New Castle County, Delaware Genealogy

United States Delaware  New Castle County



County Courthouse
New Castle County Courthouse 800 North French Street Wilmington, DE 19801 Phone: 302-571-7545

Formerly New Amistel County Name changed to New Castle by 31 Dec 1674. Clerk of Peace has marriage records from 1911. Prothonotary has divorce and court records. Register of Wills has probate records; Recorder of Deeds has land records.

The New Castle County Government Center 87 Reads Way New Castle, DE 19720-1648

History
1638 Swedes and Finns settle at Fort Christiana (now Wilmington). They eventually spread as far north as Philadelphia. See New Sweden wiki article for more details. 1651 Dutch build Fort Casimir and Sandhook (now New Castle City). See New Netherland article for details. 1654 New Sweden captures Fort Casimir without a fight. It is renamed Fort Trinity (Trefaldighets). 1655 New Netherland returns a large army and forces all of New Sweden to submit to Dutch rule. 1664 As part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War New Netherland is surrendered to England. 1673 A new war breaks out. The Dutch send a huge armada to recapture New Netherland, but at the end of 1674 it is finally ceded to England. Nieuw Amstel is renamed New Castle after the English take control.

Parent County
1673 New Castle County was created 8 August 1673 from New Amistel (old) County. County seat: Wilmington

Populated Places
Cities:

Towns:

Villages:

Hundreds: More information can be found at Delaware Hundreds.

Unincorporated Communities:

Neighboring Counties
Kent | Maryland counties: Cecil | Kent | New Jersey counties: Gloucester| Salem | Pennsylvania counties: Chester | Delaware

Cemeteries

 * Old Swedes Church Cemetery, Wilmington BillionGraves

Courtesy of the Diocese of Wilmington:


 * Catholic Cemeteries Burial Database for All Saints, Cathedral and Gate of Heaven Cemeteries

Church

 * 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:
 * Wilmington: Central Presbyterian Church; First Presbyterian Church; Holy Trinity Church; St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

Swedes Church
Christina Parish was located in what is now Wilmington. A 1754 membership list is preserved in Archivum Americanum at the Consistory Court of the Archbishop of Upsal in Sweden. A copy is held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Emigration and Immigration
Large numbers of Scotch-Irish immigrants who settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, probably arrived at the port of New Castle in the early 1700s.

Gazetteers

 * United States Geographic Survey Place Names - GNIS for New Castle County (may not always be present in alphabetic order on first try.)

Civil War
Civil War service men from New Castle County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in New Castle County.


 * - Nield's Independent Battery, Delaware Light Artillery

Revolutionary War

 * A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services: With their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, as Returned by the Marshalls of the Several Judicial Districts, Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census]. 1841. Digital version at Google Books. 1967 reprint: 973 X2pc 1840. [See Delaware, New Castle County on page 126.]

Naturalizations
Delaware Public Archives has placed the New Castle County Naturalizations Original petitions and other legal documents of immigrants wishing to become American citizens on-line. There is an alphabetical listing of the names and dates.The date listed reflects the year of the file and may vary from the document displayed. The file for each individual may contain more documentation.

Probate

 * A Calendar of Delaware Wills, New Castle County, 1682-1800. New York, NY: National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, 1911; Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969. (Family History Library book .)

Taxation
The 1676 list of taxables has been published:


 * Dickson, Taylor L. and P.S.P. Conner. "Some Data Concerning the Taking of Wolves in New Castle County in 1676, and a Reprint of the Taxables of that Year," Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan. 1895):29-34. For free online access, see WeRelate.

Vital Records

 * New Castle County, Delaware Obituary and Death Notice Collection Free from GenealogyBuff.com. Obits and death notices from Various Funeral Homes in the Wilmington, Newark, Elsmere, New Castle, Middletown, Delaware City, Newport, Bellefonte and Odessa areas.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Newark Delaware Family History Center
 * Newark, Delaware
 * Wilmington Delaware Family History Center
 * Wilmington, Delaware

Web Sites

 * The New Castle County DEGenWeb Project, an member of The DEGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for New Castle County
 * Family History Library catalog for New Castle County
 * New Castle County, Delaware Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)
 * New Castle County Genealogy (Maine Genealogy)