Louis Aloysius Miller Sr.

📜 Documented History

📍 1920 Census

At age 8, Louis lived at 4715 Fourth Street in Jefferson County with his parents Claude and Mattie, and brothers Thurman and Bertram. Claude worked in dry cleaning. Mattie, whose parents were born in Germany, kept the home.

📍 1930 Census

A decade later, the family lived at 2032 Lakeside Drive, and Claude was managing a Dye Works. Louis, now 18, was not employed. The home was valued at $8,000—a notable sum in Depression-era Kentucky.

🏠 1932 City Directory

Louis appears again, possibly married to Mary Miller and living at 622 S. Shelby. This is the same year their son, Louis Aloysius Miller Jr., was born. The city directory lists the wife’s middle initial as “I,” not “K”—but Ancestry suggests this is indeed our couple. The match remains probable, but not definitive.

🧬 Confirmed Marriage & Child

According to the Social Security Applications and Claims Index, Louis A. Miller was married to Mary K. Gunterman and fathered Louis Aloysius Miller Jr. This is our only official confirmation of the marriage.

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🕳️ The Disappearance

Sometime after 1932, Louis Sr. vanished from family records. Oral history and adoption paperwork suggest he abandoned the family, and no confirmed records of his later life or death have yet surfaced. Many online trees conflate him with Louis Albert Miller, but so far, there’s no solid evidence to support the merge.

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📝 Notes from the Archivist

We know only what the paper tells us: a boy in Jefferson County, a young man adrift in the 1930s, and a father who left behind more questions than answers. Perhaps someday a draft card, obituary, or faded photograph will fill in the blanks. Until then, this page stands as a quiet witness to his place in the lineage.

Have a memory or theory about Louis Aloysius Miller Sr.?
His story is still unfolding. If you have family lore, fragments, or even a whisper of what became of him, please share it over on his Intro page. Every thread helps us stitch together the life of a man who vanished too soon from his son’s story—and from ours.

Until next time,

~Kris

🕯️ Revisited by Bones: Louis Aloysius Miller Sr.

The Vanishing Father | Dry-Cleaner’s Son | A Man of Shadows

Some ancestors leave behind pages of letters, photographs, and paper trails winding through time like ivy on brick. And then, there are those like Louis Aloysius Miller Sr.—men who walk off stage mid-act, leaving us clutching only fragments.

Born on 10 July 1911 in Jefferson County, Kentucky, Louis came into a world perched between wars, the child of Claude and Mattie (App) Miller. His early life is documented in census snapshots and directory listings—enough to prove he existed, but not enough to understand why he disappeared.