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United States 
New Jersey Somerset County
Somerset 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.
| Somerset County, New Jersey | |
| Map | |
 Location in the state of New Jersey | |
 Location of New Jersey in the U.S. | |
| Facts | |
| Founded | May 14, 1688 |
|---|---|
| County Seat | Somerville |
| Courthouse | |
| [[Image: |center|200px]] | |
| Address | Somerset County Courthouse 20 Grove St, PO Box 3000 Somerville, NJ 08876 Phone: (908) 231-7006 Somerset County Website |
Somerset County, New Jersey Historical Facts
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.
Parent County
Boundary Changes
- 1710, boundaries changed.
- 1714, part back to Middlesex County.
- 13 March 1714, part set off to be Hunterdon County.[1]
- 1741, part from Essex County.
- 1749, boundary with Morris County defined.
- 1790, boundary changes with Middlesex County and again in 1855, 1858 and 1878.
- 22 February 1838 1838, part of Montgomery twp set off to form Mercer County. [1]
- 1844, Tewksbury twp. from Hunterdon County and restored in 1845.
- 1850, part of Fanklin twp. added to to North Brunswick twp., Middlesex County.
- 1876, Union County boundary clarified.
- 1965, Hunterdon County boundary clarified.
Record Loss
Somerset 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.
- 1727-1734 - Skillman, William Jones. "Earliest Baptismal Records of the Church of Harlingen (Reformed Dutch) of New Jersey. 1727-1734," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct. 1909):281-291. Digital versions at Internet Archive - free; New York Family History ($); FHL Book 974.7 B2n v. 40.
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 Somerset County, New Jersey for settlers included:[2]
- Raritan River a navigable river which rises in Morris County and flows through central New Jersey past Manville to New Brunswick where it meets the tide.
- 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.
Military
Naturalization and Citizenship
Newspapers
Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Somerset County, New Jersey newspapers in online catalogs like:
- WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
- Do a Somerset 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 Somerset 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 Somerset 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
Somerset County Courthouse
20 Grove St; PO Box 3000
Somerville, NJ 08876
Phone: (908) 231-7006
County Clerk has court records from 1777 and land records from 1785. County Surrogate has probate 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.
Somerset 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
Somerset County, New Jersey Neighboring Counties
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Somerset County, New Jersey Genealogy References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), 465. 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 15:41.
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