New Jersey - Research FAQ

A VERY ROUGH DRAFT

New Jersey - Research FAQ

Research involves looking in many different places and trying many approaches to resolve your questions. This FAQ was created as an aid to assisting you in locating where the various categories of information may be found.

If you are just beginning your research you may want to consider browsing through your own family records and talking to your relatives.

 

Archives And LibrariesGazetteersNewspapers
Bible RecordsGenealogyOrphans & Poor House
BiographyHistoryProbate Records
CemeteriesHistorical SitesPublic Records
CensusLand and PropertySocieties

Church Records

Libraries (REMOVED SECTION)Taxation
Court RecordsMapsTown Records
DirectoriesMilitary RecordsVital Records
Emigration And ImmigrationNaturalization and CitizenshipWhere to Write
Funeral Homes  

 

Archives And Libraries

Libraries are generally collections of information that have been selected based on the needs of the library’s clientele.
Archives house collections of various types of documents based on the purpose of the archive.

Before entering a library or an archive you need to define the topic of your research. What questions are you looking to find the answers for?

A website named WorldCat is a site that "connects you to the collections and services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide" and allows you to search for publications in numerous libraries.

Rutgers State College’s Alexander Library has a wealth of information regarding NJ genealogy and history.  A guide to their collection and a research aid can be found at: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~natalieb/gen.htm

Many of the NJGenWeb county sites have lists of books that pertain to that county. If you live in close proximity to the NJ State Library you may want to check their catalog.

NJ State Library Catalog

NJGenWeb List of Counties

A List of some Library websites:

Bible Records

 

Biography

Cemeteries

 

 

Census

New Jersey State Census

Census YearDescription of what the census contains.
Notation as to what records still exist, either for the whole state or only certain counties.
1855Contains name (usually only head of household); number of adults in each household, subdivided by nativity (native-born or foreign-born), race (colored or white), and sex; and number of children aged 5 to 16 in each household, subdivided by race and gender. A few townships list all household members by name.
Incomplete records exist for Atlantic, Bergen, Camden, Cumberland, Essex (including present day Union), Gloucester, Hunterdon, Hudson, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren counties.
1865Contains name (all members of the household), sex, whether native or foreign-born, whether colored or white, and whether school-aged (5 to 16 years).
Incomplete records exist for Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Passaic, Salem, Sussex, and Union counties.
1875Contains name (all members of the household), age, sex, native or foreign-born, color, birthplace of individual and parents, and occupation.
Incomplete records exist for Essex and Sussex counties.
1885Contains name, sex, race, age in categories of under 5, 5-20, 20-60, and over 60, and native or foreign-born (Irish, German, and other).
Complete for the state.
The NJ Dept of State (NJDARM) has the 1885 census online for: Passaic County and Atlantic City Census, 1885 (https://wwwnet1.state.nj.us/DOS/Admin/ArchivesDBPortal/Census1885.aspx)
1895Contains name, sex, race, age in categories of under 5, 5-20, 20-60, and over 60, and native or foreign-born (Irish, German, and other).
Complete for the state.
1905Contains name, color, sex, month and year of birth, marital status, birthplace, parents' birthplaces, number of years in U.S., citizenship status, occupation, whether literate or fluent in English, and whether home is owned or rented. In urban areas street names and house numbers are provided.
Complete for the state.
1915Contains name, color, sex, month and year of birth, marital status, birthplace, parents' birthplaces, number of years in U.S., citizenship status, occupation, whether literate or fluent in English, and whether home is owned or rented. In urban areas street names and house numbers are provided.
Complete for the state.
 

NJ Federal Census Records

Church Records

 

 

Court Records

 

Directories

Emigration And Immigration

Funeral Homes

In New Jersey a funeral home is only obligated by law to keep the last 7 years of records, although many realize the value of the information and have kept them since the opening of the funeral home.

To determine the undertaker or funeral home who handled the arrangements for your ancestor, check the death certificate, obituary notice, funeral card or obituary for a notation. If you do find the name of the undertaker or funeral home you now need to see if they are possibly still in business. Current NJ State Law only requires funeral homes to maintain the last seven years of records, though many maintain their records back to the beginning of their business.

If a Funeral Home has closed it is possible that another local Funeral Home may have their records, but it not a guarantee. Remember that the records are the private records of that business and may have been destroyed after the required retention time expired.

In New Jersey the State Board of Mortuary Science licenses and regulates the practice of Funeral Directors and registers mortuaries.

124 Halsey St.
Newark, NJ 07102
973-504-6425

CHAPTER 36
STATE BOARD OF MORTUARY SCIENCE
13:36-1.8 Recordkeeping

(a) The registered mortuary shall maintain full, accurate records of all funerals which it conducts or in which it participates in any manner, except as provided in N.J.A.C. 13:36-4.13.
(b) Funeral records shall be kept, electronically or otherwise, on an annualized basis for seven years and each funeral shall be designated by a number assigned consecutively at the time funeral arrangements are made. The information on such records shall be recorded after the completion of each funeral. The oldest six years of information shall be maintained in such a manner so as to be retrievable and readable within two weeks. The most recent one year of information shall be immediately retrievable and readable.
(c) Such records shall include the following if applicable:
1. The Statement of Funeral Goods and Services Selected;
2. The name and location of the cemetery in which burial was made or the name and location of the crematorium where appropriate, and the charges made by the cemetery or crematorium;
3. The name and address of any church, synagogue and/or clergy who participated in the funeral service and who received any offering or honorarium, and the amount thereof, if paid by the funeral home;
4. The name and license number of the practitioner or intern who provided embalming and/or sanitary care services;
5. Date of disposition;
6. The final bill;
7. A copy of the completed New Jersey Death Certificate, if the death occurred in the State, or if the death occurred outside of the State, a copy of the burial or transit papers or other final disposition documents; and
8. A copy of the disinterment permit.

Gazetteers

Genealogy

History

Historical Sites

Land And Property

Maps

Military Records

The New Jersey State Library (http://www.njstatelib.org/NJ_Information/Searchable_Publications/index.php?include=reg) has the following information in an online searchable database:

 The NJ State Archives (NJDARM) has online:

Military Personnel Records Destroyed (National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis)
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/index.html

On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at NPRC (MPR) destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. The affected record collections are described below.

Branch

Personnel and Period Affected

Estimated Loss

Army

Personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960

80%

Air Force

Personnel discharged, September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964
(with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.)

75%

No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed in the fire were maintained, nor was a microfilm copy ever produced. There were no indexes created prior to the fire. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. Therefore, a complete listing of the records that were lost is not available.

Naturalization And Citizenship

The NJ State Archives (NJDARM) maintains:

Naturalizations (Citizenship Papers)

State-Level Naturalizations (by the Supreme Court, Chancery Court, Prerogative Court and Legislature) all counties, 1750s-1830s.

$5.00 per record; provide name, county, and approximate year; almost all are men because women obtained citizenship through their husbands. (as of 2008)

County-Level Naturalizations (Court of Common Pleas) for Burlington (1790-1956), Camden (1844-1923), Essex (1792-1931), Mercer (1838-1930), Ocean (1850-1951), Sussex (1817-1958), & Union counties (1845-1931). For all other counties please contact the local county clerk.

$5.00 per record; provide name, county, and approximate year; almost all are men because women obtained citizenship through their husbands. (as of 2008)

Passport Applications from the National Archives (NARA):

Passport Applications, 1795-1905; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1372, 694 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Passport Applications, January 2, 1906-March 31, 1925; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Registers and Indexes for Passport Applications, 1810-1906; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1371, rolls 1-3, 13); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Emergency Passport Applications (Passports Issued Abroad), 1877-1907; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1834, 56 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Newspapers

The NJ Information Center of the Newark Public Library has Inventory of New Jersey Newspapers on Microfilm. The index of historic newspapers is available online (http://www.npl.org/Pages/Collections/njicnews1.html).

Orphans & Poor House

Probate Records

Public Records

Societies

Taxation

Town Records

Vital Records

Marriage Records in New Jersey (from the NJ Department of State, NJ Archives)

Recording of marriages on the county level was first required in New Jersey by "An Act Concerning Marriages," passed by the General Assembly on 4 March 1795 (see Acts of the Nineteenth General Assembly..., chap. 526, pp. 1004-7). This legislation stipulated that every justice of the peace and ordained minister file, for each marriage he performed, a certificate with the clerk of the county in which the marriage took place. The returns were then to be copied by the county clerk into a book kept solely for that purpose.

This procedure remained the basic method of public recording of marriages in New Jersey until March 1848, when "An Act relating to the registry and returns of births, marriages, and deaths, in the State of New Jersey" was passed into law (P.L. 1848, pp. 155-8). The 1848 legislation required municipal clerks to submit annual returns of vital records to the Secretary of State. It also stipulated that marriage records were to include certain additional vital information, such as the age, occupation, parents' names, and residence of each party, and the place of marriage.

Despite the initiation of state-level recording, direct filing of marriage returns with the county clerk was still required by law for another thirty years. It was not until 5 April 1878, when further vital records legislation was passed, that marriage officiants were relieved of this responsibility. The 1878 law required, instead, that officiants submit marriage certificates to municipal clerks or assessors beginning on June 1st of that year (P.L. 1878, chap. 239, pp. 354-9). The municipal officers, in turn, were directed to file the certificates with the Secretary of State.

The State of NJ began collecting vital records in May 1848. Prior to that date many records were maintained at a local level. 

 

Birth

Death

NJ State Archives

May 1848 – May 1878

May 1848 – May 1878

NJ Vital Statistics Registration

June 1878 – present

June 1878 – present

 

 

Marriage

NJ State Archives

May 1848 – May 1878

NJ Vital Statistics Registration

June 1878 – present

NJ Dept of State (NJDARM)

Colonial Marriages, 1666-1799 (online databse) https://wwwnet1.state.nj.us/DOS/Admin/ArchivesDBPortal/ColonialMarriages.aspx

NJ Dept of State (NJDARM)

Index to Marriage Records, 1848-1867 (online database) https://wwwnet1.state.nj.us/DOS/Admin/ArchivesDBPortal/Marriage1867.aspx

 

 

Wills & Inventories

Court Records

NJ State Archives

Prior to 1952

Prerogative Court early to 1948

Chancery Court early to 1886

Superior Court of NJ

After 1952

 

NJ Dept of State (NJDARM)

 

Supreme Court Case Files, 1704-1844 (online database) https://wwwnet1.state.nj.us/DOS/Admin/ArchivesDBPortal/SupremeCourt.aspx

 NJ State Archives (NJDARM)

Birth, Marriage and Death Records

Marriage Records, 1666-1799
County Marriage Records for Burlington (1795-1878), Cumberland County (1795-1878), Essex County (1795-1879), Mercer County (1832-1887) (gaps), Passaic County (1838-1878), Somerset County (1795-1878), Sussex County (1795-1878), Union Co. (1857-1878)
  • $5.00 per record; requests must include the husband’s and wife’s names and an approximate date of marriage. (as of 2008)
Birth, Marriage, and Death records dating May 1848-May 1878 (For more recent records, contact Bureau of Vital Statistics at 609.292.4087)
  • $10.00 for one record searched in up to five years; $10.00 for each additional five years (Vital Record Search Request Form). Please send a separate check and letter for May 1848-May 1878 vital records request. To find and order copies of a marriage record for the 1848-1867 period, consult the searchable Index to Marriage Records, 1848-1867. (as of 2008)

Where to Write:

 

Event: Birth, death, marriage, civil union or domestic partnership (State)
Cost of copy: $25.00 for initial copy. Additional copies of the same record ordered at the same time are $2.00 each.
Address:
Please visit the New Jersey Vital Statistics website for the most up to date information regarding ordering options and information. The website address is www.state.nj.us/health/vital or call toll-free at 1-866-649-8726.
Remarks:
The State Bureau of Vital Statistics and Registration maintains records from June 1878 to present.

All requests must include a copy of the requestor's valid identification, proof of relationship to the individual listed on the vital record and payment of the appropriate fee.

A State or local Registrar may issue a certified copy of a vital record only to persons who establish themselves as the subject of the vital record, the subject's parent, legal guardian or legal representative, spouse, child, grandchild or sibling, if of legal age, to a State or Federal agency for official purposes, pursuant to court order or under other emergent circumstances as determined by the Commissioner. All other applicants will be issued a Certification that state the document is not for identification or legal purposes.

Event: Birth. marriage or death
Cost of copy: $10.00
Address:
New Jersey State Archives
225 West State Street
P.O. Box 307
Trenton, NJ  08625-0307
Remarks: The New Jersey State Archives searches vital records from May 1, 1848 to May 31, 1878 only.

Personal check or money order should be made payable to New Jersey General Treasury. The general information telephone number is (609) 292-6260.