GEORGE BECKHAM BERTRAM was born on February 15, 1901, in Casey County, Kentucky. George's parents were Joel Mason Bertram and Sarah Matilda McFarland. He married Sallie Mariah Marshall on May 24, 1924. Sallie was born on November 11, 1905, in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of Jesse Marshall and Martha Hutchinson.

To make ends meet, Sallie's mother and step-father, John Edwards, rented out rooms. George Bertram came to Louisville looking for work and rented a room from the Edwards. George's brother, Ernest Benton, had met Sallie's sister, Lula, this way. Benton and Lula married and moved to Illinois. When Sallie went to visit her mother and stepfather, she met George Bertram.

The family that had taken in Sallie didn't like George, so George and Sallie ran away to Illinois where George had a job waiting for him. They married on their way to the job, May 24, 1924. They settled on a 40-acre farm between Springfield and Jacksonville (New Berlin), Illinois.

After 5 years and the birth of three children, George and Sallie took their children back to Casey County, Kentucky. Besides being sick quite a bit, George was homesick for his mother, Sarah Matilda McFarland Bertram. It is unknown where they lived at first, but it wasn't long before George bought a little farm in Casey County, and they lived there until they moved to Lincoln County in 1947. Though it is unsure if they had their fourth child at the first home they lived in after coming back to Casey County, the last four were born on the little farm George had bought.

When the Bertrams moved to Lincoln County in December 1947, they lived in a house on the back of the Wilderness Road Farm. George wanted to leave Casey County in the hopes of improving the family's lives. He couldn't make a living on the farm there. After the family had lived on the Wilderness Road Farm exactly one year, the family moved to the big house in the front of the farm. Doctor George Park of Chicago, Illinois, and Smith Park of Richmond, Kentucky, owned the Wilderness Road Farm. George and Sallie lived in the big house from 1948 until 1963 when they sold out and bought a house in Stanford, Kentucky. While there, they became members of the Willow Grove Baptist Church in Boyle County. George served as church treasurer for several years. George and Sallie lived in Stanford for several years before moving back to Casey County to live next door to their daughter, Martha, and her husband, John Dean. After moving to Casey County, they became members of Chestnut Grove Baptist Church. On November 16, 1989, their children moved them to an apartment in Stanford. They lived in Stanford until their deaths.

George passed away on March 7, 1992, at the age of 91, and was buried in the Buffalo Springs Cemetery in Stanford. Sallie passed away in Stanford, Lincoln County, Kentucky, on November 30, 1996, after suffering from dementia for several years. She was 91 at the time of her death. Sallie was also buried in the Buffalo Springs Cemetery in Stanford. They were the parents of 8 children.