I found this Benjamin Mertz on find-a-grave buried in Friedensville. There are three older Mertzes also buried there: John born 1784, his wife Catherine born 1792 and Susanna born 1804. I don’t know who Susanna is or even whether Mertz is her married name or if she died unmarried. I do know John and Catherine.

I believe Benjamin is also in Census, only in 1860, living with wife Sarah in Salisbury, Lehigh County. Interestingly, the local Census taker that year wrote down a county name in the birth place field, rather than just the state as was typical. Benjamin was born in Northampton County.

The question is who was Benjamin, who was his father? The fact of his presence in Salisbury Township suggests that he might be the family of George Heinrich Mertz (H6). In that case, though, I think he might have answered that he had been born in Lehigh County.

On the other hand, the fact of his burial in the same cemetery as John suggests the possibility that John was Benjamin’s father. That is my guess and I am designating him as H4b5.

I have looked for Benjamin’s remnant family in 1870 but there are too many Sarah Mertz then and in 1880 and the names of the children are never 100% consistent, so I am not sure where she was.