Donaldson family.

Henry Herbert Donaldson, professor of neurology, was born in Yonkers, New York, on April 20, 1857. In 1884 he married Julia Desboro Vaux, who died in 1894. They had two sons, Norman Vaux and John Calvert Donaldson. Henry Donaldson died of pneumonia and heart failure on January 23, 1938.

Hildegarde Nash Donaldson was born in Belgium on June 19, 1893, the daughter of James and Mabel W. Nash. Her father died in 1904; her mother died in 1914, leaving Hildegarde as guardian of her younger sister, Mabel Virginia "Gin" Nash. Mabel Virginia Nash lived in Paris much of her life and died there in 1957. Hildegarde Nash Donaldson was an accomplished violonist, performing her first concert at age eighteen. She died of arthritis in Taos, New Mexico in 1946.

Norman Vaux Donaldson graduated from Yale University in 1915 and married Hildegarde Beardsley Nash in 1917. Norman Donaldson worked at the Yale University Press and was appointed director of the Press in 1950. He retired in 1959 and died in 1964. Norman and Hildegarde had two children: Virginia Louise "Midge" Donaldson (born 1918) and Harry Nash "Sonny" Donaldson (born 1920). Midge Donaldson was an actress in theater on and off Broadway. Sonny Donaldson attended Phillips Academy and Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute and worked as an engineer.