When Herbert Francis Ashby was born on 1 January 1890, in Louisville, Jefferson, Kentucky, United States, his father, William David Ashby, was 42 and his mother, Henrietta Nancy Stultz, was 30. He married Cordia Carman on 31 May 1949, in Lawrenceburg, Anderson, Kentucky, United States. He died on 11 March 1951, in Louisville, Jefferson, Kentucky, United States, at the age of 61, and was buried in Louisville, Jefferson, Kentucky, United States.