HIST3140: History of New Jersey: Archives and Manuscript Collections

The State Archives is New Jersey's official research center for public records of enduring historical value, including vital records, land documents, probate records and military service papers, among other materials. The State Archives is also the official repository for microfilm of county clerks’ and surrogates’ records produced by the LDS Church and of film of local newspapers produced by the New Jersey Newspaper Project. Current holdings amount to over 37,000 cubic feet of paper records and over 32,000 reels of microfilm. Records date from the founding of New Jersey as a British colony in 1664 up to the present. The Archives' web site includes searchable databases to locate birth, marriage, and death records, land, probate and court records, military and wartime records, photograph collections. A more detailed description (with links) of the imaged collections is also available.

This annotated, well-organized link directory to over 250 digital libraries covers state-level, multi-state, and global resources. It's an excellent starting point for online archival research.

"NARA is an independent Federal agency that helps preserve U.S. history by overseeing the management of all Federal records." NARA is currently undertaking a number of major digitization projects, including the National Archives Catalog, an online searchable database containing information about some of NARA's holdings across the country. NARA has already digitized copies of its most popular and significant manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, maps, drawings and other documents. Approximately 124,000 digital copies are available for researchers to view online through ARC, and the items can be searched by title, subject, or other keywords. Also worth a look is the browseable Access to Archival Databases page.

NUCMC is a free-of-charge cooperative cataloging program operated by the Library of Congress. The purpose of NUCMC is to make available in one database the contents of archival and manuscript collections in research libraries, museums, state archives, and historical societies located throughout North America. From 1959 to 1993, the contents of NUCMC were published in print volumes. Since 1986, bibliographic records created for NUCMC have been made available in electronic format and can now be searched using this database. An important resource for U.S. history.