Union County, New Jersey Genealogy

United States

New Jersey

Union County

Union 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

Union County, New Jersey
Map
Location in the state of New Jersey
Location of New Jersey in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	1857
County Seat	Elizabeth
Courthouse
Address	Union County Courthouse 2 Broad Street Elizabeth, NJ 07207-2204 Phone: (908) 527-4966 Union County Website

Description

Union County is located in the region of the state. It was created in 1857. Elizabeth is the county seat. The county was named for The union of the United States, which was being threatened by the dispute over slavery.

Union County, New Jersey Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1901	1857	1901	1857	1857	1857	1830
Statewide registration for births and deaths started in 1840. General compliance by 1920.

Union 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

• 9 March 1857, created from Essex County.

Boundary Changes

• 1860, received part of Woodbridge twp., Middlesex County as part of Rahway twp.
• 1871, Essex County boundary clarified
• 1871, Plainfield boundary with Piscataway twp. of Middlesex County changed
• 1876, boundaries with Essex and Somerset counties clarified
• 1882, Essex County boundary clarified and again in 1892
• 1891, part of Millburn twp., Essex County to Springfield twp. and returned in 1958.

For animated maps illustrating New Jersey county boundary changes, "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.

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.	%±
1860	27,780	—
1870	41,859	50.7%
1880	55,571	32.8%
1890	72,467	30.4%
1900	99,353	37.1%
1910	140,197	41.1%
1920	200,157	42.8%
1930	305,209	52.5%
1940	328,344	7.6%
1950	398,138	21.3%
1960	504,255	26.7%
1970	543,116	7.7%
1980	504,094	−7.2%
1990	493,819	−2.0%
2000	522,541	5.8%
2010	536,499	2.7%
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

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

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.

Maps

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

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

Migration

Military

• Goodwin, Aaron. "The Elizabeth-Town Associates: Signatures on the Original Answer, 1751," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 138, No. 3 (Jul. 2007):189-198. Digital version at New York Family History ($); FHL Book 974.7 B2n v. 138.

Civil War

- 83rd Regiment, New York Infantry, Company K

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 Union County, New Jersey Genealogy newspapers in online catalogs like:

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

Courtesy of the Plainfield Public Library:

• Courier News Obituary Index: mid-1920s-mid-1980s

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
Elizabeth Linden	Plainfield Rahway	Summit
Boroughs
Fanwood Garwood Kenilworth	Mountainside New Providence	Roselle RosellemPark
Towns
Westfield
Unincorporated communities
Free Acres	Murray Hill	Vauxhall
Townships
Berkeley Heights Clark Cranford	Hillside Scotch Plains Springfield	Union Winfield

Probate Records

Probate records created after 1852 are held by the Union 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 Union 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

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

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

Archives

Courthouse

Union County Courthouse
2 Broad Street
Elizabeth, NJ 07207-2204
Phone: (908) 527-4966

County Clerk has land records from 1857 and military discharge records from 1941. Clerk Superior Court has divorce records from 1848 and court records. County Surrogate has probate records from 1857. Town Clerks have birth and death 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

• Scotch Plains New Jersey Family History Center

Libraries

Plainfield Public Library
800 Park Avenue
Plainfield, NJ 07060
Telephone: 908-757-1111
The Local History, Genealogy & Special Collections Department offers newspapers, city directories, local histories, church records, biographies, and more.

Museums

Societies

Union County Historical Society
116 E. Fourth Ave.
Roselle, NJ 07203
Telephone: 908-245-9010

Cranford Historical Society and Union Count Historical Society
38 Springfield Avenue
Cranford, NJ 07016
Telephone: 908-276-0082
E-mail:info@unioncountyhistoricalsocietynj.org
Website
Website

Hillside Historical Society
111 Conant St
Hillside, NJ 07205
Telephone: 908-353-8828

New Providence Historical Society
1350 Springfield Ave.
New Providence 07974
Website

Plainfield, Historical Society
602 West Front Street
Plainfield NJ

Rahway Historical Society
1632 St. Georges Ave.
Rahway

Springfield Historical Society
126 Morris Ave
Springfield, NJ.
Telephone: 973-912-4464

Summit Historical Society
90 Butler Parkway
Summit, NJ 07901
Telephone: 908-277-1747
Website

Westfield, Genealogical Society Of
550 East Broad Street
Westfield

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

Union County, New Jersey Websites

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

Union County, New Jersey Neighboring Counties

• Essex
• Hudson
• Middlesex
• Morris
• Somerset
• Richmond, New York

Union County, New Jersey Genealogy References

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.

Family History Library