Guide to Historical Records and Genealogical Resources of Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket Historical Association
History
The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) was founded
in 1894. It is the owner and manager of twenty-five
historic sites and properties, which include three
museums and a research library. From mid-century
the NHA has held a collection of documents pertaining
to Nantucket's history. The present library was
named in honor of Edouard A. Stackpole (1903-1993).
For many years Stackpole was the NHA historian -
collecting, preserving, and documenting Nantucket's
past.
Records & Resources
Architectural
Reports
The library possesses architectural reports by HABS
(Historic American Buildings Survey) and PI:N (Preservation
Institute: Nantucket). The reports document various
Nantucket structures, both domestic and commercial.
They are particularly useful to genealogists as
they list, as part of the house documentation, property
owners in the house documentation.
Bibles
Bibles were common possessions of eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century Nantucket families such as the
Macys, Starbucks, Coffins, Folgers, Barnards, Gardners,
Colemans, and Brocks. Many of the bibles contain
handwritten genealogical notes. Descriptions of
the bibles have been entered into the library's
books database.
Cemeteries
The NHA Research Library has started an inscription
project. Information on the project and a database
of inscription is available on this website.
Census
Records: Federal
The library contains the Federal Census records
for Nantucket for the years 1790 to 1930 (with censuses
taken at ten-year intervals) on microfilm. Prior
to 1850 census records only listed heads of household
and family members. Beginning in 1850, every person
in the house was listed by name, age, sex, race
(blacks and Indians were identified), birthplace,
and occupation.
Census
Records: Town
Handwritten town censuses from 1796 to 1895 are
part of the library's manuscript collections. Some
of the census were copied from the federal census
and were compiled out of personal interest. Other
census appear to be original documents. Most of
the census are incomplete and record only basic
data, such as birth and death dates, but they do
provide information for Nantucket's population in
the years in between the Federal Census (1855 and
1865 town censuses exist). Lists of blacks (or "colored
persons," which included Native Americans)
on Nantucket are in the town censuses of 1820, 1830,
and 1855. These census records contain other useful
statistical information not pertaining to population,
such as the number of ships in the port and the
names of families who have migrated to other towns.
City
of Nantucket Directories
Directories for the town of Nantucket exist for
the years 1897, 1909, 1914, 1919, and 1927 (the
directory was not published every year), after which
date the telephone book replaced the town's directory.
In addition to a list of residents, with their addresses,
the directories contain information about Nantucket's
businesses, churches, schools, societies, streets,
summer cottages and rentals, and town officers.
Like the census records and telephone books, the
directories provide information about the people,
businesses, and organizations that formed the community
of Nantucket at a particular time. Descriptions
of these volumes are in the book database.
Sanborn
Fire Insurance Maps
Fire insurance maps produced by the Sanborn Company
show the location of Nantucket businesses, shops,
hotels, churches, schools, and dwellings for the
years 1887 to 1949, with revisions every five to
ten years. Only the town of Nantucket is depicted.
Streets are clearly delineated as are house lots
and the dwellings on each lot. The maps even supply
information on the size and construction material
of the structures on each lot. The maps show, in
detail, the downtown community of Nantucket in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, revealing
how Nantucket town grew and changed over a fifty-year
period. The maps are also useful in pinpointing
homes or businesses of ancestors. The maps are available
for use on microfilm.
Genealogies
Published: A collection of printed genealogies
for various Nantucket families including the Coffins,
Starbucks, Husseys, Gardners, Swains, and Colemans
is included in the library.
Barney Genealogical Record: The most reliable genealogy for Nantucket's families for the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries is the Eliza Starbuck Barney Genealogical Record, available online.
William C. Folger Genealogical Record: Another important genealogical record is that compiled by William C. Folger. Location: 118 - Folger Family Papers, 1676-1952.
Grace
Brown Gardner Scrapbooks
More than 125 scrapbooks compiled by several Nantucketers
over the past two centuries are contained in the
collections. The Grace Brown Gardner scrapbook collection,
fifty-five in total, is a remarkable compendium
of newspaper and magazine articles arrayed by subject.
Microfilm copies of the Grace Brown Gardner scrapbooks
are at the Nantucket Atheneum.
Miscellaneous: The NHA Research Library also maintains a file of family histories in the "green files," which can be consulted with the assistant of the library staff.
Manuscript Collections
More than 400 manuscript collections relate to Nantucket individuals and families, including the Coffins and Folgers, Macys and Starbucks; ships; businesses and trades; churches; schools; voluntary societies and clubs. Documents, letters, diaries, and personal papers span the years from 1659 to the present day, with the bulk of the collections dating from the nineteenth century. The manuscript collections provide a fascinating first-hand account of island life and activities over three centuries. Church, school, and maritime records are described in greater detail in other sections. The manuscript collections also include logbooks and journals for vessels out of Nantucket and other ports, and account books for individuals, trades, and ships. The manuscript collections have been cataloged and access to the database is available online.
African-American records: Few historical records pertain to African Americans on Nantucket. Information about Nantucket's blacks can be garnered from censuses, shipping papers (which list crew members of vessels) and other maritime records, account books, newspapers, and from the twentieth century, personal papers and oral histories.
Native American records: Even less information exists for Nantucket's Indians, members of the Wampanoag tribe. The library contains several seventeenth-century Indian deeds. Additional information about Indians can be found in eighteenth-century account books and in secondary manuscript accounts about the island's Indians.
Maps
Five hundred maps, which include plats and charts, span the years from 1624 to the present day. The maps and plats, in their detail of Nantucket land, streets, and neighborhoods, are particularly useful tools for plotting the growth and development of the island community. Maps show the topography of the island and the location of important structures. Plats delineate the land owned by Nantucket individuals and families in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Most of the plats in the collection are copies of the originals, which were recorded at the Registry of Deeds. Descriptions of the maps can be found in the library's manuscripts database.
Maritime
Documents
The library has a substantial collection of maritime
documents that date from the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. These documents include seamen's protection
certificates, whalemen's shipping papers, marine
insurance policies, clearance certificates, licenses
for coasting and fishing vessels, logbooks (see
manuscript collection), letters of marque, freight
lists, enrollments, manifests, bills of lading,
bills of sale, articles of agreement, sea letters,
ship's registers, various consular certificates
and crew lists, and customs certificates. Particularly
useful documents for both researchers and genealogists
are whalemen's shipping papers, which list the individuals
who served on a specific whaling voyage and are
useful for tracking the movements of seamen in the
whaling fleets.
Many of the documents listed above were issued by Nantucket's Customs House, which was established in 1791. Although some of the documents issued and recorded by Nantucket's Customs House survive, most were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1846, which destroyed much of Nantucket's commercial center. The National Archives contain only certificates of registry (which give the ship's master, the place and date of the ship's construction, and the ship's measurements, tonnage, and rigging) for Nantucket vessels for the years 1815 to 1870 (copies exist in the library). In 1996 a cache of records was found behind a wall in what was once the customs house. These records, which span the years ca. 1835 to 1880, include crew lists, bills of sale, coasting license bonds, and vessel registers. Presently they are undergoing conservation at the National Archives. (Customs records, being Federal documents, are the property of the United States government.) Once conservation is completed the documents will be microfilmed, the library receiving copies of the microfilm.
Marriage
Certificates
The library possesses a small collection of oversized
marriage certificates from the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Many of these documents pertain to Quaker
marriages. The documents list the names of husband
and wife as well as the witnesses to the ceremony.
Military
and Marine Records
A few military appointments are part of the library's
manuscript collections. These are elaborate, oversized
documents appointing Nantucket men to various posts
in both the navy and army. All other military records
(such as muster rolls, enlistment papers, certificates
of disability) for the U.S.Army, U.S. Navy, U.S.
Marine Corps., and U.S. Coast Guard, are located
in off-island repositories. The library does contain
a few records pertaining to Nantucket lighthouses,
and lightships, as well as copies of lighthouse
records found in the National Archives.
Newspapers
Nantucket's first paper, the Nantucket Inquirer,
was founded in 1821 and was followed, in 1845, by
the Nantucket Weekly Mirror. In 1865 the
two papers merged to form the Inquirer and Mirror.
The Warder and Daily Warder endured
for the sole year of 1846, while the Nantucket
Beacon ran from 1988 to 1998. The newspapers
are available on microfilm. Newspapers provide valuable
information for both genealogists and researchers.
They contain marriage notices; death notices (obituaries);
advertisements listing local businesses; and local
news describing political meetings and elections,
school and social events, and church functions.
The newspapers are available on microfilm.
Oral
Histories
More than 400 oral histories span the years from
1934 to the present day. Oral histories contain
the memories and reminiscences of Nantucket men
and women, past and present, and provide information
about an earlier way of life on the island. An index
of the oral histories and the persons interviewed
is available in the library.
Photographs
Nearly 50,000 images, including prints, slides,
daguerreotypes, tintypes, stereographs, and cartes
de visite, are included in the library's photograph
collection. The earliest image dates from about
1841 and show Nantucket persons, places, and events.
Access is through an in-house database, and photocopies
of images placed in binders and arranged by subject.
School
Records
Print: Yearbooks for the Nantucket High School
and Cyrus Peirce Middle School date from the 1970s,
1980s, and 1990s (with omissions), with a few yearbooks
from the 1950s.
Manuscript: Records spanning two hundred years relate to the early cent and dame schools, the high school, and the Coffin School (founded by Sir Admiral Isaac Coffin for Coffin descendants and later a manual training school). The papers include student and teacher lists, exercise book, notebooks, correspondence, and records pertaining to the administration of the schools.
Telephone
Books
Since 1937 telephone utilities companies has published
a telephone directory annually. Each directory lists
the names of individuals residing on Nantucket during
that year, and the individual's address and telephone
number. As in the case of the town directories,
these books are of great assistance to genealogists
and researchers who are trying to determine when
an individual resided on Nantucket, or where a person
lived. The library does not possess a complete set
of telephone directories; missing, most notably,
are those published in the 1940s. A privately printed
directory with additional information on municipal
agencies and civic organizations has been available
since 1991.
Copies
of Town and County Records
The library contains a small collection of papers
pertaining to the government of the town and county
of Nantucket. These records span the eighteenth,
nineteenth, and twentieth centuries and include
tax books; lists of town officers; accounts, minutes,
and receipts of the board of selectmen; warrants;
minutes of town meetings; printed bylaws; minutes
and reports of the finance committee; receipts and
records for the county treasurer; valuation and
tax lists; records of marriages; streets lists and
voter registrations. A detailed listing of these
materials, both manuscript and printed, exists in
the library's manuscripts database. Most of these
records were produced by town officials. The bulk
of town records can be found at the town clerk's
office, the registry of deeds, and the courts.
Town
Histories
The library contains a small collection of histories
for other Massachusetts towns. Many of these volumes
contain genealogical information that may be of
interest to researchers whose ancestors migrated
to, or from, Nantucket.
Town
Reports
The first town report was printed in 1868. The information
in town reports has varied over the years, but in
general they list town officials and employees (schoolteachers,
fire fighters, public officials), and their salaries;
the reports of town departments (police, finance,
public works), boards, committees and commissions;
and the revenues and expenditures of the town. Of
interest to genealogists, town reports also include
lists of deaths, births, and marriages.
Vertical
File of Individuals and Local Information
The NHA Research Library maintains extensive files
on subjects, consisting of clippings from local
newspapers, research reports, and articles. These
files, referred to as the "blue files"
may be consulted with consultation with the research
associate.
Vital
Records
Vital Records of Nantucket to the Year 1850 are
published volumes that contain the birth, death,
and marriage dates of Nantucketers for a period
of two centuries.