Parents

Ford Thompson Dabney was born to John Wesley (J.W.) Dabney (1851–1924) and Rebecca C. Ford (maiden; 1854–1896).
J.W. and Rebecca had married November 13, 1879, in Alexandria, Virginia.
J.W. was a musician and celebrated barber, who, according to the Washington Times in 1903, had cut hair for President McKinley and President Theodore Roosevelt.
Beginning around 1889, J.W. Dabney was often referred to as Capt.
J.W. Dabney, reflecting his rank in a Washington, D.C.-based milita, exclusively African-American, known as the Washington Cadet Corps, founded June 12, 1880 – which in 1887, was the first unit to become a permanent part of the then newly established District of Columbia National Guard, Fifth Battalion.
Capt.
Dabney, nonetheless, as a professional, was chronicled as an innovative and successful tonsorial artist.
Ford's step-mother, Capt.
Dabney's second wife (married December 21, 1898) – Gertrude V. Dabney (née Gertrude V. Adams; 1876–1961) – sold J.W. Dabney's tonic products.

J.W. Dabney's barber shop, in the latter 1880s, was at the Hamilton House Hotel, 14th and K Streets, N.W. (same site as the Hamilton Hotel erected in 1922 at the northwest corner of Franklin Square).
On November 15, 1888, J.W. Dabney opened a barber shop at Welckers Hotel (see photo below), 721 15th Street, N.W., between New York Avenue and H Street, N.W.
Dabney's stepmother, Gertrude, in 1929, held the distinction of serving on the first all-women jury in Washington, D.C. She was the only non-white.

Wife
Dabney married – on March 14, 1912, in Washington – Martha D. Gans, widow of boxer Joe Gans who had owned the Goldfield Hotel in Baltimore at the corner of East Lexington and Colvin Streets, just east of downtown, in the Pleasant View Gardens neighborhood.
Joe Gans – according to boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer – was the greatest lightweight boxer of all-time.

Ford and Martha had a son, Ford Thompson Dabney, Jr. (1917–1983), who became a certified public accountant.

Uncle and step-aunt: James H. and Ruby H. Dabney
Gertrude's sister (Ford Dabney's step-aunt), Ruby H. Dabney (née Ruby Adams; 1872–1901) (see photo below), was the second of three wives of one of Ford's uncles, James H. Dabney (1846–1923), a prominent and affluent Washington, D.C.-based undertaker and philanthropist.
Ruby, in 1898, earned a professional degree from the Massachusetts College of Embalming, Boston – notable for being the first African American woman in the history of Washington, D.C., to earn a college diploma.

Uncle: Wendell Phillips Dabney
Dabney's uncle, Wendell Phillips Dabney (1965–1952), who is chronicled as having been one of his music teachers, became founding president of Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP, author, and newspaper editor and publisher of the Ohio Enterprise, later named The Union, both late of Cincinnati.
During the early 1890s, Prof. Wendell Phillips Dabney was of the most notable musicians in Richmond, Virginia.
He had studied attended music in 1883 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Part of his influence on Ford Dabney, as his student, may be found in the 1914 composition, "Castle Valse Classique," humoreske, an adaptation by Dabney of Antonin Dvořák's Humoresque, Op.
101, No.
7 (of 8), Poco lento e grazioso in G♭ major.
Prof. Dabney, in 1895, contacted Dvořák, who was director the National Conservatory of Music of America, an institution in New York that, like Oberlin, accepted African Americans.
At Dvořák's home, Prof. Dabney, among other things, introduced one of his own compositions, a plantation melody, "Uncle Remus."

Great uncle: John Marshall Dabney
One of Dabney's great uncles, John Marshall Dabney (1824–1900), was honored in November 2015 in Richmond, Virginia, at the Quirk Hotel, as a caterer and bartender – known as the world's greatest mint julep maker.
The event was attended by notable community members and one of his great-great granddaughters, Jennifer Hardy (née Jennifer Dehaven Jackson).
Jennifer's mother (great-granddaughter-in-law of John Marshall Dabney), Mary Hinkson (1925–2014), was an
Parents

Ford Thompson Dabney was born to John Wesley (J.W.) Dabney (1851–1924) and Rebecca C. Ford (maiden; 1854–1896). J.W. and Rebecca had married November 13, 1879, in Alexandria, Virginia. J.W. was a musician and celebrated barber, who, according to the Washington Times in 1903, had cut hair for President McKinley and President Theodore Roosevelt. Beginning around 1889, J.W. Dabney was often referred to as Capt. J.W. Dabney, reflecting his rank in a Washington, D.C.-based milita, exclusively African-American, known as the Washington Cadet Corps, founded June 12, 1880 – which in 1887, was the first unit to become a permanent part of the then newly established District of Columbia National Guard, Fifth Battalion. Capt. Dabney, nonetheless, as a professional, was chronicled as an innovative and successful tonsorial artist. Ford's step-mother, Capt. Dabney's second wife (married December 21, 1898) – Gertrude V. Dabney (née Gertrude V. Adams; 1876–1961) – sold J.W. Dabney's tonic products.
J.W. Dabney's barber shop, in the latter 1880s, was at the Hamilton House Hotel, 14th and K Streets, N.W. (same site as the Hamilton Hotel erected in 1922 at the northwest corner of Franklin Square). On November 15, 1888, J.W. Dabney opened a barber shop at Welckers Hotel (see photo below), 721 15th Street, N.W., between New York Avenue and H Street, N.W.
Dabney's stepmother, Gertrude, in 1929, held the distinction of serving on the first all-women jury in Washington, D.C. She was the only non-white.
Wife
Dabney married – on March 14, 1912, in Washington – Martha D. Gans, widow of boxer Joe Gans who had owned the Goldfield Hotel in Baltimore at the corner of East Lexington and Colvin Streets, just east of downtown, in the Pleasant View Gardens neighborhood. Joe Gans – according to boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer – was the greatest lightweight boxer of all-time.
Ford and Martha had a son, Ford Thompson Dabney, Jr. (1917–1983), who became a certified public accountant.
Uncle and step-aunt: James H. and Ruby H. Dabney
Gertrude's sister (Ford Dabney's step-aunt), Ruby H. Dabney (née Ruby Adams; 1872–1901) (see photo below), was the second of three wives of one of Ford's uncles, James H. Dabney (1846–1923), a prominent and affluent Washington, D.C.-based undertaker and philanthropist. Ruby, in 1898, earned a professional degree from the Massachusetts College of Embalming, Boston – notable for being the first African American woman in the history of Washington, D.C., to earn a college diploma.
Uncle: Wendell Phillips Dabney
Dabney's uncle, Wendell Phillips Dabney (1965–1952), who is chronicled as having been one of his music teachers, became founding president of Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP, author, and newspaper editor and publisher of the Ohio Enterprise, later named The Union, both late of Cincinnati. During the early 1890s, Prof. Wendell Phillips Dabney was of the most notable musicians in Richmond, Virginia. He had studied attended music in 1883 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Part of his influence on Ford Dabney, as his student, may be found in the 1914 composition, "Castle Valse Classique," humoreske, an adaptation by Dabney of Antonin Dvořák's Humoresque, Op. 101, No. 7 (of 8), Poco lento e grazioso in G♭ major. Prof. Dabney, in 1895, contacted Dvořák, who was director the National Conservatory of Music of America, an institution in New York that, like Oberlin, accepted African Americans. At Dvořák's home, Prof. Dabney, among other things, introduced one of his own compositions, a plantation melody, "Uncle Remus."
Great uncle: John Marshall Dabney
One of Dabney's great uncles, John Marshall Dabney (1824–1900), was honored in November 2015 in Richmond, Virginia, at the Quirk Hotel, as a caterer and bartender – known as the world's greatest mint julep maker. The event was attended by notable community members and one of his great-great granddaughters, Jennifer Hardy (née Jennifer Dehaven Jackson). Jennifer's mother (great-granddaughter-in-law of John Marshall Dabney), Mary Hinkson (1925–2014), was an 
Ford Dabney