz was the son of Theobald, recently deceased, of the Reformed religion, I really am not sure who the other Martz was. But the one named George Mertz, I am quite certain, was indeed John George formerly of Berks County. This would be about the last instance where he would be known by the Mertz spelling and soon the spelling of his and his descendants’ names would forever more become Martz, but I know it is him from the headcount.

George Mertz, in the 1790 Census, had 1 male under 16, 1 over and 4 females. From church records and his will, I believe this conforms quite neatly with what is known about the family of George, the Lutheran.

George Martz of Frederick County wrote his will 7 May 1816. His wife was Ann Mary. Son George to get the real estate — 120 acres called Witmans Lots bought of Adam Beam 7 Jun 1793 — and George Jr. to pay $500 each to his siblings: Catherine wife of John LeFaver, Ester wife of Michael Shafer, Christiana Everding, Daniel and Rosena. Or he can choose to just take care of Rosena and use the money due her for her support. His will proved 11 May 1822.