Martin Loy I, the first member of the Loy family in America, was born circa 1752 in Baden, Germany and arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1774. In 1782 he married Margaretta Hoffman with whom he had four children-Martin II, Christina, Catherine, and David. In circa 1795, Martin Loy I moved to a community in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, which became known as Loysburg. There he operated a farm, flour mill, and a store. Martin Loy II of Loysburg married Elizabeth Ferguson who had twelve children. One of them, David M. Loy, married Ann Rebecca Schell in 1842 and was the father of Peter Schell Loy, the compiler of the Loy family papers. David M. Loy worked as a farmer, miller, store operator, boatman, and captain in the Pennsylvania militia before moving to De Pere, Wisconsin, in 1847 where, as a contractor, he built a dam and locks on the Fox River.
Peter Schell Loy was born in Somerset, Somerset County, Pennsylvania on November 11, 1846, and moved with his parents, David M. and Ann Rebecca Loy, to De Pere, Wisconsin, in 1847. He married Emily Hayes Arndt in 1869 and had three children-Charlotte, Mary, and Annah. Throughout his life, Peter was involved in numerous business ventures including stencil cutting; operating river boats; investing in timber land in Wisconsin, gold mines in Oregon, oil wells and almond orchards in California; and contracting for road construction projects. After living in De Pere for about fifty years, Peter moved to Los Angeles and shortly thereafter to Alhambra, California where he worked as a contractor and collected material related to his family's genealogy.
