The ancestral lineage of the Alexander family can be traced back to Rufus Alexander during the era of the American Revolution. Rufus Alexander was born near Newbury, MA about twenty years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The names of his parents and any siblings remains unknown. State records suggest that he served in the revolutionary army during the years following the official end of the war in 1783. However, no records have been found which show that he was an official solider during wartime. Following his time served in the army, Rufus Alexander married and had at least one child who shared his name. Rufus Alexander passed away sometime around 1820 as evidenced by a military pension application produced that year. 

The only known son of Rufus Alexander was Rufus Alexander Jr. who was born on the 20th of September, 1800. By 1810, the family was living near the northern edge of the finger lakes region in Canandaigua, New York. A census record indicated that Rufus Sr., his son and an unnamed woman (presumably his wife) were living in this small town.

Ten years later, around 1820, Rufus Alexander Jr. married Eleanor Robbins of Albany, New York. Together they moved east to Pittstown, NY to start a family. Their first child was born in 1821 and they would have 7 more children (including 2 sets of twins!) in the next ten years. Rufus and Eleanor would remain residents of the area for the next seventy years. Rufus Alexander lived to be ninety-two years old, passing away in 1892.

Nearly all of the children of Rufus and Eleanor Alexander remained near Albany, NY during their adult lives. However, the second oldest son, Warren P. Alexander left his siblings behind and moved westward towards Indiana sometime during the 1840's. By 1851, was living near Brazil, Indiana as evidenced by the birth of his first child, Dorian Alexander. He would father two more children in 1853 and 1855. The mother of these children remains unknown. However, it appears that on November 10th, 1857, Warren married Lucinda Wallace in Edgar, IL just west of Terra Haute, IN. Lucinda, who was twenty years younger than Warren at the time of their marriage, was a native of Vevay, IN along the Ohio river.

Together, Lucinda and Warren had six children during the next fifteen years. At some point during that time, the family moved north-east of Indianapolis, settling in Madison County, IN. Warren worked as a cooper (barrel maker) and this was likely the profession of his father as well. Most of their children remained local to the Indianapolis area, however, some did move away.

Of Warren's nine children, two of them, Elsadora and Edward, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Elsadora moved with her husband, Clarence Stickley, who was looking for work. Edward married Emily Edwards   (of Roane Co., WV) and also move to Cincinnati to find work.  

Arriving in Cincinnati just before the turn of the 20th century, Edward, following in the footsteps of his paternal ancestors, found gainful employment as a cooper. By 1900, Edward was living with his wife, Emily, and four young children in a small apartment on the second floor of the building at 316 E. Front Street just along the Ohio riverfront. All four children, George, Viola, Minnie, and William, would grow up in Cincinnati and start families there.

 In July 1917, Edward's wife, Emily passed away due to a heart attack. At the time, the Alexanders were living in a townhouse at 939 Gest St. Edward and his two youngest children Minnie and Bill still lived with him. The other siblings had already married and moved out. Although Minnie soon married William Stewart, she and her husband continued living with Edward until at least 1921.

 The youngest of the siblings, William "Bill" Alexander married Julia Manning, a Cincinnati native, on November 5th, 1919 after his military stint. As newlyweds, Bill and Julia also lived with Edward Alexander before moving to another apartment on Hopkins St. in 1921. Living close to the rail yards, Bill took a profitable job as a freight clerk for the railroad depot. During this time, William and Julia had four children including twin girls, Dorothy and Virginia. Their grandfather, Edward, passed away in 1929 when the twins were only seven years old.

​As an avid dancer during the 1920s, Julia spent many days teaching her children to dance and taking them for walks in the nearby Lincoln Park (now the Union Terminal). Her daughter, Dorothy fondly remembers how kind and loving her mother was during her childhood. During that time, the family had become quite well-off. They had a nice home in Camp Washington with a quality radio and her father owned two cars. Dorothy remembers having many toys and a large Victorian dollhouse that would have been quite expensive in those days. It was suggested that Bill occasionally used his truck to transport bootlegged spirits from the stockyards to speakeasies around Cincinnati. This was likely a profitable venture during the era of prohibition.

​However, the good times were not to last. Following the 1929 stock market crash, the family was forced to budget their income. Luckily, Bill Alexander was able to keep his work at the railroad depot and for the most part, was able to provide for the family.  Tragedy struck the family in the fall of 1930 when Julia began showing signs of consumption (TB infection). In an effort to improve her health, the family moved to a new home in the coincidentally-named community of Mt. Healthy. However, despite the change of scenery, Julia remained sickly. In early March of 1931, she succumbed to the infection, leaving her husband and the children grief-stricken.

​The sudden lost of his beloved wife devastated Bill and he found himself unable to work or even care for his children. Without an income and overburdened by a new mortgage, Bill quickly became financially imperiled. According to Dorothy, she and her siblings were whisked away to the home of her Uncle George, who was unkind to them. However, Aunt Sadee, George's wife, was much nicer to Dorothy and her siblings. Aunt Sadee was a childhood friend of Julia and felt obligated to help the children.  The children were kept at their home in Mt. Washington under quarantine for several months to see if they contracted TB. Luckily none of them ever did. However, during the move, Dorothy recalls that all of her toys and clothing were left behind and she had nothing to play with during her quarantine save for a few old dolls.

Following their quarantine and with no one willing to care for them indefinitely,  the children were placed in the local General Protestant Orphanage. All of the children's toys were given to relatives or sold, as was much of Julia's furniture. The two boys, Warren and Robert, were separated from the twin girls at the orphanage and as a result the pairs rarely saw each other during the next seven years.

In the orphanage, the children did much better than many other children in Cincinnati during the Great Depression. Dorothy and her siblings had clean clothes, hot meals, and warm showers. They also received a modest education. On rare occasions, their Aunt Viola would visit the children at the orphanage. This was always an exciting event for them. When Aunt Viola visited, Dorothy and Virginia were also able to see their brothers and Viola would often bring them all new clothing and some treats. Without Aunt Viola's visits, the siblings might have never seen each other at all during their many years at the orphanage.

When they reached the age of 16, the Alexander children were finally old enough to be released from the orphanage. While the first years of freedom were certainly filled with difficulty. Ultimately, they found a way to make life interesting. Virginia joined the Women's Army Corps and moved to Maine. Warren married June Kelly and started a family in Cincinnati. Robert married Natalie Ruehrwein and also started a family in Cincinnati. Dorothy married Lamont Richardson and stayed in Cincinnati as well with their three children. Dorothy and her siblings tried to meet once a week on Tuesdays for lunch at a bar known as "Hoops" in downtown Cincinnati. It was there that the siblings finally were given the opportunity to form a strong relationship that they had lost during their time at the orphanage.