James A. Quander Family History
James A. was the son of Susan Quander and Lewis Quander both of which were African American landowners. Lewis Quander was the original landholder of the property which James A.’s land was derived from. Lewis Quander died in 1964, there was no record of a will aside from a property assessment, it is also important to note that James A. Quander is not found in the Will Book Index even though he likely died before 1936. The assessment valued the property and possessions on the land and valued them at $1,125.50. From this document, we were also able to identify the names of his siblings, Charles, John P., Susanna, and Thomas. This is important as there was no birth, marriage, or death record of James A. Quander in the archives, so it was necessary to use his relative's records to formulate an accurate family tree. For example, the name of James A.’s wife, Alcinda, was found by looking at the birth record of their son Lewis C. Quander, who was likely named after James A.’s father.
In order to identify the children of James A. and Alcinda we then looked into the “Census of persons between the ages of Five and Twenty-one in the School District of Mt. Vernon Fairfax”. This record revealed that James A. and Alcinia had seven children, the names were Rosa E., Hannah M., Carrie E., Lewis C., Georgeanna, Katie C., and Annie F.
