New Jersey Births and Christenings - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection is an electronic index of births and christenings for the years 1660 to 1980 comprised of the following:


 * Indexed church records
 * Civil registrations
 * The Internet indexing project sponsored by the LDS Church

Church records and civil registration were official sources and are some of the most reliable sources of family history information.

This index is not complete for any particular place, region or time period. This collection may include information previously published in the International Genealogical Index or Vital Records Index collections.

When using this collection be aware that when volunteers entered data from the 1878-1900 New Jersey birth, marriage, and death index registers, the date spans were misunderstood. The registers span from July of one year through June of the next (excepting a set of registers covering June 1878, and another set covering July-Dec 1900). Unfortunately, much of the data entry was done as if the registers covered single calendar years. Thus, many if not most of the events from the months of January, February, March, April, May, and June during the 1878-1900 period are shown in your databases with the wrong year, the date is generally one year too early.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
For details about the contents of these records and help using them see the wiki article Births and Christenings Vital Record Index Collections (FamilySearch Historical Records).

The records in this collection usually include the following information:
 * Name
 * Gender
 * Birth date and place
 * Christening date and place
 * Names of parents

The records may also include the following information:
 * Race
 * Parents' place of birth

Coverage Table
The coverage table shows the places and time periods of the original records in this collection. The table indicates how many records the collection has from each place. Most of the records in the collection are from the time periods listed in the table; however, the collection may have a few records from before or after the time period.

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The person’s name
 * The approximate date and place of birth

Search the Index
Finding the Original Source for an Entry in This Collection

Remember this is only an index, not the original records.

Each entry in this index has a source listed which includes a batch number. You will need to trace the batch number for the individual entry to learn its source. Please see the following wiki articles for more information on batch numbers:


 * IGI
 * IGI Batch Number Descriptions
 * IGI Batch Numbers for the British Isles and North America

If an FHL film number is given in the entry for your ancestor, search for it in the FamilySearch Catalog.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s birth record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the birth date along with the place of birth to find the family in census records
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records
 * The father’s occupation can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records
 * The parents' birth places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family
 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile birth entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the birth records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same county or nearby

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names
 * Look for another index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby counties
 * Be aware that, as with any index, transcription errors may occur
 * Search the FamilySearch Catalog to see if other records for this place are available

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.


 * Collection Citation:

"New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.

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