Salem County, New Jersey Genealogical Records Information

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Salem County History and Information

Salem County Facts

Salem County was created on 17 May 1694 and was formed from West Jersey Province and the Salem Tenth on 17 May 1694. Its southern portion was set off as Cumberland County in 1748 . The County was named for the Hebrew word for peace. The County Seat is Salem. See also County History for more historical details.

Counties adjacent to Salem County are Gloucester County (northeast), Cumberland County (southeast), Kent County, Delaware (southwest), New Castle County, Delaware (west) .

Salem County Cities Include Salem. Townships Include Alloway Township, Carneys Point Township, Elsinboro Township, Lower Alloways Creek Township, Mannington Township, Oldmans Township, Pennsville Township, Pilesgrove Township, Pittsgrove Township, Quinton Township, Upper Pittsgrove Township. Boroughs Include Elmer, Penns Grove, Woodstown. CDPs and Communities Include Alloway CDP, Carneys Point CDP, Pennsville CDP, Olivet.

The Salem County Official Government Website
Archives and Records Management, 856-935-7510x8550
Salem County, New Jersey History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Records at the Salem County Courthouse

See Also New Jersey Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information. Courts were established in 1861

All Departments below are in the Salem County Courthouse, 92 Market Street, Salem, NJ 08079; (856) 935-7510, unless otherwise noted below. The Official County website is located at http://www.salemcountynj.gov/. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.

Salem County Clerk has Land Records & Marriage Records from 1766/1786 and is located at the address above. Phone Number: 856-935-7510 Ext. 8206, FAX 856-935-8882 . [ County clerks were required by law to file copies of deeds beginning in 1785 and mortgages beginning in 1766.]
New Jersey county clerks are responsible for land records, including deeds and mortgages, naturalizations, marriages (usually 1795-1840s), and various county court records. A few original county justice of the peace dockets are at the New Jersey State Archives. Estate matters are handled in the surrogate's and orphans' courts.

Salem County Surrogate Court / Orphan's Court has Probate Records from 1785/1804 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (856) 935-7510 Ext. 8323 - E-Mail: Surrogate@salemcountynj.gov. [ Recording of wills and estate inventories at the county level began in 1804. Orphans Courts were established in 1785.]
By virtue of laws enacted since 1844, the responsibilities of the County Surrogate have been expanded. The County Surrogate now has two major functions:

As Judge and Clerk of the County Surrogate's Court, the Surrogate is responsible for settling the estate of every county resident who dies individually owning any assets in New Jersey--whether or not that resident dies leaving a will. Therefore, the Surrogate reviews and probates wills and appoints Executors, Administrators and guardians of minors. In addition, the Surrogate administers and invests monies (now more than $30 million in Bergen County) primarily for minor children who receive judgments in the courts in Bergen County; and
As Deputy Clerk of the Superior Court, Chancery Division, Probate Part, the Surrogate dockets, reviews and schedules all actions pertaining to will contests, estate matters, accountings, mental incompetencies, guardianships of incompetents and all adoptions occurring in Bergen County. In addition, all documents involved in all County Surrogate Court matters are recorded, stored and maintained by the County Surrogate's Court.

Click Here to Search New Jersey Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Salem County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Salem County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Index to Marriage Records, 1666-1799
Index to Supreme Court Cases, 1704-1844
Index to Marriage Records, 1848-1867
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Salem County, New Jersey Court Books at Amazon.com
New Jersey Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Salem County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Because New Jersey's pre-1830 federal censuses have not survived, tax records are quite an important substitute for placing persons and families prior to that time. Tax lists arranged by township are available for 1773-1822. The originals, at the New Jersey State Archives, show heads of households, landowners, and single adult males, with information about their property that was taxable, including land, horses, cattle, slaves, and mills. Only about half of the 1773-4 lists are extant, and for some places, such as Sussex County, coverage is very slight. Microfilms of these records are at the state archives, the New Jersey Historical Society, Rutgers University, and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. The 1784 tax lists for thirty-eight municipalities (predominantly in southern New Jersey) are the only ones to indicate the size of a household, with a column for number of whites and a column for number of slaves.

Later tax records are found in the counties starting about 1869-70. Tax lists for some extinct New Jersey municipalities are at the state archives.

Below is a list of online resources for Salem County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Salem County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Salem County, New Jersey Tax Books at Amazon.com

Salem County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other New Jersey Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Salem County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Salem County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Salem County Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 231, Woodstown, NJ 08098
Local New Jersey Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Department of State Division of Archives and Records Management
Bureau of Archives and Records Preservation State Library Bldg, 185 West State Street, CN-307, Trenton, NJ 08625-0307
The New Jersey State Archives has many of the basic research materials for the state, such as federal and state census records; probate, land, and court records; newspapers; and vital records.
New Jersey State Library, State Library Building, 185 West State Street, CN-520, Trenton, NJ 08625-0520
Genealogical Society of New Jersey, PO Box 1476, Trenton NJ 08607-1476
The Genealogical Society of New Jersey has published The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey since 1925. The society houses its collection of genealogical materials, including cemetery transcriptions, family Bibles (over 4,800), military records, notes of genealogists, and so forth, in the A. S. Alexander Library at Rutgers University.
The New Jersey Historical Society, 52 Park Pl., Newark, NJ 07102; 973-596-8500 ext 248 or 249
New Jersey Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
New Jersey Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Salem County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search New Jersey Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Salem County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Salem County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Many New Jersey church records have been published in state historical and genealogical journals, such as The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey. Original and transcribed material is to be found at the New Jersey Historical Society (including the DAR collection), Rutgers, the Glouster County Historical Society, and elsewhere, and in New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania sources and libraries, particularly in the Collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania.

The important work of grave marker transcribing has been the goal of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey, which was originally formed by "Tombstone Hounds." Their core collection is at Rutgers University, where there is a card index by county and name of the cemetery as well as a "master index" arranged alphabetically by surname but only for selected cemeteries. Many of the society's transcriptions have been published in their journal, The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey. Another large collection of cemetery records is that gathered by the New Jersey DAR chapters, with copies deposited at the New Jersey State Library and the New Jersey Historical Society. Both these places have other cemetery records, as do the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania and the New York Public Library. Some individual books of cemetery inscriptions have been published, and some are found in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record.

Below is a list of online resources for Salem County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Salem County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search New Jersey Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Salem County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Salem County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Salem County ] [ New Jersey ] [ Main Page ]
Salem County NJGenWeb Archives
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Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
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The New Jersey Family Group Sheet Project
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New Jersey Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Salem County, New Jersey Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Salem is a city rich in history - a history far too broad to cover here. The very brief history written below is the most significant part of what made Salem the town it is. Hopefully we can give you a thirst to learn more - and we'll recommend you start your journey at the Salem County Historical Society.

The first attempt of settlement in New Jersey made by the English was in present day Salem county. In 1641, some English families, (probably emigrants from New Haven, Conn.,) embracing about 60 persons, settled on Ferken's creek, (now Salem.) About this period, the Swedes bought of the Indians the whole district from Cape May to Raccoon creek; and, in order to unite these English with the Swedes, the Swedish governor, Printz, who arrived from Sweden the year after, (1642,) was to "act kindly and faithfully toward them; and as these English expected soon, by further arrivals, to increase their numbers to several hundreds, and seemed also willing to be subjects of the Swedish government, he was to receive then under allegiance, though not without endeavoring to effect their removal." In 1654, the Swedes yielded their possessions on the Delaware to the Dutch, and they in turn submitted to the English, soon after the reduction of New Amerdam (New York) in 1664. (Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey by John W. Barber and Henry Howe - published 1857 by Benjamin Olds in Newark New Jersey)

In 1664, the Duke of York conveyed to John, Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, the province of New Jersey. The claim of Berkeley was then an undivided half, subsequently known as West Jersey; which was, in 1673, purchase for 1,000, by John Fenwickc and Edward Byllinge, members of the society of Friends

Learning about the city of Salem starts with John Fenwick. The following is taken from Biographical, Genealogical and Descriptive History of the First Congressional District of New Jersey, Volume I., The Lewis Publishing Company, New York and Chicago, 1900.

John Fenwick was born in Northumberland county at Stanton Manor, in England, in the year 1618. He was a lawyer and was made a captain of cavalry by Cromwell and took an active part against the throne. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and, like man others of that religious faith and their descendants, was imprisoned for conscience’ sake. About the year 1665 Lord Berkley offered West Jersey for sale. There appears to have been an understanding between one Edward Billinger and Fenwick to purchase the whole of West New Jersey and for Fenwick to have one-tenth of the land. The deed was given for the land in 1673, Fenwick’s portion being what is now Salem and Cumberland counties. He then made preparations to emigrate and take possession of the land in America, and held out inducements for others to emigrate with him. A number accepted the invitation of Fenwick, most of them being of his own religious faith. Fenwick’s friends had great faith in his honesty and some of them purchased land and paid him before they embarked. The following are the names of some of the principal persons who embarked with John Fenwick: Samuel Wade, Robert Windham, Richard Hancock and their families, and several others. There were several single men, - Samuel Hedge, Jr., Isaac Smart and others. The servants that hired in England to persons above mentioned and likewise to John Fenwick and his two sons-in-law, were Robert Turner, Gewas Bywater, William Wilkinson, Joseph Worth, Joseph Ware, Michael Eaton, Eleanor Greeve, Nathaniel Chambless, his son, Nathan Chambless, Jr., Mark Reeve, Edward Webb and Elizabeth Walters.

Smith, in his history of New Jersey, says in many instances the servants became more conspicuous members of civil and religious society than their employers. Fenwick’s immediate family that came with him were his daughter Elizabeth and her husband, John Adams, his daughter Anne Fenwick, who married Samuel Hedge, Jr., the spring following, and his youngest daughter, Priscilla, whose husband was Edward Champney. His wife, Mary Fenwick, did not accompany him o his new home in the wilderness, for some cause that has never been explained. The letters passed between them manifested a sincere and filial attachment, and they continued to correspond while life remained. They embarked from London in the ship Griffith, Robert Griffith being master, on the 23d of the ninth month. They arrived at the mouth of Assamhockin creed, now called Salem creek, and ascended the stream about three miles, and landed at a point of land. Fenwick and his friends that were with him thought it suitable location for a town. He gave it the name of New Salem, because he remarked to one of his intimate friends the name signified peace; but it did not prove so to him, as the sequel of his history will show. He, like his great friend and benefactor, William Penn, and also Roger Williams, found in settling colonies there were more thorns than roses. On account of the low ground, Salem was sometimes called Swamp Town.

As soon as it was practicable after the early settlers of Salem landed, the proprietor held a council with the Indian chiefs that lived within th compass of Salem county, and purchased all their land of them, thereby securing perpetual peace with the natives, and the same kind of treaty was made with them by Billynge or his agents for the remainder of West Jersey. They reserved certain rights for themselves, - trapping, fishing, and the privilege of cutting certain kinds of wood for the purpose of making baskets, also in making their canoes and other things. The treaty was faithfully fulfilled. About the year 1800 the few remaining Indians in this state made application to the New Jersey legislature to sell all their rights and privileges they held in the state, which was accepted by the legislature, and they were paid the price they asked. They then removed to the state of New York to dwell with the Mohawks and other scattering tribes that remained I that state.

John Fenwick, after his arrival in Salem, issued a proclamation granting civil and religious liberty to all persons who should settle within his province. In the year 1676, he tuned his attention to providing homes for his children and accordingly directed Richard Hancock, his surveyor, to lay out and survey two thousand acres in Upper Mannington for Samuel Hedge, Jr., and his wife Anne. The said land was called Hedgefield. He also directed him to survey two thousand acres for his son-in-law, Edward Champney, and his wife, Priscilla, which land was bounded on the west by John Smith’s land, on the north by James Nevel’s farm, and Alloway’s creek on the south. To his son-in-law, John Adams, and his wife Elizabeth, gave all that tract of land located in what is now called Penn’s Neck [modern day Pennsville]. It is known at the present day as the Sapaney. Fenwick built himself a house in the town of Salem on what he called Ivy Point. From said house he was forcibly taken in the middle of the night by a party of men from New Castle [Delaware] and taken to that town, from thence sent to New York, and there imprisoned by an order of Governor Andross, under pretense that he was infringing upon the rights of that state, which they claimed to own to the eastern shore of the Delaware river. He was soon afterward released.

After two or three years more of perplexities and trouble in endeavoring to establish a government in the colony, he wisely abandoned it by selling all the lands he had in the Salem tenth (reserving one hundred and fifty thousand acres for himself and family), to Governor William Penn. The deed was given the 23d day of March, 1682. From that time the whole of West Jersey was under one government. The legislature met at Burlington, and Samuel Jennings, of that place, was elected deputy governor at the first legislature afterward. John Fenwick was elected one of the members of that body from Salem County, in the fall of 1683, but being unwell he left his home in Salem and went to Samuel Hedge’s, his son-in-law, in Upper Mannington, there to be cared for by his favorite daughter, Anne Hedge, in his last days, for he died a short time afterward, at the age of sixty-five years. He requested before his death to be buried in the Sharp’s family burying ground, which was complied with. The said ground was formerly a part of the Salem county almshouse farm.

On July 11, 1688, John Fenwick issued a warrant to Richard Tindall, Surveyor-General for Salem county, and to John Woolridge, his deputy, to lay out one acre of land in Salem on which to erect a court-house and prison. This was done and the buildings were erected on Bridge street, afterward called Market street. The town of Salem was incorporated in 1695.

As early as 1696, the Friends in their yearly meetings brought the subject of slavery before their society, and to their credit it is believed, were the first religious sect that advised its members to desist from and discourage the future [use of slavery]. From about that time, the traffic in slaves became the subject of notice in their annual meetings, until about the year 1758, when they passed a resolution denying the right of membership to any of their people who should persist in detaining a fellow [man] in bondage.

In Revolutionary war times, the inhabitants of Salem took a decided stand in favor of the whig cause. When the Bostonians were suffering from the oppressions of General Gage, at a meeting held October 13, 1774, Salem County residents agreed that Grant Gibbon, Esq. would solicit relief from Salem residents. He succeeded in collecting about $700, a large sum at that time, which was sent for the relief of the distressed of that city [Boston]. The enemy from Philadelphia made two incursions into Salem county.

In 1817 an election was held to decide whether the court-house should be removed from the one-acre lot where it now stands. The majority of the inhabitants in Piles Grove, both Pittsgrove, Upper Penn’s Neck and Upper Alloway’s Creek were in favor of removing the county buildings. Where the place should be there was a diversity of opinion. Alloway was suggested, while others were in favor of Woodstown. By a survey of the county, the almshouse farm was found to be the most central. The election was held to remove the county buildings to the south end of said farm, or for them to remain in Salem. It was decided by a large majority of voters for them to remain.

Jumping back to Historical Collections, which again was published in 1857, Salem is at that time described as "well built, the houses neat, the streets beautified with trees, and its general appearance thriving and pleasant. Considerable business is done here, and a daily communication had, by steamers and stages, with Philadelphia.

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