Hunterdon County, New Jersey Genealogy

United States &gt; New Jersey &gt; Hunterdon County

Parent County

 * 1714, formed in West Jersey including from part of Burlington County

Boundary Changes

 * 1739, part formed into Morris County
 * 1838, part formed into Mercer County with more being added in 1839
 * 1844, Hopewell twp. returned from Mercer County and Tewksbury twp. to Somerset County
 * 1845, Hopewell twp. back to Mercer County and Tewksbury twp. from Somerset County
 * 1965, Somerset county boundary clarified.

Neighboring Counties
Mercer | Morris | Somerset | Warren | Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Migration
Early migration routes to and from for settlers included:


 * 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.
 * 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&amp;R Canal.

Minorities
Slave Manumissions On-line This series includes original manumission papers filed by Hunterdon County slaveowners (with overseers of the poor and justices of the peace) as early as 1788. The documents are among those originally copied into two manumission/slave birth books now (1993) held by the Hunterdon County Historical Society in Flemington. Abstracts of the recorded manumissions were published in Some Records of Old Hunterdon County, 1701-1838 by Phyllis B. D'Autrechy (Trenton: 1979), pp. 147-157, 173-196, 201-204. Well over 500 acts of manumission during the period 1787-1856 are recorded in the Hunterdon County manumission books, while original papers for only 56 are included here.

This series is arranged chronologically. The items have been listed using the following format: • name of slave owner: • name of slave (age if recorded), • other identifying information if included, • location, • date [remarks].

To aid in research, three name indexes have been added following the contents list.

Newspapers

 * Indexto the Hunterdon Gazette prepared by William H. Hartman. The online index has over 25,000 entries covering the years 1825-1866. "The Hunterdon Gazette and Farmer's Weekly Advertiser, was first published at Flemington, New Jersey, on March 24, 1825. With Issue No. 18, July 21, 1825, the name was changed to ‘Hunterdon Gazette and Farmer's Advertiser’. The name was changed to ‘Hunterdon Gazette’ on June 3, 1829 and continued with this heading until July 1866 when it was purchased by the Hunterdon Democrat. This newspaper lasted about a year when it merged with the present day Hunterdon County Democrat."
 * Extracts of the Hunterdon County Democrat from 1838 to 1888 (currently) and beyond in the future at this website. Visit the site, a website for the Sutton Family of New Jersey, for details. The maintainer of the site also offers to make some additional transcriptions upon request. From the website: "The Hunterdon Democrat was formed September 5, 1838 at Flemington, New Jersey. In 1847, the name was changed to the Hunterdon County Democrat which title still is being used (1975). The initial annual subscription rate for those who received their papers by private post was $2.00."

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. (.) 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
 * Telephone: 609-292-4978
 * Fax: 609-777-0094
 * Internet: http://www.answers.com/topic/new-jersey-superior-court

Vital Records

 * Marriage records of Hunterdon county, New Jersey, 1795-1875

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Clinton New Jersey Family History Center

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.