Somerset County, New Jersey Genealogy

Somerset 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
Somerset County is located in the north central region of the state. It was created in 1688. Somerville is the county seat. The county was named for the county of Somerset in England.

Parent County

 * 26 May 1688, created from Middlesex County.

Boundary Changes

 * 1710, boundaries changed.
 * 1714, part back to Middlesex County.
 * 13 March 1714, part set off to be Hunterdon County.
 * 1741, part from Essex County.
 * 1749, boundary with Morris County defined.
 * 1790, boundary changes with Middlesex County and again in 1855, 1858 and 1878.
 * 22 February 1838 1838, part of Montgomery twp set off to form Mercer County.
 * 1844, Tewksbury twp. from Hunterdon County and restored in 1845.
 * 1850, part of Fanklin twp. added to to North Brunswick twp., Middlesex County.
 * 1876, Union County boundary clarified.
 * 1965, Hunterdon County boundary clarified.

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

Record Loss
1779  Fire burned the courthouse.

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
 * 1727-1734 - Skillman, William Jones. "Earliest Baptismal Records of the Church of Harlingen (Reformed Dutch) of New Jersey. 1727-1734," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct. 1909):281-291. Digital versions at Internet Archive - free; New York Family History ($);.

Emigration and Immigration

 * 1906-1942 - at FamilySearch — index and images

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.
 * 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

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

Courthouse
Somerset County Courthouse 20 Grove St; PO Box 3000 Somerville, NJ 08876 Phone: (908) 231-7006 County Clerk has court records from 1777 and land records from 1785. County Surrogate has probate records.

Societies
Somerset County Historical 9 Van Veghten Dr Bridgewater, NJ 08807 Telephone: 908-218-1281 E-mail:[mailto:schs@schsnj.com schs@schsnj.com] Website

Somerset Hills, Historical Society Of The PO Box 136 Basking Ridge NJ 07920 Website

Somerset Historical Center 10649 Somerset Pike Somerset, PA 15501 Telephone: 814-445-6077 Fax: 814-443-6621 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
 * 1930-1938 - at FamilySearch — index

Death

 * 1901-1903 - at FamilySearch — index

Somerset County, New Jersey Websites

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