There are a variety of online resources available for research on Trenton and related topics.
- A History of Trenton, 1679-1929 (Trenton Historical Society)
- Trenton Illustrated (Ellwood Parsons Robbins)
- Trenton Old and New (Harry J. Podmore)
- HathiTrust – Historical documents and books
- New Jersey Digital Highway (Rutgers University)
Trenton History
- Battle of Trenton
- Broad Street Bank, 2004 (Rediscover Trenton)
- The Capital Century (100 stories of New Jersey history from The Trentonian)
- City Profile (2014, but covers previous years)
- Crowdsourcing Trenton – Harlan Joseph (Princeton University)
- Ernie Kovacs
- Historic Sites of Trenton
- Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America
- Pottery Industry in Trenton (Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie)
- R.C. Maxwell Company Records (Duke University)
- Revolutionary War Sites in Trenton
- Street Names of Trenton
- Trenton History (Michael Smith YouTube)
- Trenton Makes Music Project (The College of New Jersey)
- Trenton Makes World Takes Bridge
- Walking Tour of Downtown Trenton (TCNJ Honors Program)
- World Population Review – Trenton
General History
- American Philosophical Society
- David Library of the American Revolution
- It Happened Here: New Jersey
- Joseph Bonaparte in America
- State of the Arts: Bonaparte’s Retreat
- Bonaparte’s Estate being turned into park (Philadelphia Inquirer)
- Bonaparte’s Estate being turned into park (UK Daily Mail)
- Bonaparte’s Estate being turned into park (New York Times)
- Bonaparte’s Estate being turned into park (CentralJersey.com)
- Joseph Bonaparte and the Jersey Devil (Richard Viet)
- National Register of Historic Places – Wikipedia list (Mercer County)
- New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places – NJHPO (Mercer County)
- New Jersey and the Great War (WW1 Centennial)
- Photographers of the United States of America
Ancestry Library Edition
Research your family history with the Ancestry Library Edition. You can access hundreds of years of history in billions of historical documents and millions of historical photos. Available only in the library.
Helpful Links
- Genealogy Abbreviations
- Julian and Gregorian calendar conversion
- Julian and Gregorian calendar conversion (Wikipedia)
City of Trenton
- Office of the City Clerk
- Trenton Genealogy Resources (Trenton Historical Society)
Mercer County
- Office of the Mercer County Clerk
- Official Records Public Search
- Property Information Search
- Surrogates’ Office
New Jersey
New Jersey Department of State
- Birth records from May 1, 1848 to May 31, 1878. Note: more than half of all births during this time period were not recorded. For an indirect reference to these births, it is necessary to search the census records.
- Death records from May 1, 1848 to May 31, 1878
- Colonial Marriage Bonds from 1665 to 1799
- Marriage records from May 1, 1848 to May 31, 1878
Office of Vital Statistics – Department of Health
- Birth, marriage and death records starting at 1919
- Domestic partnership records starting at 2004
- Civil union records starting at 2007
- Adoptions – foreign and domestic
- Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth data starting at 1969
Office of Vital Statistics – Non-Genealogical Records
Genealogy Resources at the N.J. State Library
Genealogy in Quarantine: What you can do at home (N.J. State Library)
New Jersey Records Preservation Group
Census Records
The 1890 United States census was destroyed due to water damage caused by a fire in the federal building where it was being held. The only 1890 census left is the special Civil War veterans’ schedule.
Organizations
- Castle Garden
- Central Jersey Genealogical Club
- Daughters of the American Revolution
- Descendants of Founders of New Jersey
- Ellis Island
- Genealogical Society of New Jersey
- Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
- League of Historical Societies of New Jersey
- Library of Congress
- National Archives and Records Administration
- National Genealogical Society
- National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
General Websites
Some of these websites require a paid subscription but may offer a free trial
- Access Genealogy
- Ancestry – available on-site at the library to library cardholders
- Archives.com
- Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites
- Dead Fred Genealogy Photo Archive
- Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter
- Family Search
- Family Search – New Jersey Genealogy
- Family Tree Searcher
- Find a Grave
- Find My Past
- Fold3
- Genealogy Bank
- Genealogy Explained – 25 Free Genealogy Websites
- Genealogy Today
- German Genealogy
- HeritageQuest – available to library cardholders
- Interpreting Passenger List Annotations
- Jewish Genealogy
- MyHeritage
- Newspapers.com
- NJGenWeb Project
- One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse
- Postmaster Finder – U.S. Postal Service
- Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness – New Jersey
- RootsWeb
- Ship Passenger Lists
- Taking the Mystery Out of Land Records
- U.S. Bureau of Land Management
- USGenWeb Project
- WorldGenWeb Project
- A Black & Puerto Rican Union? – Lauren O’Brien (New Jersey Studies)
- Community Documentary – Puerto Rican artists from Trenton
- English Program for Migrant Workers (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 1958)
- The History of Puerto Ricans in Trenton
- Latino Oral Histories (N.J. Hispanic Research & Information Center)
- Newark’s 1974 Puerto Rican Riots Through Oral Histories – Nicole Torres (New Jersey Studies)
- New Jersey Hispanic Research and Information Center (Newark Public Library)
- Puerto Rican Immigration to Hawaii (1900-1925) – Daniel Lopez
- The Puerto Rican in New Jersey (N.J. Dept of Education, 1955)
- The State & Puerto Rican Postwar Migration to the U.S. – Edgardo Melendez
- Trenton’s Puerto Rican History Captured with a Collaborative Research Project
- A Black & Puerto Rican Union? – Lauren O’Brien (New Jersey Studies)
- African Roots Podcast
- American Revolution History Resources – Sue Kozel (NJEA)
- Association for the Study of African American Life & History
- Black & Desegregationist Resistance to Systemic Discrimination in Private & Public Housing in Trenton – E. Rosie Driscoll (New Jersey Studies)
- Crowdsourcing Trenton – Harlan Joseph (Princeton University)
- Genealogy Blogs (Radiant Roots)
- Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery
- New Jersey Chapter of the Afro American Historical & Genealogical Society
- Sankofa Collaborative
- Sons & Daughters of the U.S. Middle Passage
- Three Centuries of African-American History in Trenton
- U.S. Federal Census, 1870-1890
Book Reviews:
- Black New Jersey: 1664 to the Present Day – Graham Russell Gao Hodges
- Suburban Erasure: How the Suburbs Ended the Civil Rights Movement in N.J. – Walter David Greason
- Book tells story of Trenton Firefighters
- College President Accepts Recommendation to Change Name of Paul Loser Hall
- Grasp of Trenton’s Past Brings Laurels for TCNJ Prof
- Heeley Scholar Creates Research Aid for Trenton Library
- Library Becomes Caretaker of Trenton Club’s History
- Survey of History Artist William E. Pedrick to Open at New Jersey’s Ellarslie Mansion
- Trenton Makes; the World Takes: The Pork Roll Cookbook
- Trenton’s Puerto Rican History Captured with a Collaborative Research Project