Johann Martin Moser¹ was the 5th great-grandfather of Florence Mosier and the youngest of seven children of peasant farmer Adam Moser and Maria Strobel. Martin, as he was known, was born on January 10, 1693 in Grossulrichshausen, Middle Franken (now Bavaria), Germany.

Martin was a shoemaker by trade. On June 29, 1717, at the age of 24, he married Margaretha Schwembauer in Breitenau, Middle Franken.² Margaretha's birthdate and birthplace are not known. Her father was Wolf Schwembauer.

The Lutheran churchbooks of Breitenau 1637-1765 include birth records for seven children of Martin and Margaretha and death records for three: Maria Magdalena (born and died 1718), unnamed child (born and died 1719), Maria Margaretha (born 1720), Georg Fredrich (born 1722), Maria Barbara (born 1723 and died 1726), Anna Margaretha (born 1726) and Johann Leonhard (born 1727).

As a result of religious or economic pressures, Martin Moser and his family were part of the mass migration from Germany to America that began in the early 1700's. The family sailed from Rotterdam aboard the ship James Goodwill under the command of ship master David Crokatt and arrived in the port of Philadelphia on September 11, 1728.³ Martin settled with his wife and children in the Perkiomen Valley at New Goshenhoppen, in Philadelphia County (now Montgomery County, near the Berks County line). They were members of the New Hanover (Falkner's Swamp) Lutheran Church.

Of the children born in Germany, only Georg Fredrich ("Frederick") and Maria Margaretha have been identified in subsequent records. It is not known whether Anna Margaretha and Johann Leonhard died in transit or after arrival in Pennsylvania, but no record of them in America has been located. Martin and Margaretha had at least four more children after arriving in Pennsylvania: Barbara (abt. 1729), Johann Philip (abt. 1730), Johann Michael (1734), and Johann Burkhard (abt. 1736).

Martin Moser died in 1744 at the age of 51. It is possible that his death was unexpected since he died without leaving a will. An administrator's bond was executed on April 6, 1744 by Margaretha Moser, Benedict Strom and Herman Fisher of Goshenhoppen and filed with the Register General for Probate of Wills in the County of Philadelphia. The bond required that the deceased Martin Moser's estate be inventoried and debts settled by April 7, 1745.

The following record documenting the dispostion of Martin Moser's estate was found in the records of Philadelphia County: [spelling and punctuation are as found in the records]