John Martin is the name of about 12,000
men and boys now living in the United States,1 and even the most
cursory genealogical research shows that the name was also very
common in earlier centuries.2
John
Martin's tombstone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Camargo,
Illinois. Inscription: J. Martin, Died Feb. 19,
1846, Aged 56 yr., 10 mo., 1 day [This translates to
a birth date of 18 April 1789]
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Nevertheless,
this site dares to focus on the ancestry and descendants of one
particular John Martin, who:
- was born in
Pennsylvania in 1789,
- married Sarah
Stanley in Athens County, Ohio, about 1808,
- relocated to
Camargo, Illinois, about 1837, and
- died at Camargo in
1846.
Along the way, John and
Sarah became the parents of nine children (four girls and five
boys):
- Isaac
Martin, 1809–1881 (married Mary Irwin)
- Ambrose
Martin, 1812–1900 (married Phebe May Stewart)
- Joseph
Martin, 1814–1837 (married Elizabeth Sleeper)
- John
Martin, Jr., 1816–1895 (married (1) Mary Ann Wheeler,
(2) Lavina Plowman, and (3) Mary A. Dobs Howard)
- Louisa
Martin, ???–???
-
Betsy Martin, Abt. 1825– ?? (married Alfred Wright?)
- Lucinda
Martin, Abt. 1827– ?? (married Moses VanNess)
- Sally
Martin, Abt. 1830– ?? (married (1) William A. Jones and
(2) Thomas Pierce)
- Archelaus
Stanley Martin, 1833–1902 (married (1) Harriet Phipps and (2) Mrs. Maggie E. (Noyes) Marshall)
This web site was launched in
October 2005 by Peter L. Martin, a sixth-generation
descendant. It began with just this home page.
Since then, I have added pages for each of John and Sarah's
children and for 51 of their 64 grandchildren (of the other
13, 8 died in childhood, and I have simply not found
sufficient information for the remaining 5). I am now
(2020) working on pages for the fourth generation.
(This could be quite an undertaking, as John and Sarah had
232 great-grandchildren that we know of, and I may discover
others along the way.) I have also developed pages
for the following special topics:
I will be expanding the
site as my time and my supply of genealogical information
allow. In the meantime, if you have any questions or can
provide any information about this family, you're welcome to
contact me at: the address shown in the image below.
—Pete
Martin, Lakewood, Colorado
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1 Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show that Martin,
the 20th most common surname in the U.S., is
held by 0.238% of the population. Thus, out of the 151,745,538
males enumerated in the 2010 census, about 361,000 would have
the last name of Martin. The Census Bureau hasn't
reported on the relative abundance of first names in the 2010
Census, but the last time they did (in 1990), John was
the 2nd most common given name for men (after
James) and was held by 3.271% of American males. If
that is still valid, some 11,800 of those Martin men and boys
would have the first name John. The actual number is
probably higher, however, as it seems likely that families
having an English surname (like Martin) would use English
given names (like John) more than other families. So there
could be considerably more "John Martins" in the U.S. than the
12,000 indicated by this simple calculation, and worldwide,
there could be double, triple, or quadruple that number.
2
The book Fragments of Martin Family History,
by Ivory John Martin and Robert Walter Johnson (compiled and
printed 1990 by Robert Eden Martin) includes a lengthy "Note
on John Martins in Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky" (p.
29–45), which describes several dozen men and boys by this
name known to have resided in those three states during the
latter part of the 18th century. This book is now posted on line.
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