Eliza Starbuck Barney
Eliza Starbuck Barney (April 9, 1802 – March 18, 1889[1]) was a Quaker women's rights activist and abolitionist, responsible for handwritten genealogy records that traced the history of more than 40,000 residents of Nantucket, Massachusetts from the 17th to 19th century. The Eliza Starbuck Barney Genealogical Record, now maintained by the Nantucket Historical Association, was built from these records.[2]
Biography
Eliza Starbuck was the third child of Joseph Starbuck and Sally Gardner, a Nantucket family that had become wealthy in the whale oil industry. At 18, Eliza married Nathaniel Barney. Despite their wealth, the couple shared a home with Eliza's sister, Eunice, and her husband William Hadwen. The husbands became business partners, opening a whale oil refinery on the site of the current Nantucket Whaling Museum.[1]
Eliza Starbuck Barney was secretary to Nantucket's Anti-Slavery Society from 1839 to 1840. The families welcomed William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass to their home in 1841 and hosted an anti-slavery meeting; Nathaniel Barney refused his dividends from the New Bedford Railroad to protest its refusal to carry black passengers.[3]
In 1851, Eliza attended the first women's suffrage convention in Massachusetts.[1] Nathaniel and Eliza left Nantucket for Pennsylvania sometime after 1857, and Eliza returned after her husband's death in 1869.[1] Her son, Joseph, built a home for her at 73 Main Street in 1871. It is now known as the Eliza Barney house.[1]
Genealogy records
Barney's collection of genealogical data for residents of Nantucket spanned 1,702 handwritten pages in six 275-page books. The information includes family lineage, births, marriages, deaths, relocations, and deaths at sea.[2] The record begins with the first European settlers in Nantucket, and extended beyond her death into 1912 through the work of her niece. They serve as a basis for a contemporary genealogical record through the Nantucket Historical Association's preservation and expansion of the archive.[4] The archive contains some idiosyncratic flourishes, such as appending "Jr." to the names of women with the same names as their mother.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e Stout, Kate. ""Who Was Eliza Barney?"". www.nha.org. Nantucket Historical Association. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ^ a b c Elrick Clark, Joan (1998). ""Eliza Starbuck Barney Genealogical Record" Historic Nantucket article from the Nantucket Historical Association". Historic Nantucket. 47 (1). Nantucket Historical Association. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ^ Leonardo, Jascin. "Nantucket's Daring Daughters: A Brief Look at Eliza Starbuck Barney". Nantucket Chronicle. Nantucket Chronicle. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ^ Archives, Barney. "Eliza Starbuck Barney Genealogical Record of the Nantucket Historical Association Research Library". www.nha.org. Nantucket Historical Association. Retrieved 3 December 2017.