Mertz Genealogy - Person Sheet
Mertz Genealogy - Person Sheet
BirthMay 1770
Memo(find-a-grave)
Death7 October 1854
Memo(find-a-grave)
BurialSt Matthews, Millerstown, PA
FatherJacob Moritz (U2)
Spouses
Birth20 June 1783
Memo(find-a-grave)
Death17 November 1852
Memo(find-a-grave)
BurialSt Matthews, Millerstown, PA
Birth, Parent-Proof, Designation notes for Jacob Moritz (U2b)
In 2017 I heard from a descendant of a man who came to be known as Isaac Mirts who died in Fulton, Missouri in 1893. He had been born in Pennsylvania and my correspondent believed that Mirts was a corrupted name and asked me if I thought it was a corrupted form of Mertz and whether I could help her figure out who Isaac was.
I was able to find Isaac in Fulton in the 1870 Census and then by comparing his age and the names and ages of his wife and children realized he was listed in the 1860 Census in Juniata County, PA where he was listed as Isaac Murtz. And the same carry-throughs (his age and the names and ages of his wife and children) identified him in 1850 where he was listed as Isaac Moritz. And in 1850, besides his wife and children, living with him were Jacob Morita age 70, Margaret Morita 68 and Hannah Morita 40. Morita is the way Ancestry transcribed those latter three names, but upon inspection, it's the same name as Isaac’s. It was an obvious guess that Jacob was Isaac's father.
So I went looking for Jacob. He's on find-a-grave, buried in nearby Perry County, with dates May 1770 to 7 Oct 1854. His name is given there as Jacob Moritz. His will can be found on Ancestry, his name in that document given as Jacob Morets. He named wife Margaret and sons John and Issac. He named a third son, David, who he seemed to be a little protective of. There were a slew of married daughters: Rebecca Sarver, Sarah Troutman, Phebe Lanee, Abby Grubb, Catherine Snyder and Mary or Polly Hefner and one that seems to be unmarried, Hannah. So there you have it. Isaac's father was Jacob.
And the interesting thing is he died in the very brief period of just a few years in the early 1850's when Pennsylvania was trying to have death certificates recorded for people. His death certificate gives his name as Jacob Morets. It gives the dates 1773 - 7 Oct 1854. He died in Greenwood, Perry County. It also gives a name for his father said also to have been Jacob, no mother's name given.
The death certificate also lists issue as: John, Isaac, David and Sarah, Rebecca, Mary, Phoebe, Eliza Abby, Catharin.
So my best guess, after doing all this work on Isaac and his father Jacob and finding those several documents, is that while Isaac’s name had been corrupted to Mirts, the “original” Pennsylvania spelling was something along the lines of Moritz or Morets. I think the 1850 Census came closest to the truth of things.
Now the core question I was trying to answer when I started researching this family was: are they some long lost branch of one of the Mertz family lines?
Now I know 7 or 8 Jacob Mertz born in the 1770's, some were even sons of a father named Jacob. But I know enough about all of them, they were not this Jacob. Moreover, i could probably find a place for another Jacob born in the 1770's, like maybe the son of some Mertz born in the 1730's or 1740's -- there are a few who I know they may have had a son or two I don't know about -- but the potential fathers in that case were not named Jacob.
So there does not seem anyplace in any Mertz line I know of to put Jacob, Sr. and Jacob Jr. And so my final conclusion is that Moritz (Morets, etc.) is its own name, it is spelled many ways and in one case corrupted to Mirts but it was not a corrupted name itself that started out Mertz. There are many of his name on early Census and about 20 Jacob Moritz on find-a-grave.
In 1810, a Jacob Moritz lived in Greenwich Township, Berks County. It could be this Jacob but there is no way to know for sure. But I do believe he was the Jacob Martes in 1820 in Greenwood, Juniata County and then Jacob Martz, age 60-70, in Mifflintown in 1840.
My next research pursuit was to look for any other Mertz or Martz of Juniata County — where I had never before encountered anyone of this name. John D Mertz, a man whose name I had seen many times previously but never knew who he was, 1816-1864, is buried in Mifflintown. I have now concluded he was the son John in Jacob’s will.
That’s where I left things until in the summer of 2018, I became aware of an Amos Martz, born about 1819, who lived in nearby Mifflin County, who married in Mifflintown in 1842, and about whom a biography in the History of Juniata County said he had been born in Juniata County and that his father was Jacob. And I found a Solomon Martz, born about 1818, listed in Juniata County in the 1850 Census.
So I could certainly make Amos and Solomon sons of Jacob but his will and his death certificate seem to contradict that. And I could make then Jacob’s brothers but their ages seem to make that an unlikely scenario. So I have made up another son, unnamed, of the older Jacob and made them his sons — nephews of this Jacob who died in 1854.
I was able to find Isaac in Fulton in the 1870 Census and then by comparing his age and the names and ages of his wife and children realized he was listed in the 1860 Census in Juniata County, PA where he was listed as Isaac Murtz. And the same carry-throughs (his age and the names and ages of his wife and children) identified him in 1850 where he was listed as Isaac Moritz. And in 1850, besides his wife and children, living with him were Jacob Morita age 70, Margaret Morita 68 and Hannah Morita 40. Morita is the way Ancestry transcribed those latter three names, but upon inspection, it's the same name as Isaac’s. It was an obvious guess that Jacob was Isaac's father.
So I went looking for Jacob. He's on find-a-grave, buried in nearby Perry County, with dates May 1770 to 7 Oct 1854. His name is given there as Jacob Moritz. His will can be found on Ancestry, his name in that document given as Jacob Morets. He named wife Margaret and sons John and Issac. He named a third son, David, who he seemed to be a little protective of. There were a slew of married daughters: Rebecca Sarver, Sarah Troutman, Phebe Lanee, Abby Grubb, Catherine Snyder and Mary or Polly Hefner and one that seems to be unmarried, Hannah. So there you have it. Isaac's father was Jacob.
And the interesting thing is he died in the very brief period of just a few years in the early 1850's when Pennsylvania was trying to have death certificates recorded for people. His death certificate gives his name as Jacob Morets. It gives the dates 1773 - 7 Oct 1854. He died in Greenwood, Perry County. It also gives a name for his father said also to have been Jacob, no mother's name given.
The death certificate also lists issue as: John, Isaac, David and Sarah, Rebecca, Mary, Phoebe, Eliza Abby, Catharin.
So my best guess, after doing all this work on Isaac and his father Jacob and finding those several documents, is that while Isaac’s name had been corrupted to Mirts, the “original” Pennsylvania spelling was something along the lines of Moritz or Morets. I think the 1850 Census came closest to the truth of things.
Now the core question I was trying to answer when I started researching this family was: are they some long lost branch of one of the Mertz family lines?
Now I know 7 or 8 Jacob Mertz born in the 1770's, some were even sons of a father named Jacob. But I know enough about all of them, they were not this Jacob. Moreover, i could probably find a place for another Jacob born in the 1770's, like maybe the son of some Mertz born in the 1730's or 1740's -- there are a few who I know they may have had a son or two I don't know about -- but the potential fathers in that case were not named Jacob.
So there does not seem anyplace in any Mertz line I know of to put Jacob, Sr. and Jacob Jr. And so my final conclusion is that Moritz (Morets, etc.) is its own name, it is spelled many ways and in one case corrupted to Mirts but it was not a corrupted name itself that started out Mertz. There are many of his name on early Census and about 20 Jacob Moritz on find-a-grave.
In 1810, a Jacob Moritz lived in Greenwich Township, Berks County. It could be this Jacob but there is no way to know for sure. But I do believe he was the Jacob Martes in 1820 in Greenwood, Juniata County and then Jacob Martz, age 60-70, in Mifflintown in 1840.
My next research pursuit was to look for any other Mertz or Martz of Juniata County — where I had never before encountered anyone of this name. John D Mertz, a man whose name I had seen many times previously but never knew who he was, 1816-1864, is buried in Mifflintown. I have now concluded he was the son John in Jacob’s will.
That’s where I left things until in the summer of 2018, I became aware of an Amos Martz, born about 1819, who lived in nearby Mifflin County, who married in Mifflintown in 1842, and about whom a biography in the History of Juniata County said he had been born in Juniata County and that his father was Jacob. And I found a Solomon Martz, born about 1818, listed in Juniata County in the 1850 Census.
So I could certainly make Amos and Solomon sons of Jacob but his will and his death certificate seem to contradict that. And I could make then Jacob’s brothers but their ages seem to make that an unlikely scenario. So I have made up another son, unnamed, of the older Jacob and made them his sons — nephews of this Jacob who died in 1854.
Parent-Proof notes for Margaret Elizabeth (Spouse 1)
I am relying on find-a-grave that her maiden name was Hartman and it says further she was the daughter of John Jacob and Sarah (Sahler) Hartman.