In my last entry, I shared details of my grandfather’s short, rather sad marriage to one Bertha Erhardt.  I ended on a sympathetic note towards my one-time, “sort-of,” step-grandmother.

Documents show Bertha, born in 1889, was wife to my grandfather from 1915 to 1922.  However, despite being separated for well over a decade, it was not until 1938 when she was almost fifty that she made the divorce final, relying on legal aid to assist with costs.  I suppose she lacked the desire and/or financial means to officially end the union sooner.  This final detail seemed to paint a picture of a middle-aged woman struggling to make ends meet without the joy or satisfaction of family.  Such is life.

With my grandfather’s track record of courting somewhat vulnerable women, I reasoned that Bertha’s early life was more than likely also lacking in some regard.  My goal was to learn more about this woman, partly out of curiosity and partly to ease my mildly troubled mind.

Early digs into United States Federal Census reports for both before and after Bertha’s time with my grandfather proved fruitless.  Yes, I found several “Bertha Erhardt’s” prior to the 1915 marriage.  Yes, I found several “Bertha Hammond’s” in the years after the marriage.  No, I couldn’t substantiate any of them as “my Bertha.”  Such is life for an amateur genealogist. 

And then finally a breakthrough.  It was an easily ignored obituary on page 12 of the August 29^th, 1927, issue of the Deseret News, out of Salt Lake City, Utah.  “Mrs. Louise Williams died Saturday…surviving are the following brothers and sisters, William and Frank Erhardt, Mrs. Fred Deuscher and Mrs. Bertha Hammond.”  Obituaries can often be a goldmine of information, and this one proved just that!  With a list of Bertha’s siblings, it was simple to determine which Bertha from the 1890, 1900 and 1910 United States Federal Census reports was my Bertha.

As happens with online genealogical research, one finding led to another and before long – likely fewer than a couple hours – I was able to create a full sketch of my mysterious Erhardt’s early years.

I learned that Bertha hailed from St. Louis, Missouri.   The family mourned the death of a son in 1890, only one year after Bertha’s own arrival.  Further tragedy struck in 1898, when a ten-year-old Bertha was forced to accept her father’s untimely death.  Sadly, the newspaper report suggested suicide.

From there, mother and two daughters made their way to Salt Lake City, possibly a temporary stall on their way to the golden promise of California.  Classified ads, as well as city directories, show a nomadic existence characterized by ads seeking housework and offering massage, coupled with frequent moves from rentals to rooming houses and back again.  This pattern continued until 1915 when Bertha would marry my grandfather. 

While I described their unhappy union in the prior post, I have yet to share any details of Bertha’s life once she was free of my grandfather, which seemed to be the case by 1922.

One year removed, Bertha was renting a room in the Kenyon Hotel when her sixty-seven-year-old mother would expire, the details of which were reported to creditors in the local newspaper.  As reported above, Bertha’s only other close family, her sister Louise, died in 1927 at age forty-six.  In that same year, under the title of “Notice of Sale to Foreclose” the Salt Lake Tribune would publish a list of household items and necessities previously under the ownership of one Bertha Hammond. 

The sad list contains no fewer than forty-items including a laundry hamper, two beds, and a bundle of pictures.  Sad memories of a home that once was.  Or possibly with no permanent residence of her own, Bertha was discarding her recently deceased sister’s possessions, unable to pay for storage and possibly not able to use the possessions herself due to having no permanent residence. 

This leads us to the next milestone in Bertha’s life, the 1938 divorce and my theory that she may have been pursuing a potential husband to share in both her miseries and joys.

As usual, the details won’t disappoint.  Check back again soon.