Middlesex County, New Jersey Genealogy

United States

New Jersey

Middlesex County

Middlesex County, New Jersey ancestry, family history, and genealogy 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.

New Jersey Online Genealogy Records

Middlesex County, New Jersey
Map
Location in the state of New Jersey, United States Genealogy
Location of New Jersey in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	, 1675
County Seat	New Brunswick
Courthouse
Address	Trenton County Courthouse Old Bridge, 235 Ticetown Road New Brunswick, NJ 08857 Phone: (732) 745-3005 Middlesex County Website

Description

Middlesex County is located in the east central region of the state. It was created on February 16, 1867. Hastings is the county seat. The county was named for the Historic English county of Middlesex.

Middlesex County, New Jersey Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1901	1683	1901	1786	1766	1786	1830
*Statewide registration for births and deaths started in 1840. General compliance by 1920.

Parent County

• 1675, original part of East Jersey
• 1 March 1683, created as a county from the Colonial lands.

Boundary Changes

• 26 May 1688, part taken for Somerset County.
• 1710, some boundary changes
• 1714, part of Somerset County taken back
• 1790, some boundary changes with Somerset County
• 1822, water boundary established
• 22 February 1838, West Windsor and part of East Windsor twps. to Mercer County.
• 1844, part of Monroe twp. to Monmouth County
• 1844, part of Monroe twp. to Monmouth County and returned in 1845
• 1847, piece of Monroe twp. to Monmouth County
• 1850, part of Franklin twp. of Somerset County to North Brunswick twp.; water boundary clarified
• 1855, some changes to boundary with Somerset County and again in 1858
• 1860, part of Woodbridge twp. to Rahway, Union County
• 1871, boundary with Plainfield, Union County changed
• 1878, boundary at Kingston, Somerset County clarified
• 1892, water boundary further clarified
• 1939, land to Matawan, Monmouth County.

For animated maps illustrating New Jersey county boundary changes, visit "Rotating Formation New Jersey County Boundary Maps" (1683-1928) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss

There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Middlesex County, New Jersey Genealogy Resources

Bible

Cemeteries

Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Tombstone Transcriptions in Print	List of Cemeteries in the county
Findagrave.com	Family History Library	Findagrave.com
NJGenWeb	WorldCat	Billion Graves
NJGenWeb Archives		FamilySearch Places
NJTombstone Project
NJInterment
Billion Graves
See New Jersey Cemeteries for more information.

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1790	15,956	—
1800	17,890	12.1%
1810	20,381	13.9%
1820	21,470	5.3%
1830	23,157	7.9%
1840	21,893	−5.5%
1850	28,635	30.8%
1860	34,812	21.6%
1870	45,029	29.3%
1880	52,286	16.1%
1890	61,754	18.1%
1900	79,762	29.2%
1910	114,426	43.5%
1920	162,334	41.9%
1930	212,208	30.7%
1940	217,077	2.3%
1950	264,872	22.0%
1960	433,856	63.8%
1970	583,813	34.6%
1980	595,893	2.1%
1990	671,780	12.7%
2000	750,162	11.7%
2010	809,858	8.0%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

• 1855 New Jersey, State Census, 1855 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
• 1865 New Jersey, State Census, 1865 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
• 1895 New Jersey, State Census, 1895 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
• 1915 New Jersey State Census, 1915 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection

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 denominations, view the New Jersey Church Records wiki page.

• 1675-1970 - New Jersey, Church Records, 1675-1970 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection

Lutheran

• Records of Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Perth Amboy, in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America database at Archives.com ($).

Methodist

• 1708-1985 - Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 at Historical Society of Pennsylvania – $, free to members of the society; Also available at Ancestry.com – $; 7,542,774 entries. This database is incomplete for all counties.

Contains the church records of:

• Monroe: Methodist Church

Quakers

• 1687-1825 - Vail, Hugh D. "Records of Rahway and Plainfield (N.J.) Monthly Meeting of Friends (Formerly Held at Amboy and Woodbridge) from 1687 to 1825," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Oct. 1877):176-181; Vol. 9, No. 1 (Jan. 1878):28-37; Vol. 9, No. 2 (Apr. 1878):64-71; Vol. 9, No. 4 (Oct. 1878):174-180; Vol. 10, No. 1 (Jan. 1879):20-23; Vol. 10, No. 3 (Jul. 1879):139-143; Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jan. 1880):42-46. Digital version at New York Family History ($); FHL Book 974.7 B2n v. 8-11. Internet Archives has digitized Vols. 8-9, Vol. 10, and Vol. 11 - free. Includes births, marriages.
  

• 1826-1889 - Haviland, Frank. "Records of Rahway and Plainfield (N.J.) Monthly Meetings of Friends (Formerly Held at Amboy and Woodbridge)," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 114, no. 1 (Jan. 1983):23-36. Digital version at New York Family History ($); FHL Book 974.7 B2n v. 114.

Ward and Branch Records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

• New Brunswick

List of Churches and Church Parishes

• FamilySearch Places
  

Court Records

Emigration and Immigration

• 1906-1942 - New York Book Indexes to Passenger Lists, 1906-1942 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection

Ethnic, Political, or Religious Groups

African American

• 1780-1846 United States, Slave Birth Records, 1780-1846

Gazetteers

• FamilySearch Places:Cities and Towns- How to Use FS Places

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.

Middlesex County Land Records Search website
Middlesex County land records are freely searchable online back to January 1950. Watermarked copies are free to print; printing clean copies is a paid service. Cookies must be enabled for the site to function properly and be sure to read the User Guide.

Maps

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

The Sanborn Map Company is the oldest mapping company in the United States. Founded in 1866, the company created detailed building maps of cities and towns all across the country, primarily for use by insurance companies. These maps also have been used extensively by local government agencies for over a century in conducting their daily operations efficiently. Genealogists, local history buffs, city planners, architects, and countless others have been drawn to the quality of detail found in them. Digital archive provided by Princeton University.

• Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Perth Amboy 
• Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Woodbridge
• Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: South Amboy
• Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Metuchen
• Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Carteret
• Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Sayreville
• Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: South River
• Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: New Brunswick
• FamilySearch Places:Cities and Towns- How to Use FS Places

Migration

Early migration routes to and from Middlesex County, New Jersey Genealogy for settlers included:

• 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.
• King's Highway 1673 connected Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Genealogy to Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina Genealogy and many coastal cities between including Philadelphia, New Brunswick, 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.

Military

Naturalization and Citizenship

• 1796-1991 - New Jersey Naturalization Records, 1796-1991 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection

Newspapers

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

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• Do a Middlesex County, New Jersey Genealogy Place-name search for these and other records in the FamilySearch Catalog (For instructions see FamilySearch Catalog Places Search).

• New Brunswick Daily Times 1871-1916 - digitized archive of the newspaper; freely available via the New Brunswick Public Library
• New Brunswick, New Jersey Newspaper Extracts is a database part of an ongoing project to extract deaths, marriages, and notable events such as disappearances, fires, and crimes reported by The Daily Times in the 1870’s. Use this database as an aid for finding articles and obituaries in the New Brunswick Public Library's images of The Daily Times.
• The South Amboy Citizen (1910-1943)
• The South Amboy Citizen (1944-2000)
  The South Amboy Citizen offers online access from July 2, 1910, through December 29, 2000. Provided by the Sadie Pope Dowdell Library. (Note: There is no search capability for the South Amboy Citizen but you can use Google Advanced search http://www.google.com/advanced_search and enter "dowdell.org/citizen" into the bottom box labeled “Search within a site or domain” to search the paper.)
  [1]
  

• Woodbridge Township Newspapers digitized archive freely available via the Woodbridge Township Public Library
• Carteret Press (1925 -1965)
• Fords Beacon (1936 - 1961)
• Independent Leader (1940 -1965)
• Leader Press (1967 - 1970)
• The Independent Hour (1876 - 1877)
• The Weekly Register (1898 - 1902)
• The Woodbridge Leader (1927 - 1928)
• The Woodbridge News (1899 - 1902)
• Woodbridge Independent (1919 - 1938)
• Woodbridge Leader (1926 -1939)

• New Jersey Online Historical Newspapers - identifies historical archived and digitized newspapers available online on both free and pay-to-access websites.

Occupations

Periodicals

Poorhouse, Almshouse

Populated Places

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit HomeTown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cities
New Brunswick	Perth Amboy	South Amboy
Boroughs
Carteret Dunellen Helmetta Highland Park	Jamesburg Metuchen Middlesex Milltown	Sayreville South Plainfield South River Spotswood
Unincorporated communities
Adams Browntown Cottageville Deans Edgars Fresh Ponds Greensand	Hazelton Jefferson Park Keasbey Lahiere Melrose Nixon Outcalt	Parlin Randolphville Samptown Texas Union Valley Valentine Wyckoffs Mills
Census-designated places
Avenel Brownville Clearbrook Park Colonia Concordia Cranbury Dayton Fords	Heathcote Iselin Kendall Park Kingston Laurence Harbor Madison Park Monmouth Junction Old Bridge	Plainsboro Center Port Reading Princeton Meadows Rossmoor Sewaren Society Hill Whittingham Woodbridge
Townships
Cranbury East Brunswick Edison Monroe Township	North_Brunswick Old Bridge Piscataway	Plainsboro South Brunswick Woodbridge

Probate Records

Probate records created after 1852 are held by the Middlesex County, New Jersey Genealogy 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 Middlesex County, New Jersey Genealogy 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

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

New Jersey, Middlesex County Probate Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Online Probate Records

• 1656 - 1999 New Jersey Wills and Probate Records 1656-1999 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• 1670 – 1760 Calendar of New Jersey Wills 1670-1760 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• 1670 – 1817 New Jersey Abstract of Wills 1670-1817 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• 1678 - 1980 New Jersey Probate Records 1678-1980 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection

Repositories

Archives

Courthouses

Middlesex County Courthouse
Old Bridge; 235 Ticetown Road;
New Brunswick, NJ 08857
Phone: (732) 745-3005

County Clerk has marriage, divorce, court and land records. County Surrogate has probate records.

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance, free access to center-only databases, and to premium genealogical websites.
FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries have access to most center-only databases, but may not always have full services normally provided by a family history center.

• Family History Center and Affiliate Library Locator

Local Centers and Libraries

• East Brunswick New Jersey Family History Center

Libraries

Museums

Societies

Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission
Middlesex County Annex
841 Georges Rd.
North Brunswick, NJ 08902
Telephone: 732-745-4489

Plainsboro Historical Society
641 Plainsboro Rd Ste A
Plainsboro, NJ 08536
Telephone: 609-799-9040

Metuchen/edison Historical Society
PO Box 61
Metuchen NJ
Website

South River Historical and Preservation Society
PO Box 446
South River 08882
Website

Adopt-a-wiki page This page adopted by: NJGenWeb and its coordinators who welcome you to contribute. Adopt a page today

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.

Birth

• 1901-1903, New Jersey, Reclaim the Records, New Jersey Birth Index, 1901-1903 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection

Marriage

Online Marriage Indexes and Records

1606-1981 - New Jersey, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $

• 1670-1980 - New Jersey, Marriages, 1670-1980 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection
• 1930-1938 - New Jersey, Bride Index, 1930-1938 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection

Death

• 1901-1903 - New Jersey, Death Index, 1901-1903 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection

Middlesex County, New Jersey Websites

• Middlesex County NJGenWeb
• USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
• Middlesex County, New Jersey History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (Familytree101)
• Middlesex County NJ Genealogy
• FamilySearch Catalog

Middlesex County, New Jersey Places

• Mercer
• Monmouth
• Somerset
• Union
• New York, New York
• Richmond, New York

Middlesex County, New Jersey Genealogy References

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.

Family History Library