J. Gardner Bartlett


Joseph Gardner Bartlett was a prominent American genealogist, whose work focused on colonial New England and the English origins of colonial families. Trained as an architect at MIT, he gave up architecture for genealogy in his thirties. His best-known works include two genealogies of the Stone family and The Henry Adams Genealogy, which treated the family of Henry Adams, immigrant ancestor of the two American presidents by this surname. Bartlett's paternal ancestors bore the surname Kilham until 1845, when his father changed his surname to Bartlett.

Early life and marriages

Joseph Gardner Bartlett was born on 25 August 1872 to Joseph Elbridge Bartlett and Antoinette Frances. On 30 April 1900, Bartlett married Gretchen Piper. Together, he and Gretchen had three children: Dorothy Pickering, Dudley Bradstreet, and Phillips Payson. They divorced sometime after 1910. His second wife, Elizabeth French, was also a genealogist.

Career

In 1896, Bartlett was elected a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; he was made a life member in 1919.
In 1920, Bartlett was elected as a member of the Cambridge Historical Society.

Selected works