Daily AncestorN.J.
In a census birthplace column, N.J. is the abbreviation for New Jersey.
N.J. is an older abbreviation of New Jersey, used long before the two letter postal codes. Census takers were allowed to abbreviate state names in the place of birth column, so abbreviated state names are common in the birthplace column of nineteenth century census pages.
N. Jersey is an older variant. In faded ink N.J. can look like N.Y. or N.H., so check the image before trusting an index.
As seen in a recordBirthplace column of the 1850 census
Jno. Ware, 70, N.J.
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "N.J.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/nj. Last checked 2026-10-01.