After two hours discussing our separate work lives, Michael, and the tramp writer settle in to our work together, documenting in narrative his curation of our family history.

“He was stately gentleman with that Civil War mustache and beard. Grandma Alice had a picture of him that she captioned ‘Daddy O,’ so she must have known him. She was 20 when he died.”

[Did she get that caption from somebody else, or is that how she addressed him in person? It would be very cool, as a grandfather to have your granddaughter calling you ‘Daddy O.’]

“Nedora Quaid, the grandmother of Joseph, who married Lillian, her maiden name was Dean, got married in January 28, 1880. She claimed that Alexander [Aunt Bet’s middle name was Nedora.], that our great great grandfather, Alexander Quaid was what might be called now, ‘a loser.’ He just wanted to drink and play cards all his life. In her sixties, she was traveling to New York to work to support this sickly child she adopted while this asshole was sitting on his ass doing nothing. She sued him for divorce in April 1921. Joseph, our great, great, grandfather testified about that divorce. His son, your grandfather, my great grandfather, testified in their divorce. That says something—he would have been 31, married to Lillian for four years at that point.

“I haven’t found any records of the Quaids in the Civil War. Alexander Quaid is such a unique name in the family. Lot’s of James and a lot of William, Thomas. When there is a family of 6 or 8 or 10 children, naming them the same names as their ancestors, you have a multi-generation repetition of similar, very catholic same names, close together, makes doing research very hard. With the generations so close together it must have been confusing for them.

“I have a James H. Quaid who had a son H. B. Quaid, Marshall Quaid, John Henry Quaid, Thomas Quaid, and Alexander. James H. Quaid would be our great, great great grandfather. Cicilia Ann Copsey, who was born in 1816 in Saint Mary’s lived up to 1900. She died the year Lillian was born. She married James H. Quaid and they had a son James H. Quaid, who married Sarah Ann Wheeler, who had more children then I have information on. They had Alexander. I can pull in stuff from other people’s family trees.. we have Clements, Deans, Lewises... back to England, I stopped digging back further.

“Here is Cicilia Copesy, ain’t she a beauty—I’ll send you this picture. The James H. Quaid she married was a son of Thomas Quaid, who was the Son of a Thomas Quaid—so this is the shit I’m dealing with. Now you know how our cousin Thomas got his name.

“Alexander Marshal Quaid married Nedora Dean, our great great Grandmother, through our Great Grandfather Joseph, Lillian’s husband. Joseph died before any of us were born, of liver cancer. That’s who our Uncle Joe was named after. He worked hard, he was a projectionist and a musician. He worked at the Blue Mouse and at the Highland Theater in Highlandtown. It was his father, Alexander who didn’t work. He died of old age on the 31st of January at 4:30 PM, 1946, at his daughter May’s house on Foster Avenue in Highlandtown. He was buried in Oaklawn. He was 87 and his death certificate said circulatory failure, sounds like old age to me. [1] In 1946 my grandmother would have been 20

[Nedora is pictured with a dress and apron with a broom, in a clap board fence yard, perhaps a patio. She is a doll.]

“Nedora worked in New York at Saint Luke’s Hospital. The court transcripts did not say what she did. She was only temporarily there, but owned property in Baltimore, probably the house that May winds up living in. [2] That house shows up a lot in other people’s records. For instance at some point when young Joseph lives there. Then Joseph’s half brother, the criminal William, lived at that address. William broke the Mann Act, the white slavery act, a couple of times! And he was a thief, a pick pocket, so he shows up in newspaper clippings for being a pickpocket. I’m sure its him, because they list Nedora’s address. He had an AKA, James Hill. From a paper in Altoona Pennsylvania, Chief Tillard received tips for two professional dips [pickpockets]. He had a partner, more alleged pickpockets. I will send you the newspaper clipping.

“Reading: Evening Sun on Monday, August 2, 1920: Quaid Committed to Jail, arrested on the charge of violating the Federal White Slave Law, was committed to jail today by Commissioner Supple in default of $2,000 bail, for a hearing Thursday, Helen Reese, 14 years old, is the girl in the case. Quaid is charged with taking her to Washington.”

He was 34, trucking with a 14-year-old. Even back then it was not acceptable. He was in jail in Dauphin, Pennsylvania when he died.”

“William was technically Nedora’s step son, but she considered him her son and was listed in the obituary as his loving mother.

I’m pretty sure Nedora married…

We will revisit Nedora’s life in our next meeting in May 2026. Michael does assure me that she lived to 99.

…

Notes

-1. I opine that Alexander knew that hard work could have longevity complications.

-2. Aunt May moved to Columbus Ohio in later years, where my parents, brother, sister and I visited them from Washington, Pennsylvania on our way to visit Uncle Fred Kern and his family in Marion, Illinois. Her adult son had an interesting job and a poster in his room of an obese orangutan smoking a joint.