New Jersey, Births - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of an index to selected birth records from various places in New Jersey for the years 1670 to 1980.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The index may include any of the following:


 * Child’s full name
 * Date and place of child's birth
 * Child's gender and race
 * Whether living or stillborn
 * Father's name, age, occupation and place of birth
 * Mother's maiden name, age and place of birth
 * Child's place of order in family
 * Parents' place of residence

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * The approximate date of birth
 * The place of birth
 * The name of the child's parents

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

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 Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the name, date and birth place to obtain a copy of the birth record.
 * Use the birth date along with the place of birth and parents' names to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * 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 Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.

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, 1670-1980." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton.

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