Salem County, New Jersey Genealogy

United States New Jersey  Salem County

Salem 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.

Salem County, New Jersey Historical Facts
1642-1643: The New Sweden Colony expanded from present-day Wilmington, Delaware east to New Jersey. Fort New Elfsborg (Nya Älfborg), now west of Salem, Salem, New Jersey was built as part of New Sweden in 1643 and garrisoned until 1651.

1654-1655: In 1654 New Sweden captured Fort Casimir (now New Castle, Delaware) from the Dutch without a fight and renamed it Fort Trinty (Trefaldighets). In 1655 New Netherland returned with a large army and all of New Sweden in presend-day Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey submitted to Dutch rule.

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

 * 1681, part of West Jersey
 * Created 17 May 1794, from the Colonial lands.

Boundary Changes

 * 1700, part of Cape May County added.
 * 1710, boundaries clarified.
 * 19 January 1748, part set off to become part of Cumberland County.
 * 1822, water boundaries established and clarified in 1846.
 * 1867, Pittsgrove twp. to Cumerland County and returned in 1868.

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

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:
 * Daretown: Pittsgrove Baptist Church
 * Salem: Broadway United Methodist Church; St. John's Episcopal Church
 * Upper Penn's Neck: First Baptist Church

Lutheran
Settlers from Penns Neck attended a Swedish Church at Crane Hook as early as 1667.

1754 and 1786 membership lists of Penns Neck Parish are preserved in Archivum Americanum at the Consistory Court of the Archbishop of Upsal in Sweden.

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
County Clerk has marriage records 1675-1912, court records from 1707, land records from 1695, naturalization records 1808-1958, military records from 1715 and newspapers from 1819. County Surrogate has probate records from 1804. City Clerks have birth and death records.

Salem 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.
 * Salem County, New Jersey History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (Familytree101)
 * Salem County NJ Genealogy