Martin was born at Tiset, Jutland Denmark on 6 October 1856. He was baptised at the Lutheran Church in Gram on 9 November 1856. His parents were Mads MORTENSON and Cecilia GUBI.

In 1864 Germany invaded Denmark and reclaimed the Duchy of Schleswig/Holstein. The map below shows the location of the part of Denmark reclaimed by Germany. It also shows that Martin's birthplace is within this area which explains why he was born in Denmark but left Germany when he travelled to Australia in 1876.

Map showing birthplace of Martin

Martin left home in 1876 and signed on as a crew member of the AVONA, a barque, which left Gravesend on 2 September 1876. the AVONA was sailing to Port Chalmers (Dunedin) in New Zealand before travelling to Bluff Harbour thence to Newcastle in New South Wales where the vessel arrived on 17 March 1877.

A newspaper article in the Otago Daily Times of 17 January 1877 detailed the voyage to Port Chalmers and the GOOGLE map below tracks the voyage of the AVONA.

When he arrived in Newcastle (NSW) he left the ship and started work as a miner at Wallsend where he met Mary Ann WARDLE. They married in her father's house in Campbell Street Wallsend on 15 March 1881 on her 19th birthday.

Home of William WARDLE in Campbell Street, Wallsend

They joined the Salvation Army and moved around New South Wales before settling in Sydney.

They were caretakers of the Church of Christ in Metropolitan Road, Enmore for many years. Martin decided to dabble in property and bought his first property at West Ryde in 1914. The Google map below shows the location of the properties that they lived at and those that he bought.