Martin Gerber, son of Sebastian Gerber & Maria Magdalena Igers, was baptized on 23 October 1718 in the Catholic church of Grünsfeld, a town about 25 kilometers southwest of Würzburg in Baden-Württemberg. He married Anna Margaretha Mayer, daughter of Leonhard Mayer & Maria Barbara Eidel, on 21 February 1746 in Grünsfeld. She had also been baptized there on 10 April 1717.
They had eight known children, each baptized in Grünsfeld: (1) Maria Rosina, born and baptized on 27 November 1746; (2) Dorothea, baptized on 31 March 1748; (3) Maria Barbara, born and baptized on 6 October 1749; (4) Andreas, baptized on 5 April 1751; (5) Elisabetha, born and baptized on 25 March 1753; (6) Johann Peter, born and baptized on 16 January 1755; (7) Johannes Andreas, born and baptized on 27 May 1756; and (8) Johannes, baptized on 5 August 1759.
Martin Gerber died in Germany. His widow Anna Margaretha Mayer and the children immigrated to Russia. After arriving in Russia, she remarried to Joseph Gerstner. He had a son from a previous marriage, Johannes.
The combined Gerber-Gerstner family is recoded in Herzog on the 1767 Census in Household No. 15. On the 1798 Census of Herzog , the Gerstners are recorded in Household No. Hr18 and Andreas Gerber in Household No. Hr23. After 1798, all the Gerstners moved to the colony of Mariental .
- Leus, Pavel M. & Leicker, Anthony J. Mariental, Russia : A census of a colony in 1834 . (2001).
- Leus, Pavel M. & Rupp, Kevin D. Herzog, Russia : A census of the Village in 1834 . (2002).
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999).
- Parish records of Grünsfeld (LDS Films No. 1046291 & 1046342).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 91.