Listed record inventories
Selected holdings and indexes for Bergen County, checked against the repository descriptions linked below. Date spans may contain gaps; an index is not a complete set of original records.
Military records
- Clerk's Office · Record of Burials of Indigent Soldiers, 1885 - 1907 · CBECL0011885 - 1907
- Clerk's Office · Record of Subsistence Paid to Families of Civil War Soldiers, 1861 - 1865 · CBECL0021861 - 1865
- Clerk's Office · Record of Bounty Paid to Soldiers of the 22nd Regiment, Civil War, 1862 - 1863 · CBECL0031862 - 1863
Marriages, births and deaths
Deeds and land
- Clerk's Office · Deeds, 1715 - 1901 and Indexes, 1715 - 1962 · CBECL0051715 - 1962
- Clerk's Office · Mortgages, 1766 - 1870 and Indexes, 1766 - 1920 · CBECL0081766 - 1920
- Surrogate's Office · Divisions of Land, 1845 - 1888 · CBESU0031845 - 1888
- Surrogate's Office · Bonds for Sales of Land, 1862 - 1912 · CBESU0121862 - 1912
- Clerk's Office · Field Books of the General Partition of the Common Lands of the Township of Bergen, 1763-1765; [inserted map of Paulus Hook, 1863] · SZBER0021763 - 1765
County government
Naturalization records
Court records
- Court of Common Pleas · Minutes, 1833 - 1838 · CBECP0021833 - 1838
- Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace · Recommendations for Peddler's Licenses, 1760 - 1800 · CBEQU0011760 - 1800
- Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace · Petitions for Tavern Licenses, 1786 - 1866 · CBEQU0021786 - 1866
Wills and estates
- Surrogate's Office · Administration Bonds, 1861 - 1901 · CBESU0011861 - 1901
- Surrogate's Office · Letters of Administration, 1804 - 1900 · CBESU0021804 - 1900
- Surrogate's Office · Guardians' Bonds, 1861 - 1933 · CBESU0041861 - 1913
- Surrogate's Office · Orphans Court Minutes, 1785 - 1902 · CBESU0051785 - 1902
- Surrogate's Office · Releases and Discharges, 1821 - 1902 · CBESU0061821 - 1902
- Surrogate's Office · Dockets and Indexes, ca. 1785 - 1962 · CBESU0071785 - 1962
- Surrogate's Office · Applications for Letters of Administration, 1878 - 1902 · CBESU0081878 - 1902
- Surrogate's Office · Estate Papers, 1791 - 1900s · CBESU0091791 - 1900
- Surrogate's Office · Will Books, 1804 - 1905 · CBESU0101804 - 1905
- Surrogate's Office · Applications for Probate of Wills, 1878 - 1905 · CBESU0111878 - 1905
See the repository's descriptions and search options
Repository access note: Selected county-created series from the New Jersey State Archives current searchable catalog. Dates, series identifiers and creating offices are retained. Statewide records appearing in county searches were excluded. A catalog entry may describe paper or microfilm held on site; consult its format, restrictions and detailed contents before requesting access.
Sources: the catalogs and repository descriptions linked on the entries above. Selected inventories do not establish complete coverage of every record type or online access to original documents. Read the repository access note for source dates and limitations.
Where to find the records
- Bergen County official website
Hours, addresses and phone numbers for the county clerk and the surrogate, and any online record search the county offers.
- The county clerk
Deeds, mortgages and other land records, and naturalizations.
- The surrogate
Wills and estates.
- The New Jersey State Archives
In Trenton: state birth, marriage and death records from 1848, and the original wills and estate papers proved before 1901.
- New Jersey State Archivesfree
The state archives in Trenton, with state vital records from 1848, colonial and state wills, court records and state censuses.
- FamilySearch Catalogfree
Search by place for "New Jersey, Bergen" to find filmed and digitized records, many viewable free online with a FamilySearch account.
Offices change their hours and access rules; call before you visit.
Boundaries and parent counties
Formed from: Land not yet in any county
Later formed partly from Bergen County: Hudson County, Passaic County
Records stay with the county that created them. If your ancestor lived here before 1683, search the parent county. The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries shows each boundary change.
Research tip
New Jersey began statewide registration in 1848, earlier than most states. The State Archives holds those records for the early years and also the wills proved before 1901.