Martin was born in Potsdam, Prussia, Brandenburg, Germany. He travelled to New Zealand and then on to Sydney, NSW, arriving on 2 Mar 1876 per the Brig ‘Welcome’ remaining there for one year. From there, he travelled to Tasmania where he met and married Julia Mary Jane Delphin. He was in Tasmania for seven years before coming to Carlton, in Melbourne where they settled. They lived at 5 Little Grattan Street, Carlton when he first received his naturalization certificate in July 1906 and his occupation was Marine Stores Collector. They resided at 171 Madeline Street Carlton when he made the application for a replacement in March 1915.. The certificate was actually burnt some years before.

Prussia no longer exists as such but its boundaries were:
North: Bound by Baltic Sea, Denmark and North Sea
South: Bound by Czechoslavakia, Bulgaria
West: Luxemberg, Belgium, Holland
East: Poland Lithuania