I had really good luck requesting records in New Jersey, the state archivist was super helpful and provided me with 30 pages of my great great grandparents divorce records.
We’ll talk later about the emotional weight of 30 pages of testimony that undoubtedly represented significant generational trauma for (I’m counting literally thousands of living descendants)…
We’re mainly here for the genealogy, with this post title. Vital records are births, marriages and deaths. We’re mainly here to talk about New Jersey Death Records, which is because I wanted to announce a (new to me discovery) NewJerseyDeathIndex.com which is run by Reclaim the Records.
I love this organization so much. In their words, Reclaim the Records is a “not-for-profit activist group of genealogists, historians, researchers, and open government advocates. We identify important genealogical records sets that ought to be in the public domain but which are being wrongly restricted by government archives, libraries, and agencies. We file Freedom of Information and Open Data requests to get that public data released back to the public. And if the government doesn’t comply, we take them to court. […]Then we digitize everything we win and put it all online for free, without any paywalls or usage restrictions, so that it can never be locked up again.”
If you know me well, you know that speaks to my soul. The knowledge of our ancestors (both about them and within them) is our birthright, imho. I believe in this cause just as firmly as I believe in Revolution.
The Death Index is helpful because it gives you the numeric code of the actual death certificate. Once you have the code, you can request the certificate through the state. This page explains how to request a death certificate based on when the death occurred. I have received results in as little as 24 hours via email in the past, so they’re very attentive to this unlike other states, from what I hear.
For guidance on the complications of other New Jersey Vital Records, I will apologize in advance for the ads on the following page: Cyndi’s List – New Jersey BMD Cyndis List is a great directory, but the ads are a lot.