Hi all, I had queried about what type/kind of records could be found online and received a very comprehensive email from the Chief of Archives. Sharing here, for the list. Beth ====================================================== Dear Beth: I am writing on behalf of Karl Niederer, Director of the Division of Archives and Records Management, who is currently on vacation. Relative to your questions, let me first point out the following pages relative to vital records on the State Archives' website: - our Genealogical Holdings page: http://www.njarchives.org/links/webcat/genealogy.html - our Department of Health page: http://www.njarchives.org/links/webcat/health.html - our Bureau of Vital Statistics page: http://www.njarchives.org/links/webcat/queries/sehealt2.html The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services' Bureau of Vital Statistics and the municipal registrars of vital statistics oversee the filing of modern birth, marriage and death records in New Jersey. The State began recording births, marriages and deaths beginning 1 May 1848. For thirty years, annual returns were filed with the state by each municipality. In 1878, the law was revised to require the filing of individual certificates, but still through the municipalities. Some municipalities still have their copies of vital records returns and certificates back to 1848 or 1878, although more typically records have survived in the municipal offices back to around 1910, when other changes in the vital records law occurred. Note that marriage returns were required to be filed by marriage officiants with the county clerks offices from 1795 to 1878. Also, in the early colonial period, a scant few towns kept records of births, deaths and marriages in their town books. Most of the New Jersey pre-1848, civil birth, marriage and death records have been published and are also available on microfilm through LDS's Family History Library and for in-person use at the State Archives. In certain cases, the original county and municipal vital records have been transferred to the State Archives, and are therefore available in original form here as well. Please consult the following pages on our website for additional information about local vital records available at the State Archives: - our County Marriage Records page: http://www.njarchives.org/links/webcat/queries/cxxmarri.html - our County Birth and Burial Records page: http://www.njarchives.org/links/webcat/queries/cxxbirth.html - our Municipal Birth, Marriage and Death Records Page: http://www.njarchives.org/links/webcat/queries/municip7.html The state-level birth, marriage and death records for the period May 1848 - May 1878 were transferred to the State Archives several decades ago. They were filmed by LDS, so are also available through the Family History Library. I believe some, but not all, have been indexed in LDS databases. The State Archives has also invested considerably in re-indexing, data entry, and data conversion of pre-existing indexes of the 1848-1878 records at the State Archives. A few months ago, we made our database indexing marriages for the period 1848-1867 (previously accessible to in-person users), searchable on our website. The Archives provides reference services for the 1848-1878 records. The $10.00 fee per record searched is applied to the cost of searching and copying the records, and to the ongoing paper conservation and imaging of the original returns. Please consult the following for further information: - our Index to Marriage Records, 1848-1867: http://www.njarchives.org/links/marriagedb1867.html - our list of Search Services and Fees: http://www.njarchives.org/links/reference.html#collections - our Vital Record Search Request form: http://www.njarchives.org/links/pdf/vsrequest.pdf As for current efforts to make post-1878 vital records more accessible for genealogical research, I can offer the following... Several years ago, as a public service, the State Archives accepted microfilm of the Bureau of Vital Statistics' records as follows: birth certificates, May 1878 - 1923; marriage certificates, May 1878 - 1940; death certificates, May 1878 - 1940; delayed birth certificates, 1848-1900; birth certificate corrections, 1848-1903; stillbirth indexes, 1878-1903. This microfilm, which is cataloged and described in further detail on the Bureau of Vital Statistics page linked above, is available for in-person use at the State Archives during our public research hours, M-F, 8:30-4:30. The State Archives does not own the original records, which are still legal property of the Bureau of Vital Statistics. The State Archives currently has neither legal authority nor human resources to provide mail reference services for these records. However, we do provide in-person assistance to researchers using the records in our public Microfilm Reading Room. During the last decade, the State Archives and other interested parties have approached the Bureau of Vital Statistics about working out the legal transfer of post-1878 birth, marriage and death records to the State Archives on a regular basis, and addressing other issues relative to access restrictions placed on these records by the Department of Health and Senior Services. The Genealogical Society of New Jersey has been directly involved in these efforts. Most recently, this has included proposing amendments to a revised vital records law now under consideration (A-1390). The proposed amendments were formulated in consultation with the State Archives and in conjunction with the Advocates for New Jersey History. These proposed amendments would enable regular transfer of birth, marriage and death records to the State Archives after prescribed periods allowing for reasonable privacy considerations. We are hopeful that these efforts will prove fruitful, and are dedicated to working toward making post-1878 New Jersey vital records more accessible. You might consider contacting Joan Lowry, President of GSNJ, whose e-mail address is copied above, relative to the current legislative efforts. I will note, also, that the State Archives has generally allowed the LDS Family History Library to produce or copy microfilm of original records owned by the State Archives. Relative to your statement that "New Jersey is making life very difficult for genealogy research," I hope you will accept my personal thoughts, as follows. The staff of the State Archives and the management of the Division of Archives and Records Management wholeheartedly agree that the need for improved access to post-1878 vital records is obvious and urgent. As public archivists, we consider this obviously in line with the mission and goals of our agency. I'll note, too, incidentally, that several State Archives staff members are avocational genealogists with New Jersey roots (myself included), and have been active as board members, officers, editors, contributors and volunteers with GSNJ and other organizations for many years. I mention this only so that you will keep in mind that the vital records issues, unfortunately, are complicated and now (post-9/11) made more complex by security, privacy and identity-theft concerns on the part of administrators in the Department of Health and legislators. We are working to educate those involved relative to the fact that such issues have no or little relevance to vital records after reasonable time periods have elapsed. Public support of these efforts is much needed, but should also be appropriately focused. If you contact the Office of the Governor or other officials in New Jersey in support of GSNJ's and others' efforts to make post-1878 records more accessible, I ask that you please in mind the information provided above and distinguish between the holdings and services of the State Archives and the issues relating to the records owned by the Bureau of Vital Statistics. There is, unfortunately, considerable confusion as you know among genealogists--especially those out of state--and researchers sometimes are not even sure which agencies they have contacted. We greatly appreciate your interest in this subject. I hope the above provides answers to and insights into the questions you have posed. With best regards, Joseph R. Klett Chief of Archives On 8/30/06, Arlene Mobley <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all > > I found this Title Records of births, marriages, and deaths of New Jersey, > 1848-1900 > > > here is the link > http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&columns=*%2C180%2C0&titleno=312728&disp=Records+of+births%2C+marriages%2C+and+de++ > > It says Index to births I'm not sure if that is the entire birth or death > records. I have only used LDS for death certs in New York so far and was > wondering if I could do the same for NJ. > > I've never ordered a film so I have no idea what would be on these Index's > > Arlene > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 12:51 AM > Subject: Re: [NJHUDSON-L] New Jersey Death Certs > > > > > > > > Arlene- > > Are you sure that LDS has the certificates on film? As far as I can see, > > and from what I've looked at on their film, what they have are the > registers, > > which are in index format. They include only part of the information on > the > > certificate and are alpha by county and major city and are in volumes by > their > > fiscal year, which I believe is June through May. > > > > > > > > > > > > > ==== NJHUDSON Mailing List ==== > Your donations to RootsWeb makes NJHUDSON possible. > RootsWeb Gen. Data Coop. Box 6798 Frazier Park, CA 93222 > http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html > > -- ==================== I seek dead people. Researching ancestry records for Winkelmann (NY/NJ), Frye (TN,NJ,ME), Brown (NJ) Utter (NJ and Holland), Specht (Germany), Harris (Nova Scotia), Lydecker (NJ), Newport (TN), Kinney (ME), Utter (NJ), Glash/Lask (NY/Russia) and Berliner (NY/Poland).