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Archiver > NJHUNTER > 2002-10 > 1033647975


From: "msouders" <>
Subject: [NJHUNTER] Census - Birth Records pre-1800
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2002 08:31:53 -0400


I'd like to offer my two cents regarding birth records pre-1800 for NJ ---
While NJ researchers are at a disadvantage because of the missing censuses
which cover that vital 1790-1830 period, I have had really good luck using
death records. NJ began keeping those as early as 1848 but as they went on,
they gave a good bit of information, including names of parents, place of
birth, age at death (from which birthdate can be derived, or, even
accounting for errors, as well as one can from tombstones which frequently
contain errors too)

Also, in some cases if I could find or knew names of siblings, I'd trace
them forward, get their death certificates or obituaries which would give
some new facts on the family, survivors, siblings, parents, birthplace or
whatever, and these would allow me to go backward again.

With one family that started having unrecorded, un-baptized, children in
Warren (Sussex then) between 1790-1815, I've been able to identify this
family of mostly daughters where the whole family moved west - to different
states! - using this method. After six years of helping a man try to find
the parents for his gggrandmother who was born in NJ in 1811 and died in
Scranton in 1901 (before PA started requiring death certificates) and who I
suspected was from this family, I stumbled across still another married
sister whose 1900 obituary in an Easton paper gave her parents and the one
surviving sister in Scranton. In this case we weren't even sure of her
unusual first name because it was transcribed two or three different ways
(Savenda, Darenda, etc.) till finding the obituary.

Still another way of getting this information is to trace descendants, even
collateral descendants, who have moved west because as county or local
histories or newspaper articles are written about them, they frequently will
give information on that family before moving west. As these histories were
written around the turn of the 20th century (ca. 1875-1920), you could
easily pick up a few generations previous to the person in the biography.
With this same family, above, there was a nephew who left Luzerne County
before 1840 and turned up having his biographic entry in Landmarks of
Steuben County (NY). This named the grandparents, where they lived,
grandmother's maiden name (another mystery - but we'll leave that alone
here). Obviously the internet helped a whole lot in finding this man in
upstate New York where I never would have looked.

There has been an ongoing discussion on the Warren County board to list
"unknown women" - female ancestors whose maiden names are unknown. Most of
the examples listed so far could be identified potentially by using death
certificates and/or obituaries too.

Good luck, Marilyn





----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 11:12 PM
Subject: [NJHUNTER] Census - Birth Records pre-1800


> 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
>
>
> ==== NJHUNTER Mailing List ====
> Visit the Updated Hunterdon County GenWeb page at:
> http://www.rootsweb.com/~njhunter
>
> ==============================
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go to:
> http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237
>

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