Source:New Jersey, United States. New Jersey, Abstract of Wills, 1670-1817

Source Information

Ancestry.com. New Jersey, Abstract of Wills, 1670-1817 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: New Jersey State Archives. New Jersey, Published Archives Series, First Series. Trenton, New Jersey: John L Murphy Publishing Company.

About New Jersey, Abstract of Wills, 1670-1817

This database contains 13 volumes of details abstracted from early New Jersey wills.

Historical Background

In 1846, the New Jersey Historical Society urged the state legislature to gather copies of documents relating to the history of the state, both in the country and those in London that dealt with the colony’s early days. The Society got the support it was looking for in 1872 and began assembling and editing the materials that would be printed as the New Jersey Archives: Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. The Archives include copies of records from a wide variety of documents from the state’s early history, with some predating the earliest permanent European settlement of Bergen in 1660.

The abstracts in this database are summaries of original wills and associated documents deposited with provincial secretaries, the secretary of state (until about 1804), and eventually county clerks in early New Jersey. The 13 volumes contain abstracts for thousands of wills (more than 3,000 in one volume alone), which, along with valuable genealogical details, offer a glimpse into the times and lives of the testators. ... (see Ancestry.com for more)