New Jersey Vital Records Online 1848-1878

This is wonderful news.

New Jersey's earliest state-level vital records are online at Ancestry!

The covered years are 1848-1878. There are no individual certificates in this time period; rather, births, marriages, and deaths were recorded in ledger books. The information varies, but can include the person's name, date of birth or age, names of parents, places of birth, marriage, and/or death, residence, and more.

Previously, these records were only available at the Archives in Trenton and, within the last few years, at a FamilySearch Center (not from your house).

The ledger books are "organized" by county, year, and event. Use the guide below to find the correct book.

Paper I copied at the Archives a long time ago

Remember to look in the correct county. Places currently in Union County were a part of Essex County until Union County was created in 1857.

Until 1857, Plainfield was in Essex County.
You need to look in records of Essex County to find what is now called Union County.
And that is how "Essex" looked. Double S.

The microfilm rolls at the Archives:

This image captured the spine of the book.
I have never seen the original books. Do they still exist?

The microfilm is viewable on the reader in the background.
Flashback to the 1960s.

Below is a page viewed at a FamilySearch Center. Alfred Dunlop (1831-1892) married Mary Bedle (1840-1927) on December 20, 1865 in Matawan, Monmouth County. He was my third great granduncle. They moved from New Jersey to Indiana and had three children, but no grandchildren.

Citation and blue markings added by author.

I don't know how Ancestry or FamilySearch comes by their images. The quality varies.

Same page at Ancestry

I didn't find all the images at Ancestry. For example, my great great grandfather, Charles Cook (died 1937) was born in Denville, Morris County on June 11, 1858. This was recorded in Book Z2, Births in Morris County, 1848-1867. I found no match in the searchable index and the book did not appear in any menu for browsing. Below is the image photographed on the microfilm reader at the Archives.

Typing added by author

The State Archives has already indexed this collection on their website. It is more precise than the index currently available at Ancestry.

Search page on the State Archive's website.
The exact URLs change over time, so Google for the current link.
Try "New Jersey State Archives Searchable Databases."

For example, a search of the State's index produces specific and accurate results for David Uhl, died October 3, 1867 in Newark. He was a baby of my third great grandparents, David Uhl (1834-1884) and Clara Patschke (1840-1914).

Ancestry's index, in contrast, omits distinguishing details, such as age, location, and date.

The image of the page in the ledger book is below. The month is written once; hence, the indexer only wrote the day. The year is inferred by the range of dates at the top of the page. In this instant, the dates are from June 1 of 1867 through June 1 of 1868. Because this event was in October, the year was 1867. All events were in Newark, but the indexer did not include location, perhaps because "place of death" was blank on each line.

Benjamin Marsh (1797-1867) was a son of my sixth great grandparents, Charles Marsh (1755-1833) and Abigail Denman or Faitoute (1756-1821). (That will be a post for another day.) Benjamin died in Newark on April 8, 1867 and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. His entry in ledger book N "Deaths in Newark City 1848-1867" is below.

The State's online index tells us exactly where to find Benjamin's entry.

Ancestry's index is wonky. I did not think this could be him, but no other entries looked like him either. His gender, age (off by 44 years), date (missing year), and residence (name of parents of someone else) were all transcribed wrong.

I would anticipate (hope?) that Ancestry will clean up their index. If linking to such a record through your family tree software, you would need to discard the erroneous information. It would be a good idea to go to the page and download it for your files, in case something happens to this collection. Yes, folks, this can happen.

Around May of 1878, the State began creating individual certificates for births, marriages, and deaths. That is why this collection is only from the start of state registration in 1848 through the middle of 1878. If your event is on the cusp, search both the ledger books and the individual certificates.

DNA shared with a Third Cousin

In a prior post, we were introduced to a third cousin who reached out to me.  The common ancestors are a pair of German great great grandparents who settled in Newark, New Jersey: David Uhl (1834-1884) and Clara Patschke (1840-1914).  I featured pictures of the heirlooms from these ancestors- some passed down through my branch and others through his branch.

Just as the heirlooms from these ancestors were dispersed to the succeeding generations, so was DNA.  This cousin kindly added his DNA to the ongoing genetic genealogy studies of the family at 23andMe.

My father and his three siblings all share autosomal DNA with this third cousin.

 The amount of shared DNA for three of the siblings is on the high end, while the other sibling is on the low end, sharing only 43 cM.

This picture represents where on each chromosome these 3rd cousins match.  The colored lines represent segments of DNA that traveled four generations from David Uhl and Clara Patschke to their great great grandchildren.

Many people- "DNA Cousins"- match my father and his siblings on these segments.  If these DNA Cousins also match the known third cousin, then we know to look into the branch of our family that holds David Uhl and Clara Patschke.  I will have information that the DNA Cousins do not, and vice versa, and we will break down brick walls.

When compared to my father and his two children (my sister and me), we see interesting results.  I inherited most of my father's DNA that he shares with this third cousin.  My sister received almost nothing:  13 cm over two segments.  This is such a small amount that a DNA testing company may not even recognize it as a match on its own.  Imagine if my sister were the only one who tested her DNA.  A match this small would likely be disregarded, yet it is fully solvable based on surnames and locations.

Two years ago, we compared DNA to another third cousin from a different branch- great great grandparents Calvin Cook (1826-1889) and Mary Neal (1830-1898).  The amount of shared DNA was lower than what we see with the Uhl/Patschke cousin, with a low of 70 cM to a high of 121 cM.  The next generation- my sister and me- inherited none of this DNA.

Welcoming a Cousin from a German Branch

A third cousin of my father reached out to me.  He and my dad share a set of great great grandparents, David Uhl (1834-1884) and Clara Patschke (1840-1914).  David was from Gelnhausen and Clara was from Zeitz (both places now in Germany).  They married in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey in 1865.

Here is the family in the 1870 federal census: David, Clara, and their two children who had issue:

I am descended from David and Clara's daughter, Clara Uhl.  She married Herman Lutter.  Our third cousin is descended from their son, Henry Uhl, and his wife, Emma Holzhauer.

Two of David and Clara's children died young: David in 1871 and Nellie in 1882.  Another daughter, Lillie Uhl, married John Kuhl, but had no known children.

Family heirlooms trickled down to our third cousin, who kindly sent scans.  I was thrilled to see a Reisepass [passport] issued to David Uhl in 1854 for his travels from Gelnhausen to America.  David was 19 years old, had brown eyes, and stood five feet, four inches tall.

Signature of David Uhl

From David Uhl my branch received a hatchet with his last name, UHL, carved into the handle.

Our third cousin also received some of David Uhl's tools and belongings, branded with a similar UHL mark.

New Index: First German Reformed Church, Newark, New Jersey

Thank you to Tom and Kathryn Peters for indexing records of the First German Reformed Church in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.  This church was located on Mulberry Street.  About 52,000 names are indexed, covering years 1847-1904.  The index is housed at the Old Newark website.  The actual records are held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at The Lutheran Archives Center.

This was no easy task.  Look at this writing.  I would not have been able to decipher most of it.  Tom and Kathryn's efforts were a true labor of love.

Marriage record of Fidel Bossert and Regina Pfeiffer
24 October 1853
First German Reformed Church, Newark, New Jersey

The index is divided by baptisms, marriages by groom, marriages by bride, and two sections of deaths/burials.  Because of spelling inconsistencies and difficulties in deciphering the names, you will need to view similar nearby names as well as alternate spellings.

Groom index, First German Reformed Church
Far easier to read than the original above

Bride index, First German Reformed Church
Marriage entry for my third great grandparents, David Uhl and Clara Patschke

My 3rd great grandparents, David Uhl and Clara Patschke, were married at this church in 1865.  The general rule with immigrants is that they did not come alone.  Clara's parents were August Patschke and Wilhelmine.  I do not know if they came to the United States.  In this index, I quickly found a marriage record for Wilhelmine Auguste Patzschke, in 1860, contemporaneous with Clara Patschke.  This is a great lead to explore if these two women were perhaps sisters.

1870 United States Federal Census
Heinrich Wilhelm Heiner from the marriage index is spelled William Hyner in this census record.
Newark, Essex County, New Jersey

Gospill's City Directory for Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, 1867
The indexed records were from the First German Reformed at 43 Mulberry.
Newark city directories are available at Fold3.com

To find churches for events in your family trees, you can look at the local city directory for the relevant time period.  If you have a government record or family bible entry, the officiant is perhaps recorded.  This can help you identify the relevant church.  Otherwise, begin with the church that was geographically closest to your ancestor's home.

Geographical Genealogy: Germany

I have a few German lines that are quite short in my trees- only a few generations- because tracing ancestors back in Europe can be difficult.

I have been playing with a website, GeoGen, that offers surname searches in a geographical genealogical context.  You type in a surname of interest and the website generates a map showing areas of Germany where the surname is concentrated today.  This can help guide you on where to look for records, but is not proof that any of your ancestors lived in any particular place.

Let's take Clara Patschke.  She first appears in the 1870 United States Federal Census in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, age 29, born in Prussia.  Prussia does not exist anymore.  As Clara was leaving Prussia to come to the United States, it encompassed a large area of land along the North and Baltic Seas.  In the 1880 Federal Census, Clara provides a bit more detail about her origin:  Saxony.

1880 United States Federal Census
Newark, Essex County, New Jersey

Someone kindly sent me an 1877 baptismal record for a daughter of Clara, listing Clara's origin as Zeitz, Saxony.  There is a town called Zeitz in the Burgenlandkreis district of Saxony-Anhalt, which is next to Saxony, about 100 miles north of the modern border between Germany and Czech.

So we can plug in the surname Patschke at GeoGen to see where the geographic distribution of today's Patschkes.

GeoGen
Geographical distribution of surname Patschke

If we look at the area where Zeitz is located in Saxony-Anhalt, we see a concentration of Patschkes.  This is where we would hope to find a lot of people with the surname.

Next we can look for variants of the last name using the Name Graph feature.  Patschke was spelled differently on every record I have found so far.  Seeing additional alternate spellings can help me uncover more records.

GeoGen
Name Graph for Patschke