With grateful thanks to Ethel Konight and Pat Wardell, I am pleased to announce that a portion of the Overseers of the Poor records for Franklin Township, Bergen Co., NJ is now available on Dutch Door Genealogy. They're under Civil Records as 1787 Overseers of the Poor Records, then Negro Abandonments. As of 1804 in NJ, children born of a slave mother were not slaves. However the child had to be registered with the town, which would then pay the slave owner for the care of the child - boys were bound till age 25 and girls to age 21. I find it hard to believe that the town would pay when someone was of an age to be a working benefit to the slave owner, but the law as quoted does not specify. Would the owner of the slave get work from the slave's child *plus* be paid by the town for the same child? I'd love to know more about how paupers, pauper children, orphans, and these free/but-not-really negro children were regarded by the civil authorities, and hope that if you have information, you'll chime in. Regina Haring http://www.dutchdoorgenealogy.com