Sara Dorothea was the daughter of Charles and Sara Ann (Young) Gardner [married 1803], of New York City, later New Utrecht, NY [now part of Brooklyn], and finally Patchogue, Long Island, NY. She married Hubert Henry Schrader [d. 1937] of Southampton, Long Island. They had no children. Sara inherited from her father a painting (now in the NGA) of a cat by an anonymous folk, or "naive" painter, probably dating to the latter half of the nineteenth century. After Sara Schrader's death, the picture remained in her husband's possession until he died in June of 1937.