Basic Sources

SOME BOOKS, PAMPHLETS AND ARTICLES PERTAINING TO HUNTERDON COUNTY

What follows is a list of the more commonly used sources for Hunterdon history and genealogy. This is in addition to archival material to be found in the Hunterdon County Clerk's Office and the Hunterdon County Surrogate's Court.

Many of these books and pamphlets are out of print and can only be found in libraries. You might find some of them on Google Books, but so far very few have gone online. Some of the Hunterdon sources can be purchased from the Hunterdon County Historical Society. The Hunterdon County Library has a very good list of sources. Use the link to the Library.

I am making this list alphabetical by title, since many people do not know the authors' names. This is a preliminary list of titles. I hope to add to it in the future, probably as new subjects come up to write about. Let me know if you have titles appropriate for these lists. I have tried to give correct citations to these sources, but in some cases I am in doubt, especially the volumes known as New Jersey Archives.


As Ye Sow: The Story of an American Rural Community by Louis V. Kovi. Flemington, NJ: The Hunterdon Co. Board of Agriculture, 1981. Although this is a history of the Hunterdon County Board of Agriculture, it contains much interesting information about the county in general, especially after 1915.

Atlas of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, NY: Beers, Comstock & Cline, 1872. Reprinted by the Hunterdon Co. Historical Society, 1977. Beautiful book with maps of each town indicating locations of landowners.

Farm and Business Directory of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties. Philadelphia: Wilmer Atkinson Co., 1914.

Genealogy of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing, "Old Hunterdon County" by Eli F. Cooley. W. Sharp Printing Co., Trenton, 1883. Loaded with genealogical information, but frustrating in its sketchiness and lack of sources.

History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, New Jersey by James P. Snell. Philadelphia, 1881. This is the basic county history, similar to county histories published all over the country in response to the celebration of the country's centennial in 1876. It really is the starting point for all Hunterdon researchers.

Hunterdon County Place Names by Phyllis B. D'Autrechy. Hunterdon County Cultural and Heritage Committee, Flemington, NJ, 1992. An expansion of a pamphlet by Hubert G. Schmidt, named “Some Hunterdon Place Names” published in 1959.

Hunterdon County Fisheries, 1819-1820 by Phyllis B. D'Autrechy, 44 pg, indexed. Flemington, NJ: Hunterdon Co. Historical Society, 1993. Gives a history of fisheries generally, then describes known fisheries along the Delaware River by township.

Hunterdon Historical Newsletter, published quarterly by the Hunterdon County Historical Society.

Marriage Records of Hunterdon County, New Jersey 1795-1875, Vol. I, by Hiram E. Deats. Lambertville, NJ: Hunterdon House, 1996.

More Records of Old Hunterdon County, Vol. I, Phyllis B. D’Autrechy, comp. and Roxanne K. Carkhuff, ed. Flemington, NJ: Hunterdon Co. Historical Society, 1998. Miscellaneous records from the Surrogate's Court and the County Clerk's Office, and Pennington Presbyterian Church Records, 1822-1850 (until 1838, Pennington was part of Hunterdon County).

More Records of Old Hunterdon County, Vol. II, Phyllis B. D’Autrechy, comp. and Roxanne K. Carkhuff, ed. Flemington, NJ: Hunterdon Co. Historical Society, 2000. Wills, Inventories and Letters of Administration from the Surrogate's Court, 1818-1825, Bastardy Cases 1761-1890, and the account book of Moses Baldwin tanner & cordwainer, 1755-1763. The abstracts of estate records continues the work of the New Jersey Archives, which ended with 1817.

Rural Hunterdon: An Agricultural History by Hubert G. Schmidt. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1946. This is an invaluable history of the county from the perspective of people's ways of making a living, which was almost entirely agricultural in its early days. Schmidt was an excellent researcher and writer.

Some Records of Old Hunterdon County, New Jersey by Phyllis B. D'Autrechy. Trenton, 1979. The first of Phyllis' valuable books on records found in the Hunterdon County archives. The index is a little flawed.

Somerset County Historical Quarterly, A. Van Doren Honeyman, ed., 8 vol. Raritan NJ: Somerset Historical Publications Reprint Publishers, 1977. Even though this series is focused on Somerset County, many families took up residence in Hunterdon County.

The Exterior and Interior Bounds of Hunterdon County, New Jersey by Oscar M. Voorhees, LL.D. Flemington, 1929. pamphlet.

The First 275 Years of Hunterdon County, 1714-1989. Flemington, NJ: H.C. Cultural & Heritage Commission, 1989.

The Heritage of the Hunterdon County Bar Association by Kenneth V. Myers, 42 pgs, not indexed. Flemington, NJ: Hunterdon Co. Bar Association, c.1985.

The Hunterdon County Gazette, 1825-1866, transcribed by William Hartman, et al. Available on CD, from the Hunterdon Co. Historical Society.

The Musconetcong Valley of New Jersey: a historical geography Peter O. Wacker. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1968.

Traditions of Hunterdon, Early History and Legends of Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Articles written anonymously by John Lequear, collected by D. H. Moreau, publisher of the Hunterdon County Democrat. Flemington, NJ: D. H. Moreau, 1957. This is a valuable book because it contains stories written by a dedicated 19th century historian of the Hunterdon county who had access to many people with long memories. Unfortunately, many of his stories cannot be verified.

Stephen Zdepski, Baptists in Kingwood, New Jersey; A History of the Kingwood Baptist Church at Baptistown and Locktown and the Present Baptistown Baptist Church. Phillipsburg, NJ: Harmony Printing Co., 1974.



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS AND ARTICLES OF GENERAL GENEALOGICAL VALUE FOR HUNTERDON COUNTY

For this list, I am reverting to the more traditional mode of alphabetizing by author's name rather than title. Some of these title could just as well go into categories like New Jersey History, and may indeed show up in other lists.

William C. Armstrong, Pioneer Families of Northwestern New Jersey. Lambertville, N.J.: Hunterdon House, 1979.

Joseph G. Bilby, Three Rousing Cheers: A History of the Fifteenth New Jersey from Flemington to Appomattox. Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House, 1993.

Theodore F. Chambers, The Early Germans of New Jersey. Dover, 1895.

Hiram E. Deats comp., The Hunterdon County New Jersey Militia, 1792. Flemington, NJ: Hiram E. Deats, 1936, 37 pgs. Includes townships that were removed from Hunterdon in 1838 to create Mercer County.

The Genealogical Society of New Jersey. Genealogies of New Jersey Families. Vol. I-IV. These large volumes can be found at the Hunterdon Co. Historical Society.

"Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey" [GMNJ], published quarterly by the Genealogical Society of New Jersey.

William Wade Hindshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol.II, Records of the Salem, Burlington, Philadelphia and Falls Monthly Meetings. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1994 (originally published 1938).

Henry Z. Jones, More Palatine Families. Universal City, CA, 1991. An amazing number of Hunterdon families migrated here from Germany. Henry Jones tracked down early records from German parishes and other sources. This book is invaluable.

James W. Moore, comp., Records of the Kingwood Monthly Meeting of Friends. Flemington, 1900. Bless the Quakers for being such wonderful record keepers.

William Nelson et al., eds., Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Vol. I, 1680-1730, et seq. through Vol. XIII, 1817. Archives of the State of New Jersey, 1st ser., Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 23 (1670-1730), 30 (1731-50), 32-42 (1751-1817). Newark, Trenton, Paterson, NJ: The New Jersey Historical Society, 1880-1949.

William Nelson et al, eds. Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey, Archives of the State of New Jersey, 1704-1780 (__ vol.), Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, 1st ser., Vol. 11-12 (1704-1750), Vol. 19-20 (1751-1761), Vol. 24-30 (1762-1775); 2nd ser., Vol. 1-4 (1776-1780) Various publishers.

William Nelson, New Jersey Biographical & Genealogical Notes, Archives of the State of New Jersey. Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 1973.

William Nelson, ed., Marriage Records, 1665-1800, Archives of the State of New Jersey. First Series, Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 22. Paterson, NJ: The Press Printing Co., 1900.

Henry Race, M.D., comp., “Rev. William Frazer’s Three Parishes (St. Thomas, St. Andrews, Musconetcong),” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1888) Vol. XII.

John Reading, “Journal of John Reading,” Proceedings of the NJ Historical Society 3d series, Vol.10 (1-3): 34-46, 90-110, 128-133.

I. Daniel Rupp, A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and other Immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776 . . . Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2000 reprint of 1876 edition, with 1931 index).

Sinclair, Donald A. A New Jersey Biographical Index. Covering some 100,000 Biographies and Associated Portraits in 237 New Jersey Cyclopedias, Histories, Yearbooks, Periodicals, and other Collective Biographical Sources . . . to about 1980. Baltimore, 1993.

Henry Stevens, (1819-1886) comp., An Analytical Index to the Colonial Documents of New Jersey, in the State Paper Offices of England . . . Edited with Notes and references to Printed Works & Manuscripts in other Depositories, by Wm. A. Whitehead. NY: D. Appleton & Co., 1858.

Kenn. Stryker-Rodda, New Jersey Index Of Wills, Inventories, Etc. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 1970. 3 vols. repr. 1994. These books index by county the estates abstracted in the New Jersey Archives, 1680-1817.

James P. Snell, History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Sussex, NJ. 1971 (1881). Many Hunterdon residents migrated to Warren and Sussex Counties.

Thomas B. Wilson, Notices From New Jersey Newspapers, 1781-1790, Records of New Jersey, Vol. I. Lambertville, NJ: Hunterdon House, 1988. A continuation of newspaper extracts published in the New Jersey Archives.

Thomas B. Wilson and Dorothy Agans Stratford, Notices From New Jersey Newspapers, 1791-1795, Records of New Jersey, Vol. III. Lambertville, NJ: Hunterdon House, 2002.

Thomas B. Wilson and Dorothy Agans Stratford, Certificates and Receipts of Revolutionary New Jersey, Records of New Jersey, Vol. II. Lambertville, NJ: Hunterdon House, 1996.

Future pages will include Genealogies and Local Histories, New Jersey History, and eventually, New Jersey Politics (18th and early 19th centuries).