New Jersey papers have recorded deaths since the Revolution. The New Jersey State Library keeps a county-by-county directory of every digitized historic New Jersey newspaper, which is the best place to start.
New Jersey obituaries in historic newspapers
The New-Jersey Gazette, first printed in Burlington in 1777, reported on the war as well as local deaths. Through the 1800s most county seats supported one or more weekly papers, and those weeklies are often the only printed record of a rural death, since statewide death registration began in 1848 and was incomplete for decades.
Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Trenton and Camden had large daily papers by the late 1800s, along with German, Italian, Polish and other foreign-language papers for immigrant communities. Families who lived near the state line often appear in New York or Philadelphia papers too.
Rutgers University leads the New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project, which has digitized more than 112,000 pages from microfilm held by the New Jersey State Archives for Chronicling America. Other titles are free on county and local library sites, and some are available only on library computers through commercial databases.
Where to find New Jersey obituaries
Digitized New Jersey newspapers
- New Jersey Digitized Historic Newspapers, New Jersey State Library — Directory of every known digitized New Jersey newspaper, by county, with free titles marked.
- New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project, Rutgers — The state’s contribution to Chronicling America and news of newly added titles.
Archives and libraries
- New Jersey State Archives — State death records and the newspaper microfilm the digitization project drew on.
- New Jersey Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to New Jersey newspaper archives, indexes and microfilm, with county-by-county links.
Nationwide newspaper archives
- Chronicling America, Library of Congress — Free digitized newspapers from every state. Narrow a search to New Jersey and the years you need.
- Google News Archive — Free scans of hundreds of older newspapers, browsable by title and date.
- Internet Archive newspapers — Free digitized newspapers and microfilm uploaded by libraries.
- FamilySearch — Free obituary indexes, death records and the Social Security Death Index (free account).
- Find a Grave — Volunteer-built cemetery memorials, many with transcribed obituaries.
- Newspapers.com — Large subscription archive of U.S. papers. Many public libraries offer free access.
- GenealogyBank — Subscription archive of historic newspapers and modern obituaries.
- Legacy.com — Obituaries published since about 2000 in most U.S. daily newspapers.
Tips for finding an obituary in New Jersey
- Pin down the date and place first. A death index or death certificate gives the exact date and county, and then you only need to search the local papers for the following week or two.
- Search more than one town. Obituaries often ran in the paper where the person was born or had lived before, not just where they died. Small-town weeklies sometimes published a notice weeks later.
- Look beyond the word “obituary.” Older papers reported deaths under headings like “Died,” “Deaths,” local news and personals columns, funeral notices and cards of thanks. See death notices vs. obituaries.
- Try every spelling. Search initials, nicknames and misspellings, and for married women in older papers, search the husband’s name (“Mrs. John Smith”). Digitized text often misreads old type.
- Ask a librarian. Many public libraries and state archives will look up an obituary for free or a small fee, and newspaper microfilm can often be borrowed through interlibrary loan.