Mercer County, New JerseyEdit This Page
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United States 
New Jersey Mercer County
Mercer 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.
| Mercer County, New Jersey | |
| Map | |
 Location in the state of New Jersey | |
 Location of New Jersey in the U.S. | |
| Facts | |
| Founded |
|
|---|---|
| County Seat | Trenton |
| Courthouse | |
| Address | Trenton County Courthouse PO Box 8068 Trenton, NJ 08650-0068 Phone: (609) 989-6517 Mercer County Website |
Mercer County, New Jersey Historical Facts
Parent County
1838, formed from parts of Hunterdon and Middlesex counties and part of Montgomery twp. from Somerset County. [1]
Boundary Changes
- 1839, more parts from Hunterdon County added.
- 1844, Hopewell twp. returned to Hunterdon County and then returned in 1845.
Record Loss
Mercer 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.
Court Records
Emigration and Immigration
Ethnic, Political, or Religious Groups
Gazetteers
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
Early migration routes to and from Mercer County, New Jersey for settlers included:[2]
- Delaware River a pre-historic pathway serving as the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania rises in Schoharie County, New York and flows by the Lehigh Canal in Pennsylvania, Frenchtown, Trenton where river meets tidewater, and past Bordentown in New Jersey, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania to empty into the North Atlantic Ocean.
- King's Highway 1673 connected Boston, Massachusetts to Charleston, South Carolina and many coastal cities between including Philadelphia, Trenton, and New York City.
- Delaware and Raritan Canal 1834 connected New Brunswick, New Jersey on the Raritan River (and NY City) to Bordontown, New Jersey on the Delaware River and parts of Pennsylvania including Philadelphia. A boat traffic carrying feeder canal from near Frenchtown also supplied water to the Trenton part of the D&R Canal.
Military
Naturalization and Citizenship
Newspapers
Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Mercer County, New Jersey newspapers in online catalogs like:
- WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
- Do a Mercer County, New Jersey Place-name search for these and other records in the Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).
Occupations
Periodicals
Poorhouse, Almshouse
Probate Records
Probate records created after 1852 are held by the Mercer 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 Mercer 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
Mercer County Courthouse
PO Box 8068;
Trenton, NJ 08650-0068
Phone: (609) 989-6517
County Surrogate has probate records. County Clerk has court and land records from 1838, judgments, tax maps, and corporation records.[1]
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.
Mercer County, New Jersey Web Sites
- USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
- Family History Library Catalog
Mercer County, New Jersey Neighboring Counties
Mercer County, New Jersey Genealogy References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), 464. At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 D27e 2002.
- ↑ Handybook, 847-61.
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- This page was last modified on 15 May 2013, at 21:28.
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