New Jersey Archives and Libraries

United States New Jersey  Archives and Libraries

Many archives and libraries have resources such as maps, gazetteers, and other place-finding aids to help you locate information about New Jersey. They may have collections of previous research, such as family and local histories and biographies. Many have record-finding aids such as guides to their own collections or inventories of records housed elsewhere in the state. The following archives, libraries, and societies have collections or services helpful to genealogical researchers in New Jersey.

New Jersey Division of Archives and Records Management
225 West State Street Trenton, NJ 08625-0307 Telephone: 609-292-6260 The Division of Archives and Records Management (State Archives) is the official repository for all colonial and state government records. Its collections include manuscripts and microfilms of pre-1900 county and town records. Many of these records are also on microfilm at the Family History Library. The state archives also has several searchable databases online.

For a useful guide to the collection, refer to:


 * Barker, Bette Marie, Daniel P. Jones, and Karl J. Niederer. Guide to Family History Sources in the New Jersey State Archives. Second Edition. Trenton, New Jersey: Division of Archives and Records Management, 1990.

National Archives—Northeast Region
201 Varick Street 12th Floor (Entrance on Houston Street, between Varick and Hudson) New York, NY 10014 Telephone: Toll-free 866-840-1752 or 212-401-1620 Fax: 212-401-1638

The National Archives—Northeast Region has records created by federal agencies in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The archives has naturalization records, internal revenue service records, customs lists, and records of the U.S. District Court of Appeals. The archives also has microfilms of all available federal census records, many naturalization records, passenger arrival lists, military records, and other historical resources.

The National Archives has announced that in the fall of 2012 the records of this branch will be moved to the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House at One Bowling Green in New York City.

New Jersey State Library
185 West State Street (mailing address: P.O. Box 520) Trenton, NJ 08625-0520 Telephone: 609-278-2640 Fax: 609-278-2647

The state library collects published sources, including printed genealogies, maps, church records, local histories, city directories, legislative reports, legal digests, and periodicals. It also has microfilm copies of federal censuses of the eastern states, New Jersey state censuses, and major New Jersey newspapers. The library staff will do limited checking of indexes and directories in response to telephone or written requests. They will make photocopies for a fee.

Special Collections and University Archives
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 169 College Avenue New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1163 Telephone: 732-932-7006 Fax: 732-932-7012

Collections include manuscripts, rare books, the University archives, and the collections of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey.

Diaries and journals are inventoried in:


 * Sinclair, Donald A., Compiler. A Guide to Manuscript Diaries and Journals in the Special Collections Department, Rutgers University. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Library, 1980. (Not available at the Family History Library.)

Newark Public Library
5 Washington Street P.O. Box 630 Newark, NJ 07101-0630 Telephone: 201-733-7784 or (New Jersey questions) 201-733-7775

The library has newspapers and city directories for Newark and microfilm copies of all existing New Jersey federal and state censuses. This library serves as a New Jersey State Documents Depository as well as a Regional Depository for U.S. Government Publications. The staff will search and copy obituaries and other records for a fee.

New Jersey Historical Society Library
52 Park Place Newark, NJ 07102 Telephone: 973-596-8500 Fax: 973-596-6957

The historical society has extensive collections of New Jersey books, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, card files, vertical files, census microfilms, indexed genealogy manuscript collections, and many other records. Guides to the collections are available on the library website. Fees are charged to visit the library. The library staff will do a limited amount of research for a fee.

The Genealogical Society of New Jersey
P.O. Box 1291 New Brunswick, NJ 08903-1291 Telephone: 732-932-7510 Internet: http://www.gsnj.org/

The Jewish Historical Society of Central Jersey
222 Livingston Ave. New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Internet: http://www.jewishgen.org/jhscj/

"The JHSCJ was organized on November 7, 1977, and now serves Middlesex, Union, Somerset, Mercer, Warren, and Hunterton Counties in New Jersey. Our archival collection includes organizational documents, records, and artifacts of area synagogues and other Jewish organizations, historical records, photographs, tapes of oral histories, memorabilia, and copies of Jewish newspapers. We also have an extensive collection of research materials of interest to genealogists, and books and pamphlets on subjects pertaining to the Jewish-American experience."

The Central Jersey Genealogical Club
Hamilton Township Library 1 Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. Way Hamilton, New Jersey 08619 Internet: http://www.cjgcnj.com/diggin.html

"Our Club publishes a newsletter to alert members to what is new and what is happening in our area. ... The Club has a link page called Diggin' for Roots to aid in your research." -- Site Authors

Gloucester County Historical Society Library
17 Hunter Street P.O. Box 409 Woodbury, NJ 08096 Telephone: 609-845-4771 Internet: http://www.history.navy.mil/sources/nj/gch.htm

Westfield Historical Society List of Historical and Genealogical Societies
http://www.westfieldnjhistory.com/files/lr8.htm List of On-line Historical and Genealogical Societies

The following books provide additional information about New Jersey archives and libraries:
Hoelle, Edith. Genealogical Resources in Southern New Jersey. Third Edition. Woodbury, New Jersey: Gloucester County Historical Society, 1989. (Second edition is Family History Library .) This book is a guide to libraries and collections in the seven southern counties of New Jersey.

Murrin, Mary R., Complier. New Jersey Historical Manuscripts: A Guide to Collections in the State. Trenton, New Jersey: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1987. (Family History Library .) This book contains addresses and collection descriptions of 263 public libraries, historical societies, archives, and museums.

Quigley, Mary Alice, Judith A. Fullerton, and Diane E. Kauffman, Compliers. ''Historical Organizations in New Jersey: A Directory. Revised Edition.''Trenton, New Jersey: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1983. (Family History Library .) This book contains the addresses to over 450 historical societies, county historians, museums, and lineage societies.

Addresses of county courthouses, surrogate courts, and county records centers are found in:

Eichholtz, Alice, ed. Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County and Town Sources, Revised Edition. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, 1992. (Family History Library .)

Web Sites
You can find computerized research tips and information about ancestors from New Jersey in a variety of sources at local, state, national, and international levels. The list of sources is growing rapidly. Most of the information is available at no cost. Addresses on the Internet are subject to frequent changes. The following sites are important gateways linking you to many more sites:

USGenWeb

http://www.usgenweb.com/                               (All of the United States)

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njgenweb/   (New Jersey)

A cooperative effort by many volunteers to list genealogical databases, libraries, bulletin boards, and other resources available on the Internet for each county, state, and country.

USGenWeb Archives

http://files.usgwarchives.net/              (All of the United States)

http://usgwarchives.net/nj/njfiles.htm   (New Jersey)

"In June 1996, the USGenWeb Digital Library (USGenWeb Archives) was developed to present actual transcriptions of public domain records on the Internet. This huge undertaking is the cooperative effort of volunteers who either have electronically formatted files on census records, marriage bonds, wills, and other public documents, or are willing to transcribe this information to contribute." -- Site authors.

Roots-L

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/roots-l/                             (All of the United States)

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/roots-l/USA/nj/index.html   (New Jersey)

A useful list of sites and resources. Includes a large, regularly-updated research coordination list.

RootsWeb

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~websites/usa/index.html    (All of the United States)

http://resources.rootsweb.ancestry.com/USA/NJ.html               (New Jersey)

"Rootsweb® is the oldest and largest free online community dedicated to family history. You'll find millions of members communicating on thousands of message boards in this expansive environment for learning, collaborating and sharing with others." -- Site authors. Operated by ancestry.com.

Linkpendium

http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/        (All of the United States)

http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/NJ/    (New Jersey)

"Linkpendium is being developed by Karen Isaacson and Brian (Wolf) Leverich, founders of the extremely popular RootsWeb genealogical community site. At the time of its merger with Ancestry in June 2000, RootsWeb had about 600,000 registered users, was serving about 100,000,000 Web page views monthly, and was delivering about 160,000,000 pieces of email monthly to the subscribers of its 18,000 mailing lists. The company had more than 40 employees and operated its own 7,000 square foot data center in Bakersfield, CA." -- Site authors.

US Gen Net

http://www.usgennet.org/socadmin/                  (All of the United States)

http://www.usgennet.org/socadmin/nj.html         (New Jersey)

On-line Historical and Genealogical Societies

Cyndi's List

http://www.cyndislist.com/usa.htm                   (All of the United States)

http://www.cyndislist.com/nj.htm                      (New Jersey)

List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet

Live Roots

http://www.liveroots.com/earth/united_states.html        (All of the United States)

http://www.liveroots.com/earth/new_jersey.html           (New Jersey)

"Live Roots is a specialized search engine that assists you with locating genealogical resources, including both those that are accessible online and others which may require assistance from another researcher. The concept behind Live Roots was to build a search experience that bridges the gaps between independent genealogy web sites, large commercial ancestry repositories and many other printed family history materials yet to be digitized and published on the World Wide Web." -- Site authors

Access Genealogy

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/                     (All of the United States)

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/newjersey/      (New Jersey)

"From what started out as a simple set of 50 state pages, has blossomed into over 250,000 pages, and millions of records. This feat couldn't have been accomplished without the assistance Judy and I received over the years by countless volunteers. We are indebted to each of you for your assistance in making this project what it has become! Thank You!" ... "It's important for you to understand, though we are known for our Native American data, we actually have more data for the regular American researcher, then we do Native American." -- Site authors.

Family History 101

http://www.familyhistory101.com/                                    (All of the United States)

http://www.familyhistory101.com/newjersey.html              (New Jersey)

"While I cannot provide detailed information on all sources available to family historians, Family History 101 covers the basic tools and provides essential instructions. My intention is to suggest some of the easiest ways to find, document, and preserve your family history. " -- Site authors.

Genea Search

http://www.geneasearch.com/                                    (All of the United States)

http://www.geneasearch.com/states/newjersey.htm     (New Jersey)

" GeneaSearch has helped search for ancestors, build family trees and find family history with free genealogy lookups, free genealogy sites, family surname newsletters, data, books from genealogy societies and individuals, surname queries, female ancestors, beginner's genealogy guide since 1999. Other genealogy resources are links, lists of societies, and a variety of tools for online research.. See our state genealogy pages for free genealogy databases and genealogy resources for each state." -- Site Authors

D'Addezio.com

http://www.daddezio.com/records/room/                                  (All of the United States)

http://www.daddezio.com/records/room/RR-NJ-NDX.html           (New Jersey)

"The mission of D'Addezio.com has been to provide a quality site containing original material, and valuable links to other information on the Internet, in a well-organized manner. The site has grown gradually, keeping the quality of our information as the highest priority." -- Site authors.

Olive Tree Genealogy

http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/sitemap.shtml                       (All of the United States)

http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/usa/nj/                                 (New Jersey)

"Olive Tree Genealogy has more than 1,900 pages of free genealogy records to help you find your brick-wall ancestors and build your family tree." -- Site Authors

Genealogy Directory

http://www.gendir.com/locales/230    (All of the United States)

http://www.gendir.com/locales/292    (New Jersey)

A free genealogy site featuring a message board, a surname registry, lists of other genealogy sites, and region specific resources.

Records Project

http://recordsproject.com/                                                        (All of the United States)

http://recordsproject.com/public/new-jersey.asp                          (New Jersey)

Links to state and county public records.

Kindred Trails

http://www.kindredtrails.com/databases.html                (All of the United States)

ancestry.com Databases for New Jersey                      (New Jersey - Databases at ancestry.com)

http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/archives.html     (New Jersey  -  State Archives)

Regional Genealogy Databases, ancestry.com,  National Archives, State Archives

Colonial Ancestors

http://colonialancestors.com/                                        (All 13 colonies)

http://colonialancestors.com/nj/newjersey.htm                (New Jersey)

"Find information about Colonial New Jersey Genealogy to help with your genealogy research and to find your New Jersey surnames and ancestors." -- Site Authors

ancestry.com $ 

[http://search.ancestry.com/search/default.aspx? http://search.ancestry.com/search/default.aspx?]                         (All of the United States)

http://search.ancestry.com/Places/US/New-Jersey/Default.aspx   (New Jersey)

ancestry.com Geographic genealogical source search page. Requires US Subscription.

Family Tree Connection / Genealogy Today $

http://www.familytreeconnection.com/search/                         (All of the United States)

http://data.genealogytoday.com/contents/New_Jersey.html     (New Jersey)

"Your annual subscription gives you unlimited access to the Family Tree Connection database, along with discounts on all purchases in the Genealogy Today Store and any scanning services you request (of images in any of the FTC source documents)." -- Site Authors

FamilySearch™

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

FamilySearch is a collection of computer files containing several million names. FamilySearch is a good place to begin your research. Some of the records come from compiled sources; some have been automated from original sources.

New Jersey Local Names
(Also, see the New Jersey Gazetteer Section of the wiki).

New Jersey State Locality Search

http://www.state.nj.us/infobank/locality.htm

Alphabetical list of local place names with their municipality and county.

For further details about using computer networks, bulletin boards, and news groups for family history research, see the United States Research Outline (30972), Second Edition, "Archives and Libraries" section.