Finding aid prepared by Laura A. Hess
Barbee-Best family papers
1797-1925
University of Kentucky Special Collections
Collection is arranged by subject.
Collection is open to researchers by appointment.
72M4: [Identification of item], Barbee-Best family papers, 1797-1925, University of Kentucky Special Collections.
0.45 Cubic feet
1 box
The Barbee family, originally from Virginia, settled in Kentucky after the Revolutionary War. The family owned a plantation called Oakland in Danville until the Civil War. The family had a long military history, with family members serving in both the Civil War and the Revolutionary War. The Barbee family joined with the Best family when Sally Barbee married Isaac R. Best in the early 1800s. In the early 1900s, Nancy Nannie Barbee travelled the eastern Unites States performing dramatic readings of dialect stories about plantation life.
Barbee Family. Ormsby.com. Accessed 28 Oct. 2011
Some Descendants of Andrew Barbee, Fifth Generation. Rootsweb. Accessed 28 Oct. 2011.
The Barbee-Best family papers record the family's history and activities through letters, financial and legal papers, genealogy records, scrapbooks, and copies of Nancy Barbee's dramatic readings. The majority of the papers date between the end of the Civil War and the early 1900s. Nancy Barbee and Thomas Barbee feature prominently in the collection.