Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-10-07
swer. but l do claim that this family
conclave will bear fruit
wERTzs PROMINENT

conclave will bear fruit.
wERTzs PROMINENT.
an all my. search for the Wertz de-
scendants I have not found a single
one who was a discredit to the name.
! l have found them IN every walk and
vocation of life. One Of them held the
governorship OF the state OF New Jer-
/ sey until his death, George Wertz of
Johnstown, Pa, one is the senator OF
his state, one doctor of law at Yale
university, there are bank presidents,
| judges, commissioners, justices of the
| peace, postmasters, one of them held
the position OF assistant minister of
the interior under Mckinley, there is
one in the treasury department at
| Washington, one in the mint, and We
have lots of states attorneys.
INCITED By FRENCH.
The day l came to begin this search
! for the American heirs was this. After
reading in the Chicago Examiner a ca
| blegram from Paris, stating that the
! French descendants of the Wertz fam
/ lily were going to make an effort to
I
matter with my mother She told me
! that there had been a tradition handed
down from generation to generation
/ that the estate was in the hands of the
/ Holland government and that Holland
| would never relinquish ii but would
! law the heirs to death as they did not
| have the available funds TO fight the
government, My mother said: If the
| French heirs are getting together TO
recover the property, why cannot We
American heirs do likewise?'
SEARCH Is STARTED.
She told me to go ahead and try to
| trace the branches of the family and
! to recover the family bible. ! gave
/ the matter all the newspaper public
| ity possible Immediately as an aid to
getting the heirs together Immediate
| ~ letters began to pour in from ali
over the country. | got a letter from a
man, who is a distant cousin of John
| Vert. of Johnstown, Pa, the father
| Of Senator George VERT of that state.
! saying that he had a blueprint giving
| the genealogy of the family. dating
/ from the time that the first Wertz
came TO this country. The blue print
/ was nearly obliterated by age. but I
! had it deciphered by an expert with
! the aid of a powerful glass, and with
! this blue print | had the complete
! genealogy of the Wertz family from
| the time Jacob VERT landed in Phil
adelphia in 1892 in company with his
| three sons. George, Conrad and Jacob.
|, NOT EASILY DISCOURAGED.
! 4 consulted a very able lawyer in
! Chicago who stated that in his opinion,
/ I could not recover this estate and to
! fight the case would require a very
/ large sum of money. indisputable proof
! Of heirship, patience and time. I re-
ceived another letter bringing out the
/ fact that General Wertz had owned
practically half Of New Amsterdam or
what is now the heart of the business
/ section of New York and another let
ter containing the information that
! General Wertz made a will as regards
his European estate in which it was
/ stipulated that the estate should be al
/ lowed to accumulate and not be dis
tri0uted until after five generations.
That claim was made 20 years ago and
Holland agreed to settle when the
/ United States settled the New York es-
tate.
POINTS IN GENEALOGY.
From the blue print in my posses
sion as well as other sources, l have
( cleaned the following in regard TO the
Wertz history: Jacob Wertz came to
America on the ship Mary of London,
last from Rotterdam, under the com
mand of Captain John Gray Jacob
Wertz with his three sons, Jacob,
George and Conrad arrived in Phila-
delphta Sept 20, 1892 and took the
oath of allegiance to the state of Penn
sylvania, settling in Bedford county. |
think without doubt that we can posi-
! lively complete the American Wertz
genealOgy from the time our fore
father Jacob Wertz came over to the
present generation, but the connection
of Jacob Wertz of Philadelphia and
General VERT is another proposition. |
While there is no doubt but that these
two men were either brothers or at /
least uncle and nephew, we have not
our forefather Jacob Wertz's private
family history. We do not know his +
brothers names nor his date of birth
nor anything of the kind and will not
49, "ii'ii -ii9 bioChHdu' VINO mas /.
the matter in charge, receives 2opies .
of the records from Germany, General /.
Wertz's birthplace.
AFTER CHURCH RECORDS.
TO prove beyond doubt that these .
two men were blood relatives will re-
quire copies Of church records in the
place OF their birth. in my opinion.
Jacob Vert. our grand sire and Gen
eral Vert were brothers. as it is said
General Wertz had three brothers. It
is possible that these brothers immi- .
grated TO different countries Posi- !
bly, one went 10 France and from him 1
the French claimants have sprung at /
this point have nothing authentic .
or reliable, only the work OF Mrs /