Learn Where to Find New Jersey Marriage Certificates and How They Are Filed with the State

Among the Mid-Atlantic states in the US, New Jersey is said to have the longest continual run of maintaining its vital statistics which include the records of births, marriages and deaths. This practice started way back in May 1848.

The New Jersey State Archives keeps these records with indexes through 1923 for births, and through 1940 for marriages and deaths. Marriages were meant to be recorded by the office of the county clerks from 1795 onward.

Actually, its church and other community records, including marriage records, date back beyond colonial times to the 17th century, when the region was first settled by communities from Holland and Britain. These also are now kept in the State Archives and are accessible to the interested public on request. New Jersey’s strategic location in the great commercial and industrial hub of the northeastern US, its excellent network of communications, and its inclusively liberal laws, have made it an even bigger demographic melting pot and fertile ground if you are interested in genealogical research.

If you are looking either to file a marriage certificate or to retrieve a marriage record, you have your work cut out for you in the State of New Jersey. As of 2006, it is the 11th most populous state in the US and the most densely populated. The population density stands at 1,174 residents per sq. mile or 453 per sq. km. If you were to conduct a physical search, you would of course find that the density varies widely from county to county, with the highest density of population of the state in the counties surrounding New York City and along the Atlantic shore.

You may find the southern and northern counties easier to search. However, their population is both sparse and very rural, and thus somewhat strung out in clusters.

What Kind Of Marriage Certificate Would You File?

In New Jersey, marriage is not the only recognized form of relationship. The state provides over 850 rights, privileges and responsibilities of marriage to gay and lesbian couples in a ‘civil union.' The third type of legal relationship is the ‘domestic partnership,' for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples, but only above the age of 62.

Documentation for the latter two types of relationship are likely available at the county level for contractual and legacy purposes, but neither type can be certified as a marriage. An opposite-sex marriage certificate can be safely filed at the county where the marriage takes place if not at the central State Archives.
 

What Any Marriage Record Must Contain

Every marriage in NJ, including church marriages, must be registered under law.

A New Jersey marriage certificate should provide at a minimum full names of the bride and groom, the date of marriage, and county where the marriage took place. Many will include information such as names and birthplaces of the bride's and groom's parents, addresses of the bride and the groom, information on previous marriages if any, and names of the witnesses and person officiating at the ceremony.

How to Find A New Jersey Marriage Certificate

For marriage records through 1940, the office to contact is the New Jersey State Archives, Division of Archives and Records Management, 185 West State Street, CN 307, Trenton, NJ 08625-0307. For earlier vital records, you will need to contact the respective county offices. In most states, you get them by submitting a request form, with a check or money order for a specified amount that is payable to the relevant government department.

First, Cover Your Bases

Write a request letter, and remember to make it both concise and simple. Please do not mention any confusing details about the family. Make just one or two requests at any time. Submit all possible data about the marriage. If a person goes by more than one name, give all of them, including nicknames and alternate spellings if any.

Be accurate about the marriage date. If you do not know the exact date, provide a time span that can be searched. Try to keep it narrow – the wider the search, the more it will cost you. To prevent any misreading, type or print all names and addresses.

Pay nothing in advance. First find out how much the document/s will cost. What you can usefully do instead is send a signed blank check and print "Not to exceed $__.00" (the maximum likely amount) in red ink, under the check's "$____" line.

Your best course of action is to write two letters. The first should include your requirements and all relevant information, and ask about the charges payable. The second letter must carry the check as enclosed. Remember to always enclose a stamped and self-addressed envelope.

You must also remember to be patient and courteous. The office may be short-staffed and swamped by similar requests. More pertinently, do also remember that though the office is there to help you, handling queries is not their main job. ‘Make nice,’ and you may be surprised at how much more responsive they are to you.

Make Sure to Include These Details:

Include in your letter the request date, the husband’s full name (last name in capital letters), wife’s full name (maiden name in capital letters), the marriage date and place of marriage (city or town, county, state), the relationship to you and the purpose of your request, your name, signature & address. Also include your driver's license number & state, as this may be required in some counties.

Request Your New Jersey Marriage Certificate Online

Did you know that you can now place your request to receive your New Jersey marriage record over the Internet? Online, you can also gain access to other records: marriage indexes along with license applications, licenses, announcements and certificates.

Go online, and cut out a lot of paperwork and running around. Most importantly, when you place that request on the Internet, you are able to save time. If you are sending over that application letter it will naturally take some time to be delivered. Over the Internet, you can send it with just a few clicks and thus the processing is also quicker.