When John Edwin Barnard was born on 28 May 1888, in Winchester, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States, his father, Edwin Lawrence Barnard, was 37 and his mother, Helen Catherine Pearson, was 39. He married Frances Evelyn Close on 16 July 1914, in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son. He immigrated to Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States in 1911 and lived in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States in 1935 and Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States in 1940. He died on 13 November 1974, in Osterville, Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States, at the age of 86, and was buried in Centerville, Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States.