Mercer County, New Jersey Genealogy

United States New Jersey  Mercer County

County Courthouse
Mercer County Courthouse PO Box 8068; Trenton, NJ 08650-0068 Phone: 609.989.6517 County Surrogate has probate records; County Clerk has court and land records from 1838, judgments, tax maps and corporation records

Parent County
1838, formed from parts of Hunterdon and Middlesex counties and part of Montgomery twp. from Somerset County.

Boundary Changes

 * 1839, more parts from Hunterdon County added.
 * 1844, Hopewell twp. returned to Hunterdon County and then returned in 1845.

Neighboring Counties
Burlington | Hunterdon | Middlesex | Monmouth | Somerset | Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Migration
Early migration routes to and from for settlers included:


 * Delaware River a pre-historic pathway serving as the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania rises in Schoharie County, New York and flows by the Lehigh Canal in Pennsylvania, Frenchtown, Trenton where river meets tidewater, and past Bordentown in New Jersey, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania to empty into the North Atlantic Ocean.
 * King's Highway 1673 connected Boston, Massachusetts to Charleston, South Carolina and many coastal cities between including Philadelphia, Trenton, 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. A boat traffic carrying feeder canal from near Frenchtown also supplied water to the Trenton part of the D&amp;R Canal.

Probate Records
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
 * Telephone: 609-292-4978
 * Fax: 609-777-0094
 * Internet: http://www.answers.com/topic/new-jersey-superior-court

Web Sites

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