All the world's a stage: Spotlight on Broadway Actor Edwin Nicander

Nicander Edwin Rau
date unknown, possibly 1920s
Source: NY Public Library

Edwin Nicander

(23 Dec 1876 - 1 Jan 1951) 

        Just before Christmas in 1876, Nicander Edwin Rau was born in New York City to Arnold H. Rau Sr. and Elizabeth "Elise" Dotzert Rau. He was their third and final son. His father Arnold (10 Aug 1843 - 8 Jun 1930) had emigrated from the Prussian state of Germany in the mid-1850s, while his mother Elise (8 Feb 1850 - 7 Jun 1926) was born in New York City to two German immigrants, Johann Georg "George" Dotzert (~ Apr 1825 - 10 Dec 1901) and Elizabeth Kraemer Dotzert (1828 - 5 Jan 1898). Edwin was my great grandmother Margretha "Margaret" Dotzert Speer's (31 Jul 1890 - 25 Mar 1967) first cousin.

Margaret Dotzert Speer, circa 1912

Edwin's father Arnold was a hotel restaurateur, a profession which was in line with the profession of his father-in-law George and perhaps how he met Edwin's mother Elise. 

In 1880, the family was living at 83 West 11th Street in the West Village. This exact street address doesn't exist anymore, but based on the current street view, the location was likely part of the large brick building on the corner.

Corner of West 11th and 6th Ave, West Village

In June 1887 when Edwin was 10, Arnold Sr. applies for a passport along with his three sons. They note that he has a dark complexion, prominent nose and high forehead and stands a modest 5 ft 6. 

Passport Application dated 9th Jun 1887 NYC

A short while later we can see Mr. Rau traveling with his three sons, Arnold Jr. (12 Jan 1870 - ?), Horatio Washington Arnold (22 Feb 1872 - ?) and Nicander Edwin (aka Edwin), as well as one Miss Rau (perhaps Elise or perhaps Mr. Rau's sister Caroline) on the SS Servia of the Cunard line. The Servia went into service in 1881 and ran between Liverpool and New York until 1901, when it was sold for scrap. It was taken apart the following year. SS Servia is considered to be the first modern passenger ocean liner and was quite luxurious for the time (the first with electricity on board!) so we can infer that the Rau family was doing quite well in the restaurant business.

Cover of Passenger List for Voyage
18 Jun 1887

S. S. Servia model Science Museum South Kensington
Source: Hugh Llewelyn, Flickr

No family records of this trip exist so it's hard to know exactly why the Raus headed to England that summer, though it is likely they traveled to Germany to see relatives after they arrived.

By 1900, Edwin and his brother are living with their parents at 13 Bank Street in the West Village. This historic Greek revival brownstone was built in 1852. All three sons are single and listed as "restaurant keeper" along with their father. However, Edwin had taken up acting about 6 years prior based on several newspaper records I've unearthed. In a somewhat bizarre coincidence, it turns out that infamous Hollywood producer and rapist Harvey Weinstein apparently bought 13 Bank Street in 2006 and then listed it for sale for $25.6 million dollars in 2018 after his legal troubles began.

Source: Town & Country magazine

The first citation of an actor called "Edwin Nicander" can be found in a Louisville, Kentucky newspaper on 27 Jan 1896. Young Edwin is playing a character called Gustave Alphonse (and received 4th billing) in a play called "The Vendetta". It's clear from the article that this was a traveling acting troupe, headed by W.R. Ogden, which moved around the country, as the article cites performance delays due to a train mishap coming from Cincinnati. 

The Courier Journal, 27 Jan 1896

But when did young Edwin begin acting? A later article in the Boston Globe says that he's a six year veteran of the stage, which would put his debut around 1894 when he was 17 or 18. It does look as though there was a little age flubbing going on already though, as Edwin should have been 23 almost 24 at the time the article was published.

The Boston Globe, 11 Nov 1900

There's a 20 year gap in the Rau family's history as I have yet to find any of them in the 1910 census, but the early 1900s show quite an uptick in newspaper articles reporting on Edwin. Between 1896 and his death in 1951, there were 1295 newspaper articles with the name Edwin Nicander. I have yet to confirm they are all about him about him, but by 1907 there are mentions of him on Broadway and the peak of the articles corresponds to 1900-1929, the era he was most active in the theater.

Edwin at 26 years old
Source: Evening Express, 24 Nov 1903

By the 1920 census, Edwin lists his profession as theater actor and he is still living with his parents, aunt Caroline and unmarried brother Horatio in College Point, Queens. In 1930, he resided at another Queens location with his very elderly father and aunt Caroline as well as a servant, still listing his profession as stage actor. However, based on the significant drop in newspaper articles about him by 1930 it appears the roles had mostly dried up for 53 year old Edwin. So much so in fact, that when he began appearing in his last Broadway play in 1938 (Kiss the Boys Goodbye) a journalist wrote about him having an 8 year lull! He was noted as a "short, serious, pleasant little man". Oof.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 Oct 1939

In spite of his likely industry forced retirement, Edwin still listed himself as a "theatre actor" in the 1940 census and lived with his widowed brother Arnold Jr in Queens. They remain living together in 1950 in Queens, but Edwin's entry states that he is "unable to work". The entry also notes that he never married. This census was taken on 18 Apr 1950 and Edwin would be dead in less than 9 months time.

Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 3 Jan 1951

It's hard to know exactly how many shows that Edwin acted in by the time he retired from the stage in 1939, but the Playbill website cites 29 Broadway shows between 1910 and 1938 and IMDB has a few earlier shows dating back to 1900. Although I don't know exactly when his brothers' Arnold and Horatio passed, I suspect it was before Edwin as only his nephew Thornwaldsen Arnold Rau (19 Sep 1889 - 26 Dec 1956) is mentioned in Edwin's obituary. T. Arnold had two sons, one who died while in college and the other who appears to have remained a lifelong bachelor like his uncle Edwin, thereby ending this line of the Dotzert family tree.

"Jack Straw", 1908
Source: Manuel Palomino Arjona, Flickr

"Good Gracious Annabelle", 1916
Source: Museum of the City of New York

"Buy, Buy, Baby", 1926
Source: Museum of the City of New York

NOTE: Edwin's last play "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" was popular enough that it was made into a Hollywood movie in 1941 starring Don Ameche and Mary Martin and the title song was wildly popular as well.

Cold Cases and Genetic Genealogy

I first had the idea for this blog post 2 years ago, but life got in the way so I saved my references and forgot about it. As many of you know, after more than 15 years as a high school science teacher, I will be starting a new career as a forensic investigative genetic genealogist soon. Completing this blog post feels like the best way to explain what I will be doing professionally without divulging any specifics of my own employment. That being said, I want to begin by telling you a story...

Rahway, New Jersey circa 1910

Imagine being able to travel back in time to early spring 1887. On a chilly Friday morning, March 25th, in Rahway, New Jersey, four brothers headed to work at the nearby Clark felt mills came across the body of a young woman who had been brutally murder. Her body lay on the side of the road near the Central Avenue bridge (not far from the intersection of Central and Jefferson Aves), a large pool of blood frozen on the ground beside her. Her face was extensively bruised from a severe beating, her hands bore defensive wounds, but perhaps most shockingly of all, her throat had been cut twice from ear to ear. 

Rahway New Jersey, 1887 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map

Now homicide was unusual in this area in 1887, especially one so violent. Add to this the fact that the victim, estimated to be in her early 20s, was said to be very pretty, with dark hair and light eyes, and well dressed and you had an instant national obsession with the mystery.

A sketch of the victim, published in April 1887 (source: National Police Gazette)

There was a lot of wild speculation about who the young woman was and where she'd come from - her time of death was likely the evening before and she was not terribly far from the train station which made Rahway easily accessible from other parts of New Jersey and New York City. Despite the murder weapon being recovered near the body as well as multiple large shoe impressions around and leading away from the victim, a dozen or so personal items of the victim recovered from a handbag found in the river and many eyewitness statements collected over a long investigation, neither the victim nor her murderer were ever positively identified. To this day, the victim is simply referred to as the Rahway Jane Doe. 

Reward for the Suspect, equivalent to about $18,750 today

A homicide that is unsolved for a long period of time in known as a cold case. The reality is that with each passing day, week, month, year or decade, the probability of solving that cold case diminishes significantly. However, law enforcement does not stop investigating these cases, as there is no statute of limitations on prosecuting a homicide or identifying a victim. Unfortunately due to limited resources, these cases can languish if there is no substantial new evidence or information available to the detectives.

National Institute of Justice Cold Case DNA Program

In 2008, direct to consumer genetic tests began to be marketed to the public, largely by US startup 23andMe. These tests give customers the opportunity to learn more about genetic variants they'd inherited, match with previously unknown genetic relatives and learn more about the places in the world their ancestors likely came from. All that was required was some spit in a tube, but initially the tests were quite costly. Our own family had quite a few genealogical brick walls that could only be solved using DNA, but I didn't have the money to spend so I waited and watched. By 2013, the price had come down to a much more reasonable $99 so I jumped in. Ancestry.com is the largest paid subscription genealogy company and had been for a long time when they decided to dip their toe into the genetic testing waters in 2012. With a well established paying customer base, their database steadily shot past the number of clients in 23andMe's database. It is currently the largest database of its kind globally, with over 22 million users.

DTC Genetic Database Growth

Adoptees and genealogists with problematic tree branches were the first to recognize how powerful comparison of family trees with known genetic relatives could be for uncovering the identity of previously unknown individuals. An entire subculture of genealogists developed to cater to folks with unknown parentage and the term "genetic genealogist" was born. Fast forward to 2017 in California when the cold case investigator Paul Holes working on the so-called Golden State Killer crimes (13 murders, 51 rapes and 120 burglaries) got a clever idea. He'd learned a bit about genetic genealogy through his own family research and wanted to know if the same technique could work for finding the suspect. His initial attempts to find a suspect where not particularly successful so he enlisted the help of Dr. Barbara Rae-Venter (ex-wife of Craig Venter, the head of Celera Genomics, which was the private company to first sequence a human genome in the early 2000s). Dr. Rae-Venter has a PhD in biology as well as a law degree, doing both research and patent law in her career. Since retiring, she's worked full time assisting law enforcement on cold cases. 

It's extremely important to note that law enforcement agents cannot directly access the paid subscription genetic databases like Ancestry or 23andme. Instead, investigators rely on accessing GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA's databases, which allow people to upload their raw data from other companies into their database to try to find matches across testing platforms. Also know that users can opt out of allowing law enforcement to see if they match DNA from a crime scene. So here's how things played out in California...

Are you ready for some sobering statistics? According to the NIJ, there are approximately 240,000 unsolved homicides in the United States. According to RAINN, there are over 290,000 victims of rape or sexual assault per year in the US - that's a new victim every two minutes. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems (NamUS), approximately 600,000 people go missing every year in the US. About 90 percent of those people are recovered within a year (dead or alive), but still for a staggering number of families there are no answers. Over 4000 unidentified bodies are recovered each year. Several organizations (i.e. DNA Doe Project) focusing on identifying these John and Jane Does have been successful in crowd sourcing funding to get the necessary genetic testing and genealogy done. But we have a serious identification problem in this country - one that can be made better through adequately funding the expansion of forensic investigative genetic genealogy.

As you and your loved ones consider taking DNA tests through Ancestry or 23andme or any of the other myriad of sites, please seriously consider contributing your DNA to GEDmatch and opting in to law enforcement seeing your matches. This tool is only as good as the size of the database - the fewer people in the database, the longer it can take to crack a cold case.

As far as Rahway Jane Doe, the local police department is still open to collecting tips. And who knows? Perhaps one day, someone will raise the money to exhume her body to get a DNA sample so that she can be returned to her family at long last.