My 4th great grandparents were Charles Booz and Mercy Ann VanHorn. Both were born in Pennsylvania ... Charles about 1818, Mercy Ann about 1822. Their first Child Easter(or Easten) was also born in Pennsylvania about 1837. The family then shows up in Springfield Township (near Zanesville), Muskingum, Ohio on the 1840 Census. By that time there is a 2nd Child (Amanda b. 30 Apr, 1839) also included on the census.

Over the next 30 years 13 MORE children were born to them (actually documented). I have been unable to document or even come close to finding the parents of Charles OR Mercy Ann. Some clues are that Charles' FIRST male child's name was JOHN (I had heard it was a custom to name the first child after the paternal grandfather). As Charles had this John for his 5th child, and Alva as his 8th Child ... a Charles Henry was then his 12th Child!! Charles didn't name a boy after himself until the 12th child .... and 3rd boy. This leads me to believe that Charles father could be a JOHN BOOZ. Other research has given clues to the family coming from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Mercy Ann's parentage is also in question. One Ancestry.com member states that Mercy is "decended from a Hessian Soldier". This member has NO INTEREST in further research due to a divorce and this VanHorn-Booz side of the family is from her Ex-Husbands line. There was a "Jefferson VanHorne, son of Bernard VanHorne ... grandson of Isaac VanHorne ... a noted Revolutionary Hero and Pioneer of Doylestown, Pennsylvania who settled in Zanesville, Muskingum, Ohio in 1805." (Quote from Obituary of Jefferson VanHorne Zanesville Courier 27 Apr 1898). I have not as yet been able to connect this family to my Mercy Ann.

I also have NO SIBLINGS for Charles Booz OR Mercy Ann VanHorn. Mercy Ann went by Mercy on a one Census, Ann on all the rest. Probate documents from a land purchase and land sale confirm that her full name was Mercy Ann ... VanHorn is confirmed by several of her children's death certificates.

PLEASE ............ any help or direction to turn would be helpful at this point. I have loads of documentation on the family and have researched them for nearly 3 years of solid work ........ all with no clues to their parentage.