A portion of the New Jersey Archives in our library |
Our collection of books for New Jersey occupies nine shelves. Many more resources (572) are listed on our library catalog on our website. Our books begin with sixteen volumes of the New Jersey Archives, First Series, a collection of records first published by the New Jersey Historical Society in 1901. Volume I has abstracts of wills from 1670 – 1730. “For an intimate revelation of social conditions in New Jersey during the first sixty-five years of English supremacy it would be difficult to image a volume richer in material than this,” the preface states. Chapter One, “Early Will-Making in New Jersey,” provides a comprehensive explanation of the evolution of wills in colonial times.
Some beautiful sketches from Inscriptions on Tombstones and Monuments |
About half of the books on the shelves focus on various New Jersey counties. Among these, I found Inscriptions on Tombstones and Monuments in the Burying Grounds of The First Presbyterian Church and St. Johns Church for Elizabeth County. Compiled in 1892 by William Wheeler and Edmund Halsey, it describes memorials dating from 1664. Elizabethtown was the first settlement in New Jersey, so this volume contains some of the oldest records for the state. The book presents the text as it appears on the tombstone and includes several very nice sketches of tombstones and monuments.
Copyright © 2019 by California Genealogical Society
APR
2019