Edgar Marks Lazarus was the sole—and indeed improbable—child of Phebe Yates and Joshua Lazarus. Both parents were over forty when they married, having met eighteen years prior when Joshua had paid a visit to Phebe’s home in Liverpool, England, on a visit from Charleston. It was in Charleston that the family then finally made its home. Having learned a lesson from his parents, perhaps, Edgar married at twenty-eight, taking the hand of Minnie Mordecai. The couple had seven children.