Camden County, New Jersey Genealogy

Camden County, New Jersey ancestry, family history, and genealogy research page. Guide to genealogy, history, and courthouse sources including birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, wills, deeds and land records, Civil War records, Revolutionary War records, family histories, cemeteries, churches, tax records, newspapers, and obituaries.

Description
Camden County is located in the southwest region of the state. It was created in 1844. Camden is the county seat. The county was named for Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, a British judge, civil libertarian, and defender of the American cause.

Camden County, New Jersey Historical Facts
1623: The Dutch of New Netherland intermittently occupied Fort Nassau (now Brooklawn, Camden, New Jersey) starting in 1623.

1664: As part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War New Netherland including West Jersey was surrendered to the English.

1673-1674: A new war broke out and the Dutch sent a large armada to retake New Netherland for a few months. But as the war ended the colony was ceeded to England for the last time.

Parent County

 * Created 13 March 1844 from Gloucester County.

Boundary Changes

 * 1871, Monroe twp. &amp; most of Washington twp. to Gloucester County
 * 1902, part of Waterford twp. to Burlington County
 * 1926, part of Washington twp., Gloucester County added to Gloucester twp. of Camden County
 * 1938, boundary with Atlantic County clarified
 * 1950, part from Gloucester County

For animated maps illustrating New Jersey county boundary changes, visit "Rotating Formation New Jersey County Boundary Maps" (1683-1928) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss
There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Cemeteries
Cemetery records often reveal birth, marriage, death, relationship, military, and religious information.

Mt. Peace, Mt. Pisgah and Mt. Zion cemeteries are located in the town of Lawnside, New Jersey. Lawnside is the first and only town incorporated in the state which is governed by African American. Lawnside is the burial location of over 146 Civil War Soldiers and Sailors. Links specific to each Cemetery: Mt. Peace, Mt. Pigah, and Mt. Zion cemeteries. Web page: Civil War Burials in Lawnside, New Jersey. by S. Jordon

Census

 * 1855 at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 at FamilySearch — images
 * 1895 at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1915 at FamilySearch — index and images

Church Records

 * 1675-1970 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1708-1985 - Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 at Historical Society of Pennsylvania – $, free to members of the society; Also available at Ancestry.com – $; 7,542,774 entries. This database is incomplete for all counties.


 * Contains the church records of:
 * Audubon: Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church
 * Camden: Bethany Methodist Episcopal Church; Epiphany Evangelist Lutheran Church; Filmore Methodist Episcopal Church; First Methodist Church; First Methodist Episcopal Church; Kaighn Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church; St. Paul's Episcopal Church; St. Wilfrid's Episcopal Church; Tabernacle Methodist Episcopal Church; Third Methodist Episcopal Church; Trinity Episcopal Church; Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church; Union Methodist Episcopal Church; Wiley Methodist Episcopal Church
 * Chews Landing: St. John's Episcopal Church
 * Haddonfield: Grace Church; Haddonfield Baptist Church and Cemetery; United Methodist Church

Episcopal

 * 1787-1815 - Stevenson, J.R. "Records of St. Mary's Church, Colestown, (Old Gloucester Co.) New Jersey," Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jun. 1908):237-240. For free online access, see WeRelate; the Family History Library also has this series in its collection: . Baptisms 1787-1815, marriages 1795-1796, burials 1794-1795.

Gazetteers

 * United States Geographic Survey Place Names - GNIS for Camden County (over 900 entries) (may not always be present in alphabetic order on first try.)

Naturalization and Citizenship

 * 1796-1991 - at FamilySearch — index

Populated Places
For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit HomeTown Locator.The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Obtaining Copies of County Probate Records
Copies of recorded probate records and the estate files can be obtained from the surrogate's offices for a fee. Addresses of surrogate's offices are found in:


 * Eichholz, Alice, Editor. Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources. Revised Edition. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, 1992. (.) Explains state-by-state history, vital records, census, background sources, periodicals, archives, libraries, societies, maps, land, probate, court, tax, cemetery, church, and military records. Includes county boundary map and table which shows when each county was created and the parent counties.

In addition, copies of the original wills, administrations, inventories, and guardianships sent to Trenton since 1901 can be ordered from:

Clerk of the Superior Court Records Information Center P.O. Box 967 Trenton, NJ 08625-0967 Phone: (609) 292-4978 Fax: (609) 777-0094

Online Probate Records


 * 1656 - 1999 New Jersey Wills and Probate Records 1656-1999 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1670 – 1760 Calendar of New Jersey Wills 1670-1760 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1670 – 1817 New Jersey Abstract of Wills 1670-1817 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1678 - 1980 at FamilySearch — images

Family History Centers

 * Cherry Hill New Jersey Family History Center

Societies
Camden County Historical Society 1900 Park Blvd & Euclid Ave. Camden, NJ 08103-3697 Telephone: 609-964-3333 Website

Fairview Historic Society 3081 Fenwick Rd. Camden NJ

Historical Society of Haddonfield 343 Kings Hwy E Haddonfield, NJ 08033 Telephone: 856-429-7375 E-mail:[mailto:info@haddonfieldhistory.org info@haddonfieldhistory.org] E-mail:[mailto:library@haddonfieldhistory.org library@haddonfieldhistory.org]research questions Website

Birth

 * 1901-1903, at FamilySearch — index

Marriage
Online Marriage Indexes and Records

1606-1981 - New Jersey, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $
 * 1670-1980, at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1901-1903, at FamilySearch — index

Death

 * 1901-1903 - at FamilySearch — index

Camden County, New Jersey Websites

 * FamilySearch Catalog for Camden County
 * Camden County, New Jersey History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (Familytree101)
 * Camden County NJ Genealogy
 * The Camden County NJGenWeb Project, an member of The NJGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.

Camden County, New Jersey Neighboring Counties



 * Atlantic
 * Burlington
 * Gloucester
 * Philadelphia, Pennsylvania