Her name comes from the Massanutten book, which says she was the daughter of Tobias and Pheba Smith. These names also appear on the Kathleen Fite Family Group Sheet. Most importantly, a fraktur for the birth of her son Sebastian gives the names of his parents as Jacob Mertz and Elizabeth Schmidin.

Elizabeth is on find-a-grave with a 1793 birth date and the date of death I show for her. The Masanutten book gives a more specific birth date of 8 Jan 1793 and the same date of death.

There is general agreement in the various sources that cover the Rockingham Martz family as to the names of John’s sons. There is not as much agreement as to their order of birth, but I believe the Masanutten book is totally consistent with everything else I have learned from tombstones and Census.

I believe Jacob was John’s second oldest son. He is designated S1b.

He is present in Census in Rockingham starting in 1820 and then there through 1850. In those early decades, his wife is in the age bracket one younger than Jacob which calls into question her actual birth date or is it a case of her fudging her age?

I have a Family Group Sheet sent into the Rockingham Historical Society by Kathleen Fite showing two sons and a daughter born before 1820 and then one more son and three more daughters born before 1830 and then also children I know as Jacob’s from the 1850 Census.

I was a little skeptical of it until I finally found Jacob Mantz in Rockingham in the 1820 Census with 2 sons and a daughter under 10.

In 1850, his children Michael 22, Emanuel 17, Nancy 15, Sarah 13 and William 10 are also present.

In 1860, Jacob had moved to Clark County, IL and only son William was present. Ancestry mistakenly attached the last name Cheshire to Jacob, Elizabeth and William.

Jacob is on find-a-grave with the dates I show for him which are in agreement with the Masanutten book.