His father, Mátyás Martinovics was one of the nobles of Albanian descent who as a result of the Great Turkish War left Ottoman Serbia in 1690 under the leadership of Arsenije III Čarnojević during the Great Migrations of the Serbs and resettled in Délvidék, Hungary. Other sources described him as of Serb descent. His grandparents converted from Eastern Orthodoxy to Catholicism just some years before the birth of his father Mátyás. During his lifetime, Ignác Martinovics stated that his father was either a Serb tavern keeper or an Albanian noble in military service. Mátyás Martinovics served in the Austrian army, In November 1791, he amoved to Pest. There he married Mária Poppini, a German commoner from Buda, they had five sons and two daughters.