Bert is the guy on the right for that rabbit hunt. I don't know the other men.
Ok. So here's my first brick wall that I just feel is on the cusp of crashing down.
We know that he was born on 15 October 1882 in Bowling Green, Warren, Kentucky. He left at 16 when he got into a fight with his dad over a violin, according to Bert's daughter, Helen in a letter to Ryan's Aunt Louise Gerking.
He joined the railway and saw the country. He turns up married (the first documentation of his existence that I can find) to Dora Weidner on 19 Dec 1909 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
He died on 6 April 1952 in Alliance, Box Butte, Nebraska.
He unfortunately was a drunk and had left his family, not even recognizing his own son on the street many years after leaving them. He turned up dead in his hotel room in 1952 from a self-inflicted wound to his neck.
What we need to find out is who the heck his parents were.
So I took my question to the Kentucky Historical Society and they emailed me a response of the following 1880 census.
So while this means that I might have found Bert's dad, I don't know for certain. We do know from census records after he's married that he says his parents were always from Pennsylvania, and in this record, Harry and his wife are both from Pennsylvania. So it's a big, fat, maybe. m.a.y.b.e. M.A.Y.B.E.
I wish I could know for certain. I'll just have to follow this trail and see where it leads. So wish me luck!
