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New Jersey Land Records
See Also Researching in Land Records
The earliest sales of land in New Jersey were by the proprietors of East and West Jersey, which still hold some land today and maintain their records, although those for West Jersey are on film at the state archives. Until the Land Act of 1785 transferred the recording of deeds to the counties, land conveyances after the initial grants from the proprietors were recorded in the East and West New Jersey capitals, Perth Amboy and Burlington, and in 1795 transferred to Trenton, where they became known as the Secretary of State's Deeds. These deeds, dating 1664 to the 1800s, are at the state archives. It has been estimated that only a quarter of colonial land transfers were recorded.
At the county level are found the usual deeds and mortgages, with corresponding indexes to each type of record. These records begin for most counties at two stages. Mortgages have been recorded with the county clerk from 1766 and deeds from 1785, and generally one would expect to find such records for all counties established by these dates.
There is, however, some variance, and some counties recorded deeds in earlier years. At least two counties, Hudson and Passaic, have abstracts of deeds pre-dating the formation of the county that pertain to lands previously in parent counties. Microfilm of deeds, recorded about 1900, and mortgages, to about 1850, for almost all New Jersey counties are available at the New Jersey State Archives. Also with the county clerk are divisions or partitions of lands that include descriptions and often maps showing how the real property of a person who died intestate was divided among his or her heirs. Many unrecorded deeds are found at the state archives, the New Jersey Historical Society, Rutgers, and in several local historical societies.
