[2][3][4] Martin was the second of five children and was more commonly known as Friedrich, given the German custom of using the second given name.

The move occurred less than a year after his father Johann Georg Martin died, and, being the last alive of Johann Georg Martin's progeny, he would have been free of familial obligations to emigrate.

[7] On arriving in New York City, he set up shop at 196 Hudson Street on the Lower West Side.

Martin's first workshop housed a small production setup in the back room, and a retail music store up front.

At the insistence of his wife, Ottilia Kühle (daughter of the Maschinentischler [machine carpenter] and maker of pedal harps Karl Kühle in Vienna[8]), Martin moved the guitar shop in 1838 to Nazareth, Pennsylvania where it is still located.