When Melvin Afflerbach was born on 25 August 1894, in Pennsylvania, United States, his father, Samuel Edward Afflerbach, was 28 and his mother, Debbie Lambert Weikel, was 19. He married Eleanora Ruth Minnich on 7 November 1917, in Allentown, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, United States. He lived in Durham, Bucks, Pennsylvania, United States in 1910. He died on 19 October 1957, in Quakertown, Bucks, Pennsylvania, United States, at the age of 63, and was buried in Bucks, Pennsylvania, United States.