The best source of genealogical information on the family is John Adams Comstock’s A History and Genealogy of the Comstock Family in America, which gives the earliest English history of the family as well as the genealogies of the American Comstocks. Another important source is Cyrus Ballou Comstock’s A Comstock Genealogy: Descendants of William Comstock of New London, Conn. Who Died After 1662; also pertinent are the Barney Records and Folger Records in the Nantucket Historical Association, census records, and William Wade Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (Ann Arbor: Edwards Brothers, 1940). As is usual in extensive genealogies, there are gaps and disagreements in these records. Dates in the extracted material below are from John Adams Comstock’s book unless otherwise noted.
The line of descent from William Comstock, the first settler, is:
William1 (c. 1595–c. 1683)
Samuel2
Samuel3
Samuel4
David5
Samuel6
Nathan7 (1776–1859)
Nathan married twice; by his first wife, Elizabeth Emmett (1782–1818) he had:
| Samuel | Born September 1802 according to the two Comstock genealogies; born October 8, 1802, according to the Nantucket Vital Records |
| William | April 24, 1804–November 20, 1882, according to all records |
| George | Born 1808 (Barney Records and census records: January 29, 1808); died October 28, 1855 |
| Thomas | 1810–1855 |
| Phebe | 1812–1820 |
| Lucy | Born 1805 (Barney Records), 1806 (census records) |
| Martha | 1814–1892 |
| Elizabeth Anne | Died 1860 |
By his second wife, Anne Merritt, he had:
Nathan
John Merritt
Louisa
Mary
Sarah
To answer an occasionally asked question, Samuel Comstock was the seventh cousin of Henry T. P. Comstock, who gave his name to the Comstock lode, and the sixth cousin once removed of Anthony Comstock, the famed anti-vice crusader.