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Gloucester County, New Jersey genealogy and family history 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.

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Gloucester County, New Jersey
Map
Map of New Jersey highlighting Gloucester County
Location in the state of New Jersey
Map of the U.S. highlighting New Jersey
Location of New Jersey in the U.S.
Facts
Founded 1686
County Seat Woodbury
Courthouse
Address Gloucester County Courthouse
1 N Broad Street

Woodbury, NJ 08096-4611
Phone: (856) 853-3237
Gloucester County Website

Contents

Gloucester County, New Jersey Historical Facts

1642-1643: The New Sweden Colony expanded from present-day Wilmington, Delaware east to New Jersey at New Stockholm, now Bridgeport, Gloucester, New Jersey, and Sveaborg, now Swedesboro, Gloucester, New Jersey.[1][2][3] 

1654-1655: In 1654 New Sweden captured Fort Casimir (now New Castle, Delaware) from the Dutch without a fight and renamed Fort Trinty (Trefaldighets).[4] In 1655 New Netherland returned with a large army and all of New Sweden in presend-day New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware submitted to Dutch rule.[5]

1664: As part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War New Netherland including West Jersey was surrendered to the English.[6]

1673-1674: A new war broke out and the Dutch sent a large armada to retake New Netherland for a few months. But as the war ended the colony was ceeded to England for the last time.[7]

Created 28 May 1686 from the Colonial Lands. [8]

Parent County

Boundary Changes

  • 1686, courts separated from Burlington County
  • 1692, boundary set with Burlington county and repealed in 1693
  • 1694, formed in West Jersey with Egg Harbor from Cape May County
  • 1710, boundaries redefined
  • 1837, part forms Atlantic County
  • 1844, part made into Camden County
  • 1871, Monroe twp. and bulk of Washington twp. from Camden County
  • 1892, part of Landis twps., Cumberland County taken and returned in 1897
  • 1926, part of Washington twp. to Camden County with some more going in 1931
  • 1938, boundary clarified with Atlantic County
  • 1950, some to Camden County.

Record Loss

Gloucester County, New Jersey Genealogical Resources

Bible

Cemeteries

Census

Church Records

Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. For general information about Ohio denominations, view the New Jersey Church Records wiki page.

Contains the church records of:
  • Gloucester: Church of the Ascension; First Presbyterian Church
  • Monroe: Methodist Church
  • Woodbury: United Methodist Church
  • Woolwich: Trinity Episcopal Church
Episcopal
  • 1787-1815 - Stevenson, J.R. "Records of St. Mary's Church, Colestown, (Old Gloucester Co.) New Jersey," Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jun. 1908):237-240. For free online access, see WeRelate; the Family History Library also has this series in its collection: FHL Book 974.8 B2p. Baptisms 1787-1815, marriages 1795-1796, burials 1794-1795.
Lutheran

Raccoon Parish was the first Swedish Church built in New Jersey (1703).[9]

1754 and 1786 membership lists of Raccoon Parish are preserved in Archivum Americanum at the Consistory Court of the Archbishop of Upsal in Sweden. A copy of the 1754 list is held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.[10]

Court Records

Emigration and Immigration

  • Clement, John. "Swedish Settlers in Gloucester County, New Jersey, Previous to 1684," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 17 (1893):83-87. For free online access, see WeRelate.

Ethnic, Political, or Religious Groups

Gazetteers

  • United States Geographic Survey Place Names - GNIS for Gloucester County
    (may not always be present in alphabetic order on first try.)

Genealogy

History

Local histories are available for New Jersey counties. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories see the wiki page section New Jersey Local Histories.

Land and Property

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

See New Jersey Land and Property for information about New Jersey Proprietary land records. After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions were usually recorded at the county courthouse and where records are currently housed.


Maps

Migration

Military

Naturalization and Citizenship

Newspapers

Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Gloucester County, New Jersey newspapers in online catalogs like:

Occupations

Periodicals

Poorhouse, Almshouse

Probate Records

Probate records created after 1852 are held by the Gloucester County, New Jersey Probate Court. From 1797 or the creation of the county, probate records were held by the Court of Common Pleas. Most counties transferred all records to the Probate Court, but in some circumstances, Court of Common Pleas records should be searched for records prior to 1852. Most records are housed at the Gloucester County, New Jersey Courthouse. Some records are on microfilm at the Ohio Genealogical Society and the Family History Library. For more complete information about the location of county probate records see:

See the wiki page New Jersey Probate Records for information about how to use probate records.

Content: Probate Records may give the decedent's date of death, names of his or her spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, neighbors, associates, relatives, and their place of residence.

Record types: Wills, estates, guardianships, naturalizations, marriage, adoption, and birth and death records (1867-1908 only).

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. (Family History Library book 973 D27rb 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

Repositories

Archives
Courthouse

Gloucester County Courthouse
1 N Broad Street
Woodbury, NJ 08096-4611
Phone: (856) 853-3237

County Clerk has court and land records from 1787. Surrogate Court has probate records. Clerk Superior Court has divorce records. Early records preserved at Surveyor General’s Office, Burlington Sec. of State Office, Trenton. [8]

"Close To Everything, Far From It All"
 

Family History Centers
Libraries
Museums
Societies

Schools

Taxation

New Jersey tax records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses before 1820 or to supplement the years between censuses. Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties. For more information see the wiki page New Jersey Taxation.

Vital Records

Vital Records consist of births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths recorded on registers, certificates, and documents. United States Vital Records has additional research guidance on researching and using vital records. A copy or an extract of most original records can be purchased from the New Jersey Vital Records State Department of Health or the County Clerk's office of the county where the event occurred. Original marriage records are usually held at the county Bureau of Vital Statistics.

Gloucester County, New Jersey Web Sites

Gloucester County, New Jersey Neighboring Counties

Local histories are available for New Jersey counties. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories see the wiki page section New Jersey Local Histories.

 


Gloucester County, New Jersey Genealogy References

  1. ↑ "New Sweden" in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden (accessed 7 November 2008).
  2. ↑ Swedes and Finns settled on the New Jersey side of the Delaware river as early as 1642 at Raccoon Creek. The first Swedish Lutheran minister to arrive in 1643, John Campanius, apparently described the luxurious growth of tobacco by Swedes between Raccoon Creek and Mantua Creek (Bridgeport) as mentioned in "Early History" in Gloucester County History and Genealogy [Internet site] at http://www.nj.searchroots.com/Gloucesterco/gchistory.htm (accessed 10 November 2008).
  3. ↑ Trinity Episcopal 'Old Swedes' Church 1703-2007 [Internet site] at http://trinityswedesboro.org/History/History1.htm (accessed 10 November 2008)."Three years later [1641], Peter Hollander Ridder, the second governor of New Sweden, as the settlement in the Delaware Valley was called, purchased form the Indians the entire eastern side of the Delaware River from Raccoon Creek to Cape May. The first settlement by the Swedes was here on the banks of the Raccoon Creek in 1642, originally named Raccoon and later Swedesboro."
  4. ↑ "New Sweden" in Wikipedia.
  5. ↑ "New Sweden" in Wikipedia.
  6. ↑ "New Netherland" in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_netherland (accessed 13 December 2008).
  7. ↑ "New Netherland" in Wikipedia.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), 181. [FHL book 973 D27e 2002].
  9. ↑ "A Brief History of the Early Swedes in New Jersey," Gloucester County, New Jersey History & Genealogy, http://www.nj.searchroots.com/Gloucesterco/swedesboro.htm, accessed 14 May 2012.
  10. ↑ Charles J. Stillé, "Archivum Americanum in the Consistory Court of the Archbishop of Upsal," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 15 (1891):482, 484-485. For free online access, see WeRelate.
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  • This page was last modified on 15 May 2013, at 15:35.
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