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From:
Subject: [NJHUNTER] Census - Birth Records pre-1800
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 23:12:43 EDT


Yes, church records are about the only source for vitals and/or the bible
records. The census records for NJ start 1830. The others are lost and gone
bye-bye forever.

The New Jersey Historical and Genealogical Society has a library filled with
books published by the various DAR societies around the state of New Jersey
where they have extracted names and dates from family bibles. These were all
done in the 1930s or so. Being a member might afford one the opportunity to
write to the society to ask another member to do a lookup -- however, because
there are so many, it would probably help them to better able to pinpoint
which bible or church record to start their search on your behalf. Or you
can hire a researcher to go to the library and spend a day looking through
each and every volume. The time when I was there in 1990, these books
covered the entire side wall of the society's library. I didn't find what I
was looking for because, as I found out after I made the rest of my vacation
trip to Warren/Sussex county, that I had been looking for the wrong first
name. My error, but I was trying to verify a piece of family history the
make a connection to a Revolutionary War veteran.

Anyway, as some else has also suggested, some of the local genealogical
societies may also have either these same books or ones like them in their
own library.

In addition, someone also suggested going to the cemeteries themselves to see
if a date can be found on the tombstones. I only have this to say--good
luck. When I went tromping through some of the old cemeteries in Warren and
Sussex county looking for tombstones for people in the 1700-1799 time period
all I could find were broken tombstones, buried tombstones, sinking
tombstones, sandstone tombstones with no names or dates (everything had faded
with time and weather), tombstones being covered by the grass cuttings of the
caretakers, vandalized tombstones and much more.

As mentioned above, some of the older cemeteries were walked through and
transcribed back in the 1930s by the various local DAR chapters and this may
be your only means of finding out what the tombstones used to say.

It is unfortunate that the towns people, the local genealogical societies,
the local historical societies, and the local towns themselves don't
recognize that their old cemeteries are quickly disappearing from this earth
and have made no attempts at preservation. I had written to the NJH&GS about
this situation and got no response from that organization one way or the
other about my suggestion to go back and re-walk the old cemeteries just to
see how many of the old markers were missing, could be restored and
preserved, etc.

Be that as it may, New Jersey is a very tough state to find your ancestors.
It takes a lot of hard work, perservance, prayer, asking questions, and a lot
of seeking out of those obscure records or books that pinpoint the one piece
of information we need to fill in those vital three to five blanks on our
pedigree charts! Birth, Christening, Marriage, Death, and Burial!

New Jersey in a nutshell is almost as tough as those of you who are also
researching in those southern states where the court houses were burned
either by the Civil War fightings or those mysterious fires that seem to
plague some of the court houses in those states known as "burned record
states."

One final thought, I'm told that Rutger's University has a wonderful research
library for New Jersey records and research. You might contact them as well
to see if they can help you with your research problem. I've not personally
used their services but I know some other research friends of mine have and
had wonderful luck.

Christie Trapp

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