Family

"I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum, and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart. " ~ Elizabeth Blackwell


On February 3, 1821, in Bristol, England, Elizabeth Blackwell was born. Elizabeth Blackwell and her family were very poor. There were eight other children in the family. Her family had 4 boys and 4 girls. The girls were; Emily, Elizabeth, Anna and Marianne. The boys were; Samuel, Henry, George and John. When Elizabeth was 11 years old, the family moved to the United States because Samuel, her father, lost his job. He moved the family around alot. They moved from New York to Jersey City and then to Cincinnati. Samuel died in Cincinnati, leaving the family with no income. Elizabeth along with her two of her sisters and her mother started a private school, to help bring in some money to the household. That is when her love of medicine started. Elizabeth took a job in Kentucky as a teacher, she continued to study medicine privately on her own. In 1847, she started looking for a college that would allow her to enroll in medical school. 

Elizabeth never married, she avoided it. In 1854 she adopted an orphan child named Katherine "Kitty" Barry. Kitty stayed by her mother's side until she died at the age of 89 on May 31, 1910 in Sussex, England.