Union County, New Jersey Genealogy

United States New Jersey  Union County

Union County, New Jersey genealogy and family history 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.

County Courthouse
Union County Courthouse 2 Broad Street Elizabeth, NJ 07207-2204 Phone: (908) 527-4966 County Clerk has land records from 1857 and military discharge records from 1941. Clerk Superior Court has divorce records from 1848 and court records. County Surrogate has probate records from 1857. Town Clerks have birth and death records.

Parent County

 * 9 March 1857, created from Essex County.

Boundary Changes

 * 1860, received part of Woodbridge twp., Middlesex County as part of Rahway twp.
 * 1871, Essex County boundary clarified
 * 1871, Plainfield boundary with Piscataway twp. of Middlesex County changed
 * 1876, boundaries with Essex and Somerset counties clarified
 * 1882, Essex County boundary clarified and again in 1892
 * 1891, part of Millburn twp., Essex County to Springfield twp. and returned in 1958.

Military

 * Goodwin, Aaron. "The Elizabeth-Town Associates: Signatures on the Original Answer, 1751," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 138, No. 3 (Jul. 2007):189-198. Digital version at New York Family History ($);.

Newspapers
Courtesy of the Plainfield Public Library:


 * Courier News Obituary Index: mid-1920s-mid-1980s

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

Public Libraries

 * Plainfield Public Library 800 Park Avenue Plainfield, NJ 07060 Telephone: 908-757-1111 The Local History Department offers newspapers, city directories, local histories, church records, biographies, and more.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Scotch Plains New Jersey Family History Center

Union County, New Jersey Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.

Neighboring Counties
Essex | Hudson | Middlesex | Morris | Somerset | Richmond (Staten Island) county, New York