"Where Are They Now?" Historic Nantucket article from the Nantucket Historical Association

Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 48, no. 3 (Summer 1999), p. 9

Where Are They Now?
By Mary E. Woodruff

ON DECEMBER 24, 1849, THE INQUIRER PUBLISHED A LIST of persons who traveled to California to participate in the Gold Rush. As Malcolm J. Rohrbough noted in Days of Gold, by the end of the year thirty-five Coffins, twenty-eight Folgers, and twenty-five Swains had left Nantucket for California. What happened to these Nantucketers? Did they return home? How many chose to stay in San Francisco and still have descendants living there today?

As we mark the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Gold Rush it is interesting to see the number of Nantucket names that are still commonly found in San Francisco. Using several of the Web's Best People Finders, as recommended, Jesse Berst's Anchor Desk (www.anywho.com, www.infopace.com, and people.yahoo.com.), we find many names frequently associated with Nantucket.

	NANTUCKET	SAN FRANCISCO
Coffin	31	15
Folger	10	10
Gardner	13	123
Macy	7	4
Starbuck	2	2
Swain	10	20
Worth	4	33

By comparison, there were four Folgers in New York City, two Starbucks in Los Angeles, and seven Coffins in Chicago.