There is a find-a-grave memorial for a man named Jacob Chamberlain Marts (1772-1854) buried in Sullivan County, Indiana. A note on his memorial says he was born in Virginia. He is linked on find-a-grave to his wife Martha (Reed) Marts and to five daughters (Rachel, Hannah, Sarah Ann, Martha Jane and Nancy Ann) and four sons (Thomas Reed, Chamberlain, Jacob Chamberlain and George).

This clearly is the Jacob Marts, Senior of Sullivan County, Indiana who wrote his will 24 Jan 1853 and which proved 3 Jul 1854 with a codicil written 15 Dec 1853. The codicil updated the will to take account of the death of Jacob’s son Samuel.

In his will, Jacob named his children as follows: John C Marts deceased, Rachel McKinney, Thomas, Chamberlain, Hannah Wible (?), Samuel, Sarah Ann Earnest, George, Martha Jane McKee, Nancy McKee, Jacob and Mary Lynn. His will validates the names of the nine children linked to him on find-a-grave and adds one daughter (Mary Lynn) and two sons (John C and Samuel) to the list of his children.

There is also a profile for him on the familysearch.org Family Tree. It says there that Jacob was born in Loudon County, Virginia. Like many profiles on this website, it seems to have some valid information but may have also been polluted with possibly bogus information. To he and his wife Martha are linked the twelve children consistent with the names in his will. But then his profile suggests a possibly earlier marriage for Jacob to Ann Walker and possibly two children by her: John Mcmahan and James Jacob (1799-1851). I suppose it could be argued that a man for whatever reason might choose not to acknowledge children by a first marriage in his will. I don’t know if that is true in this case but it makes me wonder what the evidence in support of that earlier wife and those two children really is.

So whether it is true, as it also says in this Family Tree, that Jacob’s parents were Benjamin and Sarah Ann (Chamberlain) Marks I also don’t know, though I note that her maiden name would explain his full name.

I have a vague recollection that I first became aware of this family when I was trying to help a member of my Mertz/Martz DNA project at Family Tree DNA identify his possible Martz ancestors from Indiana. There are many people in America today named Marts who had ancestors whose name was spelled Martz and even Mertz and all of them (born before 1850) are persons who should be covered by the Mærtz Hierarchical Project.

But something always felt different about this family. There’s no indication the name was ever Martz or Mertz and there is some indication that maybe the name started out Marks. Marks is a British name and Marts too might be thought of as a British name (unless it is a corrupted spelling of Martz, a German name). The family started out in Virginia (think English immigrants) whereas most of the other families I track started out in Pennsylvania (think German immigrants). The names of the supposed wives, Reed, Chamberlain (if correct) and Walker (though likely not correct) — are moreso British names than German.

So I am including Jacob Chamberlain Marts, designated U3, as an Unidentified Marts but only as a way to keep what I know about the family in one place. I strongly suspect he is not eligible for inclusion in the Mærtz Hierarchical Project and therefore while I named all his sons above, I have not specially profiled all of them nor did I bother to try to do much research on them. I do cover a few of his sons further and in one or two of those cases a descendant or two of theirs. But my coverage of Jacob Chamberlin’s descendants is definitely hit or miss.

But for all these people I offer only a brief sketch here. It could easily be expanded using Census and find-a-grave information that could further trace many of the descendants.

Then there are several other persons who I’ve “stumbled across” in the ensuing years who Jacob Chamberlain may be related to that I have not specifically included in my database nor designated.

One of those is John Benjamin Marks and his wife Sarah Ann Chamberlain, supposed parents of Jacob.

And I believe Jacob had a brother named George. There was a George Marts listed in the 1830 Census in Jackson County, IN, age 50-59. This George, I believe, was the George Marts appointed, in 1835, as Guardian for the Coghill children of McGannon Coghill, deceased. (Jacob C Marts, Jr married Mary Coghill.)

He was also appointed Guardian of Jacob Marts, a minor over the age of 14, also in 1835. This younger Jacob was not Jacob Chamberlain Marts, Jr. so must have been a grandson of Jacob Chamberlain, Sr., likely, I think, the son of Jacob’s son John C who predeceased his father.

Another find-a-grave memorial that may be relevant to this whole discussion is for Christena Mertz who it says was born in 1750 in Loudon County, Virginia, married Johannes Axline there in 1771 and died there 16 Apr 1828 and is buried at the New Jerusalem Lutheran Church there. This Christina is also on Wiki and her profile there says she was born in 1750 in Colerain Township, Lancaster County, PA but otherwise is in general agreement with her find-a-grave memorial. Whether this woman existed or not, I don’t know. But the Mertz spelling is quite interesting, I wonder where it comes from.

And finally, there is James Marts (1799-1851) also buried in Indiana. He too is on find-a-grave and he can be easily found on ancestry.com with many links there to his wife and children. I see no indication that his name was James Jacob though the James Jacob with those same dates named above who is linked to Jacob Chamberlain as his father by his first wife is clearly this man — though as I said there I am doubtful that James was Jacob’s son.