His WW I draft registration card, filed 12 Sep 1918, records Leonard Herman Alfrey, age 19, residence Cogswell, Rowan Co., Ky, born 7 March 1899, occupation laborer, employer Harry McKenzie, Cogswell, Ky, nearest relative Anna Alfrey, mother, Cogswell, Ky.

In 1920 he was recorded in Anderson, Madison Co., Indiana, as Herman Alfrey, boarder, 21, single, laborer at factory, with the family of Thomas L. Clapp and Belle Parker (see their census notes for details). Also boarding in the same household were his first cousins Herbert and Farmer Alfrey, sons of Fielding Alfrey and Caroline McKenzie, and Dewey Alfrey, son of Harvey Nelson Alfrey and Nellie McKenzie, and Sanford Reed, brother of Herman’s future wife Ethel.