More Hunterdon County, New Jersey Land Records at FamilySearch

A couple of posts back (April 15, 2020) we took a look at the Family History Library (FHL) digitized film of "Early Deeds, Hunterdon County, New Jersey." So, now I want to use a post to highlight some of the other films that are found in the FHL Catalog under, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Searching the FHL catalog for Hunterdon County (United States, New Jersey, Hunterdon, being the FHL title) takes us to this catalog page which lists all the films particular to Hunterdon County by category. Of particular value on this page are the Notes at the top of the list. This describes the changes in the political bounds of Hunterdon County from 1714, when the county was created, through 1965. This information, whether for Hunterdon County, or any other location where ancestors might of lived, it very important. Often, for example, when researching the U. S. census records we may find a family, or a head of household, in one county in say 1810, but then in another (probably adjacent) county inn 1820. The first thought might be that this head of household moved. But in actuality, it was the county boundary that moved (or was newly created). It's important to keep this in mind, especially when researching in the early decades of the United States (1790-1850). No doubt there are other categories of films on the page that will interest you, but right now we're just focused on "Land and Property," which is about half-way down the list, contains 14 items, and is opened up by clicking on that little rightward faced arrow, which then exposes the titles of all 14 items.

As mentioned, we looked at "Early Deeds, 1716-1730," in the April 15th post. Of the remaining 13, I want to start with "Deeds (Hunterdon County, New Jersey), 1785-1911; Index, 1785-1955." Clicking on the title opens a new page with a long list of films covering indexes (arranged by grantor and grantee) and the deed books themselves. Each of the films has been digitized, and fortunately here, we can access them from home. That little camera icon under format informs us that we can do this, and just click on that camera icon to view which ever film is of interest. In this post I'm not going to go looking for and listing all the Brewer and Brower entries as, for example, was done with the Monmouth County Grantors Index, instead I'm just going to try an locate where the these entries might be found.

Grantee Index A-D, 1785-1955 would include those whose surname begins with the letter B. Opening up that film I find 688 images. Finding the B's is simply a matter of zooming out, scrolling until I find the "title page" for the letter B, and then zooming back in on that image. If you've done enough of these index searches you'll know that how they are arranged various widely from location to location. There seems to be all kinds of ways to index a large group of records that accumulate over time, usually a long period of time. Lets see what method they've come up with here. The first image for the B's is at image 130, and it is apparent to me that they have arranged the index both chronologically, starting here with a deed from 1785, and then by the first letter of the grantor's first (or given) name. So, on this first image we're finding those whose surname begins with the letter B, and whose given name begins with the letter A. This carries on chronologically until image 147 where those with a given name beginning with the letter B picks up. This set-up is pretty handy if you're looking for a particular individual and a range of years. Just locate the pages with the first letter of the target individual's given name and look the years of interest and in short order you should be able to see whether or not a record exists. It's not so helpful if we want to extract all the entries that include a Brewer or a Brower however, and that's a reason why I'm not going to be doing that.

The film for the Grantor Index A-C, 1785-1955, includes the B's, and they begin at image 228.

The records above cover the post-colonial period. A lot of our Brewer and Brower problems, brick walls, dead ends, whatever phrase you wish to use, are traced to individuals who apparently lived at sometime in Hunterdon County during the colonial period. Although we are looking at post-colonial period records here, there still is the chance that they might be of some help, and they should not be ignored. For one, many individuals born in the mid 1700s would still be alive in the early decades after the United States was formed. Perhaps more importantly, their children and grandchildren (those who reached adulthood) would certainly be living after 1785, and on occasion we do find genealogical evidence in deeds that are executed after, even long after, a earlier ancestor lived. Children, collectively sell off the property they inherited from their parents, for example. If you are researching a colonial period ancestor, and you have not examined the post colonial land records, you have not yet made a complete or exhaustive search.

Back to the original catalog page, the next item that interests me is "Special Deeds, 1730-1916." According to the description, the deeds are "special," because they "appear to be land records with special circumstances, such as 99 year leases, conditional sales, etc." At any rate, they cover nearly two centuries and include the colonial period. Five films are found here. All, thankfully, are accessible from a home computer. The first film (#588789) includes the indexes, both Grantor and Grantee, and the first two volumes of deeds which cover the years 1730 to 1847. The Grantor Index which begins at image 5 appears to be arranged chronologically and by only the first letter of the surname. The letter B begins at image 11, and one will have to browse, page by page, to find any Brewers or Browers. I noticed a couple of Brewer entries on image 12. The Grantees Index starts with image 122, and the letter B begins at image 126. I was just curious as to what the first deed included. Book 1 begins at image 195. The first deed (image 196) is dated 18 February 1720, and is between Samuel Hoffmire, Benjamin Hoffmire & William Hoffmire of the township of Middletown in the County of Monmouth in the Eastern division of the Province of New Jersey (party of the first part) and Charles Mott of Hempstead in Queens County, in the Island of Nassau, yeoman (party of the second part). Recall, in the April 15th post, I mentioned that many of the names were those of Long Islanders. During this time, Long Island was often called, "the Island of Nassau," or "Nassau Island."

A third item on the list that would be a source of genealogical info is, "Somerset and Hunterdon Counties, New Jersey, Heirs to Estates: Abstracted from Partitions and Divisions." This is a book by Virginia Alleman Brown, published in 1986. There is a link for a digital copy which can be viewed at home. It cannot be downloaded and it is not viewable as a PDF, which in my opinion are just easier to use. But there is an index. I have not spent anymore time with this book.

The remaining eleven items include three titles regarding mortgages: "Account Books and Mortgages, 1733-1748," which is locked, meaning it can only be accessed through a computer at a Family History Library Center. It cannot be accessed from home. "Mortgages 1733-1748," which is also locked, and "Mortgages, 1766-1902; Index 1766-1956," which is available for home use and as the title says, includes an index. Note that there is a gap of eighteen years (1748-1766) between the two films.

Also on the catalog page we find "Court Liens, 1700s - 1800s, County Court" and "Court Liens, 1700s - 1800s, Circuit Court" (both available), "Lis Pendens, 1875-1926" (available, but perhaps beyond the time frame that most interests us. A "Lis Penden" is notice of a lawsuit being filed that concerns real estate). "Damages in New Jersey by the British and Americans, 1776-1782," which is locked. I take it, from the title, that this includes more than Hunterdon County, and it might be an interesting film to explore if you are willing, and able, to spend the time at a FHL Center. If your ancestors lived in New Jersey through the Revolutionary War you may just find them here. "A History of Land Titles in the Vicinity of Quakertown," by Mary C. Vail, has not been digitized. It is available only on microfilm which, as I understand, the FHL has stopped lending out to the network of national centers, therefore only a visit to Salt Lake City might gain you access. Apparently this is just three pages and it appeared in the Hunterdon County Democrat in 1915. The newspaper still exists and perhaps they have an archive available. Finally, there is "Brittan Family Papers," which is locked but would have to be of interest to anyone researching not only the Brittan family, but also any families that intermarried with them. The family itself goes back to the earliest settlements on the western end of Long Island, in what would be Kings County, and on Staten Island and Monmouth County, New Jersey. We even know of a Britton B. Brewer, born about 1825 in New Jersey, who is found on the 1860 U. S. census at Williamson in Wayne Co., New York, age 35, whose father, John J. Brewer's ancestry is not known, but is by Y-DNA testing of a descendant, known to be descended from Jan Brouwer of Flatlands. There has to be a Brittan/Britton ancestor somewhere in there. A manuscript such as this would be worthy of investigation.

As I mentioned, we have a lot of frustrating dead ends for Brower and Brewer lines that seem to lead towards Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Perhaps, if I have the opportunity, I'll review some of the earliest individuals and/or records found in Hunterdon County on a future post. I would also ask, that should anyone spend some time with the sources described here, that they forward and share any new discoveries with their fellow researchers through this website. Best of luck with your searches.

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