Joan McCord was married to her first husband, the sociologist William Maxwell McCord, with whom she had co-authored numerous early publications. She divorced him soon after and married Carl A. Silver instead, with whom she had two sons Geoffrey Sayre-McCord (resides in Durham, N.C.), and Robert McCord (resides in Bryn Mawr, Pa.). She also have a brother in Santa Cruz, California, a sister Connie Arnosti in Milwaukee.[1] and four grandchildren.