Middlesex County, New Jersey Genealogy

Middlesex 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
Middlesex County is located in the east central region of the state. It was created on February 16, 1867. Hastings is the county seat. It was named for the Historic English county of Middlesex.

Parent County

 * 1675, original part of East Jersey
 * 1 March 1683, created as a county from the Colonial lands.

Boundary Changes

 * 26 May 1688, part taken for Somerset County.
 * 1710, some boundary changes
 * 1714, part of Somerset County taken back
 * 1790, some boundary changes with Somerset County
 * 1822, water boundary established
 * 22 February 1838, West Windsor and part of East Windsor twps. to Mercer County.
 * 1844, part of Monroe twp. to Monmouth County
 * 1844, part of Monroe twp. to Monmouth County and returned in 1845
 * 1847, piece of Monroe twp. to Monmouth County
 * 1850, part of Franklin twp. of Somerset County to North Brunswick twp.; water boundary clarified
 * 1855, some changes to boundary with Somerset County and again in 1858
 * 1860, part of Woodbridge twp. to Rahway, Union County
 * 1871, boundary with Plainfield, Union County changed
 * 1878, boundary at Kingston, Somerset County clarified
 * 1892, water boundary further clarified
 * 1939, land to Matawan, Monmouth 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.

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

Lutheran

 * Records of Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Perth Amboy, in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America database at Archives.com ($).

Methodist

 * 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:
 * Monroe: Methodist Church

Quakers

 * 1687-1825 - Vail, Hugh D. "Records of Rahway and Plainfield (N.J.) Monthly Meeting of Friends (Formerly Held at Amboy and Woodbridge) from 1687 to 1825," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Oct. 1877):176-181; Vol. 9, No. 1 (Jan. 1878):28-37; Vol. 9, No. 2 (Apr. 1878):64-71; Vol. 9, No. 4 (Oct. 1878):174-180; Vol. 10, No. 1 (Jan. 1879):20-23; Vol. 10, No. 3 (Jul. 1879):139-143; Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jan. 1880):42-46. Digital version at New York Family History ($); . Internet Archives has digitized Vols. 8-9, Vol. 10, and Vol. 11 - free. Includes births, marriages.


 * 1826-1889 - Haviland, Frank. "Records of Rahway and Plainfield (N.J.) Monthly Meetings of Friends (Formerly Held at Amboy and Woodbridge)," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 114, no. 1 (Jan. 1983):23-36. Digital version at New York Family History ($);.

LDS Ward and Branch Records

 * New Brunswick

Emigration and Immigration

 * 1906-1942 - at FamilySearch — index and images

Land and Property
Middlesex County Land Records Search website Middlesex County land records are freely searchable online back to January 1950. Watermarked copies are free to print; printing clean copies is a paid service. Cookies must be enabled for the site to function properly and be sure to read the User Guide.

Maps
The Sanborn Map Company is the oldest mapping company in the United States. Founded in 1866, the company created detailed building maps of cities and towns all across the country, primarily for use by insurance companies. These maps also have been used extensively by local government agencies for over a century in conducting their daily operations efficiently. Genealogists, local history buffs, city planners, architects, and countless others have been drawn to the quality of detail found in them. Digital archive provided by Princeton University.


 * Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Perth Amboy
 * Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Woodbridge
 * Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: South Amboy
 * Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Metuchen
 * Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Carteret
 * Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Sayreville
 * Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: South River
 * Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: New Brunswick

Migration
Early migration routes to and from for settlers included:


 * Raritan River a navigable river which rises in Morris County and flows through central New Jersey past Manville to New Brunswick where it meets the tide.
 * King's Highway 1673 connected Boston, Massachusetts to Charleston, South Carolina and many coastal cities between including Philadelphia, New Brunswick, and New York City.
 * Delaware and Raritan Canal 1834 connected New Brunswick, New Jersey on the Raritan River (and NY City) to Bordontown, New Jersey on the Delaware River and parts of Pennsylvania including Philadelphia.

Naturalization and Citizenship

 * 1796-1991 - at FamilySearch — index

Newspapers

 * New Brunswick Daily Times 1871-1916 - digitized archive of the newspaper; freely available via the New Brunswick Public Library


 * The South Amboy Citizen (1910-1943)
 * The South Amboy Citizen (1944-2000) The South Amboy Citizen offers online access from July 2, 1910, through December 29, 2000. Provided by the Sadie Pope Dowdell Library. (Note: There is no search capability for the South Amboy Citizen but you can use Google Advanced search http://www.google.com/advanced_search and enter "dowdell.org/citizen" into the bottom box labeled “Search within a site or domain” to search the paper.)


 * Woodbridge Township Newspapers digitized archive freely available via the Woodbridge Township Public Library
 * Carteret Press (1925 -1965)
 * Fords Beacon (1936 - 1961)
 * Independent Leader (1940 -1965)
 * Leader Press (1967 - 1970)
 * The Independent Hour (1876 - 1877)
 * The Weekly Register (1898 - 1902)
 * The Woodbridge Leader (1927 - 1928)
 * The Woodbridge News (1899 - 1902)
 * Woodbridge Independent (1919 - 1938)
 * Woodbridge Leader (1926 -1939)


 * New Jersey Online Historical Newspapers - identifies historical archived and digitized newspapers available online on both free and pay-to-access websites.

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

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

New Jersey, Middlesex County Probate Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)

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

Courthouses
Middlesex County Courthouse Old Bridge; 235 Ticetown Road; New Brunswick, NJ 08857 Phone: (732) 745-3005

County Clerk has marriage, divorce, court and land records. County Surrogate has probate records.

Family History Centers

 * East Brunswick New Jersey Family History Center

Societies
Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission Middlesex County Annex 841 Georges Rd. North Brunswick, NJ 08902 Telephone: 732-745-4489

Plainsboro Historical Society 641 Plainsboro Rd Ste A Plainsboro, NJ 08536 Telephone: 609-799-9040

Metuchen/edison Historical Society PO Box 61 Metuchen NJ Website

South River Historical and Preservation Society PO Box 446 South River 08882 Website

Birth

 * 1901-1903, at FamilySearch — index

Marriage
Online Marriage Indexes and Records

1606-1981 - New Jersey, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $
 * 1930-1938 - at FamilySearch — index

Middlesex County, New Jersey Websites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Middlesex County, New Jersey History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (Familytree101)
 * Middlesex County NJ Genealogy

Middlesex County, New Jersey Places



 * Mercer
 * Monmouth
 * Somerset
 * Union
 * New York, New York
 * Richmond, New York