New Jersey genealogy records

Births, marriages, and deaths

Statewide registration began on May 1, 1848. The State Archives owns births from then to December 31, 1925, and marriages and deaths from then to December 31, 1950. It searches these by mail and makes them available on microfilm in its Microfilm Room. It also has free searchable databases of all marriages from 1848 to 1900 and of deaths from May 1848 to December 1900.

A few special series are easy to miss. Corrections to births from 1848 to 1903 are filed separately from the original record. Delayed birth certificates for births from 1848 to 1925 were filed years later by people who found no record had been made. Stillbirths from June 1878 to December 1900 are on microfilm, and those from 1901 to 1950 only on paper.

Before 1848, births were not filed by any level of government, except the records of births of children born to enslaved mothers, which county clerks kept beginning in 1804. Deaths before 1848 were not filed either, though coroners' inquisitions on the dead, from 1688 to 1798, survive for people who died in suspicious circumstances.

Ordering newer records

Births after 1925 and marriages and deaths after 1950 belong to the New Jersey Department of Health, though the Archives keeps microfilm of deaths from 1951 to 1965 and marriages from 1951 to 1957 for in-person searching. The Department of Health treats a record as genealogical when the person named is deceased and the birth was more than 80 years ago, the marriage more than 50 years ago, or the death more than 40 years ago. It will not process a genealogical request if the person is still living or the event is more recent.

You must send acceptable identification with any request, and proof of your relationship to the person if you want a certified copy. Requests are returned if documents are missing.

Marriages before 1848

From 1795, or from the year a county was formed, marriages had to be filed with the county clerk, and the filing continued in some counties well past 1848, generally no later than 1878. The officiant sent a record to the clerk, so these entries usually give only the couple, the officiant, and the date. Most have been published. The Archives owns the original books or returns for Atlantic, Burlington, Cumberland, Essex, Mercer, Somerset, Sussex, and Union counties.

For the colonial period, the Archives has a database of colonial marriage bonds from 1711 to 1795, which also picks up a few marriages before 1711 recorded in early deed books.

Census records

New Jersey's earliest federal census schedules, 1790 to 1820, have not survived, except the 1820 manufacturers' schedule. For 1890, the State Archives says only the Civil War veterans schedule and a few census takers' worksheets survive, and the National Archives lists a small surviving population fragment for Jersey City in Hudson County. For the decades before 1830, other records have to take over.

New Jersey made up for some of this with its own state census, taken every ten years in years ending in 5, from 1855 to 1915. The 1855, 1865, and 1875 counts are incomplete, and 1915 was the last. For earlier decades, the duplicate tax ratables from 1768 to 1822 can stand in for a census, though there are many gaps by year and town.

Wills, surrogates, and courts

The State Archives holds all original New Jersey wills and inventories from 1670 to 1900, and microfilm only from 1901 to 1952, when inventories are not always included. It also has microfilm of most county surrogates' records up to 1900, except Morris County's, which were not filmed. Orphans' court minutes start in 1785 or when the county was created, and surrogates' record books begin in 1804.

Estates that crossed county lines, and appeals from the orphans' courts, went to the Prerogative Court, whose original cases to 1948 are at the Archives. The Chancery Court, which heard equity cases including estate and land divisions, left case files from the 1740s to 1948. Divorces were granted by act of the legislature from 1778 to 1844, and the Chancery Court also granted them.

Land records

New Jersey's land history runs through two proprietary bodies, the East Jersey and West Jersey Proprietors, whose surveys and minutes are at the Archives. Early land records from about 1650, including the original East and West Jersey deed books, are indexed in an Archives database. The Archives has microfilm of all county deeds up to 1900; deed books begin in 1785 or the year the county was formed, with earlier deeds for Bergen and Monmouth counties. County mortgages to 1850 are also filmed.

Military, naturalization, and newspapers

Military holdings include more than 11,000 numbered Revolutionary War manuscripts, abstracts of service, loyalist muster rolls, inventories of damages by British and American soldiers from 1776 to 1782, a roster of New Jersey men in the Civil War, and service files of the United States Colored Troops. County court naturalizations survive for some counties, such as Hudson County from 1840 to 1948. The Archives also keeps over 8,000 reels of New Jersey newspapers and name change judgments from 1876 to 1947, indexed by both the old and new name.