Genealogy Resources in the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center - Newark Public Library
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Genealogy Resources in the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center

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Doing a genealogy project? Newark Public Library can help! Please read the information below about NJ/Newark resources and if you have more questions submit them here (if an obit request here) we are always happy to help!

For the below resources, if you are unable to come in to the library, please submit your question here  or if an obituary request here. A fee of $15 for up to three obits,  or 10 pages of copies, and 30 minutes research will apply for out-of-state residents. There is a limit of three (3) obituary, death notice, or article lookups or 30 minutes research per month per patron. If you have a project that requires more than 30 minutes of research please see our Gateway Service fees. We also recommend using a professional researcher.

Just starting? Familysearch.org is free and has censuses and other records. Newark is a FamilySearch partner, so some locked records can be viewed onsite at the library. We also have ancestry.com in the library for public use which has many digitized records!

Obituaries, newspaper articles, and death notices: Obituaries, articles and death notices are a major genealogical resource! Newark’s largest paper The Newark Evening News is now available online from 1883-1972, as well as the Sunday Call from 1872-1946. The Star Ledger has also been digitized (available in-house) back to 1945. You can also check other newspapers we have on this list!

The information files of the Newark News (index at the TOP of the page) also have hundreds of thousands of topics and may have a file on any prominent relatives such as police officers, judges, storeowners, politicians, principals, sports stars, etc.

Places to look for a date of death:

City Directories: City directories can tell where an ancestor lived at any given period. The CFCNJIC owns city directories for many towns in NJ. We have digitized Newark directories here  through 1957. See our Inventory of Directories for other towns. We also have phonebooks for the early 20th c. to 1990 statewide.

Pictures: If you have a famous ancestor or your ancestor had their picture in the newspaper, the library may have a picture of them. You can check the library’s digital collections, for photos including Al Henderson’s portrait studio, but many of our photos aren’t digital. See “Pictures” tab on our home page for information about other photos.

Books: Some books cover certain families or towns. See “Books” tab, our catalog, and our Guide to Genealogical Books. Yearbooks are also a helpful genealogical source. See our Inventory to Yearbooks and our digitized yearbooks. If we don’t have the yearbook you need there is information on other places you might try here.

Vital Records: The library does NOT have most vital records. Find them at the following places:

Indexes to many vital records are now available online HERE from ReclaimTheRecords.

Building Documents: Deeds and mortgages can be found at the Essex County Hall of Records . A limited collection of building permits is at the Newark City Archives.

Misc Documents: The library has a collection of city annual reports and other documents (our collection also includes non-city organizations like day care centers, social service organizations, and clubs) that may pertain to ancestors.  Further city documents can be found at the Newark City Archives.

Newark and NJ Maps: The Newark Library has now digitized the majority of its historical maps and atlases. You can see a specific ancestor’s house on a map using our city atlases. We have city atlases from 1868, 1873, 1889, 1901, 1912 and 1926 that show every house (plus a county atlas from 1906 that only shows a small section of the city). We also have a Sanborn map updated through 1989 and earlier Sanborn maps on microfilm. Newark maps from our collection have been digitized by NJIT here and here, including some atlases and Sanborn maps.  A limited collection of Sanborn maps of Newark and NJ is available online for free through Princeton University. If you have access through a university, library, or workplace Digital Sanborn Maps is generally the best way to access Sanborn maps. Other digitized NJ and Newark maps can be found through Rutgers digital collection.

Archives: The best way to search for the archives of a particular school or church that an ancestor attended in Newark, or from a particular neighborhood in Newark is the Newark Archives Project. This website contains an index to archives from all over the United States. You can also search our catalog or our finding aids . We recommend contacting a local library if you are looking for non-Newark material.

Other Newark Archives:

Other Places In NJ with Genealogical Collections:

General

By county:

Research help:

Online Resources: 

  • Family Search free resource with census and other records. We are a Partner library, which means at the library, you get access to databases you can’t get elsewhere.
  • Ancestry.com for use at the library
  • National Archives and Records Administration Genealogy page
    Descriptions about finding aids and research tools available on a federal level.  Important information about naturalizations, military records, federal employees, passenger lists and African Americans are accessible through this site.  Some NARA material is also available online here.
  • Newark Archives Project searchable index of many Newark archives including NPL
  • Social Security Death Index
    Contains listings and information provided by the Social Security Administration.

Further links of interest