Thanks, Allen - the serial number etching looks like my father's handwriting (number writing?) but where he got the number from I don't know- certainly I can't find a stamped number anywhere else on the gun.
Sadly, I don't know the gun's history - my father was born in 1905 and died in 1988 so he's not around to ask. I believe he told me it originally belonged to his father, Gerard Fountain, which would seem about right if it were shipped around 1907.
My father had an interesting military career, serving in Squadron A, one of the last horse-mounted cavalry units in the National Guard before the war and then the USNR (Lt. Cmdr) during it. An expert marksman until his eyesight failed, I still have, and shoot, his National Match 1911A - it's a nice tie to the man.