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It is wise to acquaint yourself with any repository which you might visit by writing to the appropriate archive or library in advance. Every repository has published materials that introduce its collections and research policy. State archives and historical agencies also have Internet sites that provide the same information. Some even have downloadable databases for some or parts of their collections.
- Department of State Division of Archives and Records Management
Bureau of Archives and Records Preservation State Library Bldg, 185 West State Street, CN-307, Trenton, NJ 08625-0307
The New Jersey State Archives has many of the basic research materials for the state, such as federal and state census records; probate, land, and court records; newspapers; and vital records. Mail requests are accepted for some of the collections and require a $2 fee for each item requested, in addition to copying charges.
- Department of Special Collections and Archives,
Rutgers University Library, New Brunswick, NJ 08903
Perhaps the best published collection of New Jersey material, Rutgers also has a wealth of manuscripts, including the collections of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey.
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"Genealogists are generally positive and energetic, and most are ready to share their findings or research experience with anyone they can help. There are hundreds of genealogical societies at the grass-roots level. Knowledge of the genealogical community will place you in the midst of much activity, increase your productivity, and alert you to the importance of research standards and etiquette."
Sandra Hargreaves Luebking,
Editor of FGS Forum,
Co-editor of The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy
Because family history research relies greatly upon records found at the county level, many local societies represent counties. Organizations also form around shared interests. Ethnic or religious origins account for many groups, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and P.O.I.N.T. (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together). Societies also form around common locales of origin for members’ ancestors; hence, the Palatines to America and Germans from Russia societies. To locate these and other societies, consult Juliana Szucs Smith’s The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book. It lists addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Internet addresses of thousands of organizations throughout the United States.
For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both. In addition to their own work, state-level groups sometimes help coordinate the efforts of local societies within the state. Their publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those produced by the local societies.
- New Jersey State Library, State Library Building, 185 West State Street, CN-520, Trenton, NJ 08625-0520
The New Jersey State Library has essentially the published complement to the New Jersey State Archives, including genealogies, histories, periodicals, guide books, maps, atlases, and indexes. Its collection, however, is stronger for the southern and central parts of the state than for northern New Jersey. There are also newspaper clipping files, phone books, directories, and folders of material and correspondence arranged by family name, as well as microfilms of the federal and state censuses. The state library is one of the two depositories for the state's DAR collection.
- The New Jersey Historical Society, 52 Park Pl., Newark, NJ 07102; 973-596-8500 ext 248 or 249
There is a $1, non-member fee to use the library, which has an excellent collection of published material, microfilms of New Jersey federal and state censuses (1855-85), tax rateables (and published index), and so forth. The New Jersey Historical Society is one of the two depositories for the state's DAR compilations and houses much manuscript material, including maps, cemetery and church records, family Bibles, and genealogies, as well as thousands of other original documents and papers. The society's quarterly, New Jersey History, was issued as Proceedings of The New Jersey Historical Society until 1967.
The Genealogy Club of the Library of the New Jersey Historical Society was disbanded in 1997 prior to our move to our current address.
- Descendants of Founders of New Jersey,
10 Buckingham Ave,
Trenton, NJ 08618
Evelyn Ogden, Registrar
; [EMAIL]
(732) 920-3279
- Genealogical Society of New Jersey,
PO Box 1476, Trenton NJ 08607-1476
The Genealogical Society of New Jersey has published The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey since 1925. The society houses its collection of genealogical materials, including cemetery transcriptions, family Bibles (over 4,800), military records, notes of genealogists, and so forth, in the A. S. Alexander Library at Rutgers University.
- New Jersey Ancestry Society, P.O. Box 249,
Stamford 06904
- Society of Mayflower Descendants in NJ,
Northern Region,
PO Box 172,
Chatham, NJ 07928
Phyllis Hansen,
908-233-7410
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Search The PERiodical Source Index
Much New Jersey information is also to be found in the periodical literature of its neighbors such as The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Publications of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania and its successor The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, and The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Statewide or regional publications include the following:
[ see specific county page for individual county list ]
- The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey
was introduced in 1925 by the Genealogical Society of New Jersey and has carried many cemetery marker inscriptions, county marriages, tax lists, church records, and other source material, but only a little compiled genealogy. Kenn Stryker-Rodda produced four volumes of a Given Name Index, covering the first fifty volumes of the journal (Cottonport and New Orleans, La.: Polyanthos, and Lambertville, N.J.: Hunterdon House, 1973–82), and Donald A. Sinclair compiled a subject and author index to the first thirty-five volumes, published by the genealogical society in 1962. See also Elizabeth M. Perinchief's Index to Cemetery Transcriptions, Baptismal, Burial, Church and Marriage Records in the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey through 1980 (Mount Holly, N.J.: Burlington County Library, 1981).
- The New Jersey Historical Society Journal
was first issued in 1845 as Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, comprising ten volumes through 1866. From 1867 to 1895, thirteen volumes were issued with the designation Second Series; from 1896 to 1915, ten volumes were published as the Third Series; and from 1916 to 1966, eighty-four volumes comprised the New Series. The journal was retitled New Jersey History in 1965 but continued the volume numbering from the New Series of Proceedings. A subject index to the first thirty-six volumes published 1845–1919 was printed in volume 5 of the New Series (1920). Basic genealogical material was dropped from the publication after 1951, but earlier there were many excellent features, including source records and genealogies.
- The New Jersey Genesis
was published in twenty volumes from 1953 to 1973 and included source records (some of which were published elsewhere), queries, and other material. An index compiled by the New Mexico Genealogical Society was published in 1973
- The Jerseyman,
published in Flemington in eleven volumes from 1891 to 1905. It included church records, genealogies, and local history, mostly for Hunterdon and bordering counties
- The Somerset County Historical Quarterly,
was published in eight volumes from 1912 to 1919 and has been reprinted by Hunterdon House (Lambertville, N.J., 1977–89) A Subject-and-Author Index to this quarterly, by Donald A. Sinclair, was published by the Genealogical Society of New Jersey in 1991. The quarterly's most valuable contents were source records, especially Dutch church records, and some of its coverage was devoted to Hunterdon County. The now-defunct Somerset County Genealogical Quarterly is excellent for its source material.
- The Vineland Historical Magazine,
begun in 1916 and concerning Cumberland County
- Cape May Magazine of History and Genealogy, begun in 1931
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Search Historical Newspapers
The first newspaper published in New Jersey was in 1777 and extracts to 1782 from this and from a second early newspaper were published in the five volumes of the “New Jersey Archives,” 2d Series (Trenton, 1901-17) and continued in Thomas B. Wilson, Notices From New Jersey Newspapers 1781-1790...Volume I (Lambertville, N.J.: Hunterdon House, 1988). For locating New Jersey newspapers, consult William C. Wright and Paul A. Stellhorn, eds., Directory of New Jersey Newspapers, 1765-1970 (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1977).
Large collections of newspapers are at the New Jersey State Archives and the New Jersey Historical Society. Notices of marriages, deaths, and so forth have been extracted from New Jersey newspapers and are found in such places as the “Biographical” card file at the historical society (which includes information from some church publications), an index at the state archives for Trenton newspaper marriages and deaths for 1777-1900, and the Hutchinson Collection of New Brunswick Newspaper Extracts, 1792-1865, at Rutgers. Published extracts of items concerning New Jersey in the period 1704 to 1782, found in newspapers in other colonies appeared in eleven volumes of the “New Jersey Archives” 1st Series.
While records of birth, marriage, and death are the most commonly sought and the most consistently helpful records, only the genealogist’s imagination and resourcefulness limit newspapers’ usefulness in supplying clues about historical events, local history, probate court and legal notices, real estate transactions, political biographies, announcements, notices of new and terminated partnerships, business advertisements, and notices for settling debts.
Newspapers can provide at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that person do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.
Unlike official records, newspapers are not limited to a particular geographical area. They often include reports of the weddings of local citizens (even those that occurred in a neighboring county or another state), and they sometimes report visits of geographically distant relatives or the visits of former local residents. They often published death notices of individuals who had left the area long before but who still had local family or friends as well. In each case the newspaper account can identify the date and place of an event, thus opening the possibility of turning up additional documentation in other sources.
The first step in searching a newspaper is to identify those which served the area of interest and which have survived. The three most necessary tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).
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