Anyone do research on the Martin family?

Sort of a hit or miss question, but I'm just hoping someone can answer it, or point me in the right direction.

I'm interested in a German branch of the family, the last two people I have are Anthony Martin 11-31-1863 to ?, and Anton Martin 1-19-1823 to ?. Anton was from Stadtallendorf, Germany (at least it now is). The family eventually moved to Michigan. Supposedly Anton's father was an "Antonius", although I'm not sure about this.

3 Answers

  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I found an online family tree through that says that Anton Martin born Jan 19, 1823 in Stadtallendorf, Hessen, Germany and was the son of Nicholas Martin and Elisabeth Huhn. Online trees can be a good guide, but should never be taken as gospel until you can do your own research.

    I then decided to conduct a little online research of my own.

    I went to the 1850 census

    Source Citation: Year: 1850; Census Place: Westphalia, Clinton, Michigan; Roll: M432_349; Page: 29; Image: 325.

    MARTIN, Nicholas 57 M Farmer Birthplace Germany

    Elizabeth 51 F Germany

    Lena 21 F Germany

    August 18 M Germany

    Peter 12 M Germany

    Constantine 8 M Michigan

    Catherine 6 F Michigan

    Living Next Door was

    MARTIN Anthony 25 M Farmer Birthplace Germany

    Sophia 20 F Germany

    Lena 2 F Michigan

    It wasn't uncommon in those days for a grown married child to live next door to their parents or other relatives and keep in mind that it was also not uncommon for ages NOT to line up exactly in the census.

    Now for the "not so cut and dry"

    Also listed down the same page was indeed another "Anthony Martin" family.

    MARTIN Anthony 43 M Farmer Birthplace Germany

    Lena 39 F Germany

    Mary Ann 19 F Germany

    Conrad 15 M Germany

    Elizabeth 12 F Germany

    Caroline 9 F Germany

    Joseph 8 M Michigan

    Rosina 6 F Michigan

    Catherine 1 F Michigan

    From the censuses of Nicholas and Anthony (the elder) we can surmise that there is a high likelihood that they were brothers who immigrated to America about the same time (abt 1842) as evidenced bt the births of their children. With Anthony (the younger) living next door to Nicholas, one could see where someone might make the assumption that the younger Anthony was the son of Nicholas. However, I think that there is a strong possibility that the younger Anthony could be the son of Anthony because no only does he carry his name, but the younger Anthony has a daughter named Lena, which is also the name of the older Anthony's wife. However, Nicholas has a daughter also by the name of Lena which leads me to believe that there may be a grandmother who also carries the name.

    I think that if we could locate the immigration records for Anthony and Nicholas, we could she more light on this mystery. I've probably muddied the waters much more by now! LOL!!

    If you would like a copy of the census page, E-mail me via my profile and send me your E-mail address and I will mail it as an attachment. I hope this helps. Blessings.

    Source(s): 1850 census
  • 1 decade ago

    Martin is a common Pennsylvania(Dutch) German surname. The Pa. Dutch emigrated primarily from the Rhine River Valley(NE France,SW Germany, and Switzerland) to Eastern, Southern and Central Pennsylvania from about 1700 to about 1820 or a little later. Antonius and Anton are the same name. Was your family Mennonite ? It was common in the old German families to name for other family members. A common naming pattern was eldest son for paternal grandfather, second son for maternal grandfather third son- father, fourth son-oldest paternal uncle, etc. Same with the girls. In an extended family you might have a quite a few Antons cousins,uncles etc. There is usually the same 4 or 5 first names repeated both male and female in seceding generations so it's important not to mix them'll end up on the wrong branch.There are other patterns but this is the most common. The nickname for Anton was often Tunis, Tunny or Dunny. Many Pa. Dutch migrated to the Midwest in the mid to late19th century where farmland was more available.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Antonius is the Latinized name for Anton. We usually see this when someone copied a Catholic church record and didn't take into account that the records were written in Latin and the names weren't the German version that the person would have used in everyday life.

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