Nantucket Genealogy
In the nineteenth century, Eliza Starbuck Barney (1802–1889) created a genealogical record that contained the births, deaths, and marriages of more than 40,000 Nantucketers over two and a half centuries.
The original genealogical record comprises 1,702 ledger pages in six volumes. Her record was based on data compiled by Benjamin Franklin Folger, who passed his records on to her at his death, as well as information gleaned from newspapers, public records, and family and friends.
The Eliza S. Barney Genealogical Record generally contains data on white individuals who were born on Nantucket and some information on those who married Nantucketers. Reflecting prevailing prejudices of Barney’s day, it omits virtually all islanders of color, despite Barney and her husband being well-known anti-slavery activists. Information on families that left Nantucket is scanty, as Barney was not able to track those who emigrated from the island. Death dates for individuals still living when Barney herself died in 1889 are also generally missing, understandably, except for people added by Barney’s granddaughter, who continued the record into the 1910s.
Eliza Starbuck Barney is known almost as much for her blue H-style Victorian home at 73 Main Street on Nantucket as for her genealogical work, which is now the foundation of the genealogical collection and database at the Nantucket Historical Association’s Research Library. Eliza was born on April 9, 1802, to Joseph and Sally Gardner Starbuck, the third of ten children (Stout 1998). Eliza was raised in the home of a Quaker family made wealthy by whale oil. Like other Nantucket girls who were afforded equal opportunities for schooling with those of their brothers, Eliza developed an enduring love and interest in the natural sciences, agriculture, and history. She became known on the island as a self-taught botanist and entomologist – and a good one. Her father was the Joseph Starbuck of “Three Bricks” fame, using his fortune to build three brick houses for his sons on Main Street. His daughters, he probably felt, would be provided for by their husbands. 