Hunterdon County, New Jersey Genealogy

Hunterdon 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
Hunterdon County is located in the northwestern region of the state. It was created in 1714. Flemington is the county seat. The county was named for Robert Hunter a British military officer, colonial governor of New York and New Jersey from 1710 to 1720, and governor of Jamaica from 1727 to 1734.

Parent County

 * 1714, formed in West Jersey including from part of Burlington County

Boundary Changes

 * 1739, part formed into Morris County
 * 1838, part formed into Mercer County with more being added in 1839
 * 1844, Hopewell twp. returned from Mercer County and Tewksbury twp. to Somerset County
 * 1845, Hopewell twp. back to Mercer County and Tewksbury twp. from Somerset County
 * 1965, Somerset county boundary clarified.

For animated maps illustrating New Jersey county boundary changes, visit "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.

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
 * 1771-1800 - Fisher, Ben van D. "Records of the Corporation of Zion in New Germantown in West Jersey - Births and Baptisms," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Baptisms 1771-1773: Vol. 31, No. 2 (Apr. 1900):107-110; Baptisms 1770s-1778: Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul. 1900):139-142; Baptisms 1778-1780: Vol. 31, No. 4 (Oct. 1900):232-235; Baptisms 1780-1782: Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan. 1901):36-39; Baptisms 1782-1783: Vol. 32, No. 2 (Apr. 1901):97-100; Baptisms 1783-1785: Vol. 32, No. 3 (Jul. 1901):138-141; Baptisms 1785: Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct. 1901):200-203; Baptisms 1786-1787: Vol. 33, No. 1 (Jan. 1902):27-31; Baptisms 1787-1790: Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr. 1902):Baptisms 1790-1791: Vol. 33, No. 3 (Jul. 1902):141-144; Baptisms 220-222: Vol. 33, No. 4 (Oct. 1904):220-222; Vol. 33 222; Baptisms 1793-1794: Vol. 34, No. 1 (Jan. 1903):56-59; Baptisms 1794-1796: Vol. 34, No. 2 (Apr. 1903):100-102; Baptisms 1796-1798: Vol. 34, No. 3 (Jul. 1903):197-200; Baptisms 1798-1800: Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct. 1903):248-250. Digital version at New York Family History ($); . Internet Archive has digitized Vol. 32 and Vol. 34, but not Vol. 31 or Vol. 33.

Land and Property
Early Deeds 1716-1730 at FamilySearch film#818213 Item 1

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.
 * 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 feeder canal, including boat traffic, from near Frenchtown also supplied additional water to the Trenton part of the D&amp;R Canal.

Minorities
Slave Manumissions On-line This series includes original manumission papers filed by Hunterdon County slaveowners (with overseers of the poor and justices of the peace) as early as 1788. The documents are among those originally copied into two manumission/slave birth books now (1993) held by the Hunterdon County Historical Society in Flemington. Abstracts of the recorded manumissions were published in Some Records of Old Hunterdon County, 1701-1838 by Phyllis B. D'Autrechy (Trenton: 1979), pp. 147-157, 173-196, 201-204. Well over 500 acts of manumission during the period 1787-1856 are recorded in the Hunterdon County manumission books, while original papers for only 56 are included here.

This series is arranged chronologically. The items have been listed using the following format: • name of slave owner: • name of slave (age if recorded), • other identifying information if included, • location, • date [remarks].

To aid in research, three name indexes have been added following the contents list.

Naturalization and Citizenship

 * 1796-1991 - at FamilySearch — index

Newspapers

 * Indexto the Hunterdon Gazette prepared by William H. Hartman. The online index has over 25,000 entries covering the years 1825-1866. "The Hunterdon Gazette and Farmer's Weekly Advertiser, was first published at Flemington, New Jersey, on March 24, 1825. With Issue No. 18, July 21, 1825, the name was changed to ‘Hunterdon Gazette and Farmer's Advertiser’. The name was changed to ‘Hunterdon Gazette’ on June 3, 1829 and continued with this heading until July 1866 when it was purchased by the Hunterdon Democrat. This newspaper lasted about a year when it merged with the present day Hunterdon County Democrat."
 * Extracts of the Hunterdon County Democrat from 1838 to 1888 (currently) and beyond in the future at this website. Visit the site, a website for the Sutton Family of New Jersey, for details. The maintainer of the site also offers to make some additional transcriptions upon request. From the website: "The Hunterdon Democrat was formed September 5, 1838 at Flemington, New Jersey. In 1847, the name was changed to the Hunterdon County Democrat which title still is being used (1975). The initial annual subscription rate for those who received their papers by private post was $2.00."

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
Hunterdon County Courthouse 71 Main St; PO Box 2900 Flemington, NJ 08822-2900 Phone: 908.788.1221 County Clerk has marriage records 1795-1875. Court recorder from 1714 and land records from 1716. Clerk Surrogate Court has probate records. Clerk Superior Court has divorce records.

Family History Centers

 * Clinton New Jersey Family History Center

Societies
Hunterdon County Historical Society 114 Main St Flemington, NJ 08822 Telephone: 908-782-1091 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
 * 1795-1875 - Marriage records of Hunterdon county, New Jersey, 1795-1875
 * 1930-1938 - at FamilySearch — index

Hunterdon County, New Jersey Websites

 * Hunterdon New Jersey NJGenWeb
 * NJGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information.
 * Hunterdon County, New Jersey History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (genealogyinc)
 * Hunterdon County NJ Genealogy

Hunterdon County, New Jersey Neighboring Counties



 * Mercer
 * Morris
 * Somerset
 * Warren
 * Bucks, Pennsylvania