US Black Heritage Project New Jersey Team

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: new_jersey black_heritage

The New Jersey Team covers activity for the US Black Heritage Project in the state of New Jersey.

Team Leader: Janet Demcoe

Team Members

Contents 1 Goals 2 Projects 2.1 Current Project: Middlesex County 2.1.1 1880 US Census based profiles 2.1.2 Miscellaneous Records 2.2 Completed Projects 2.2.1 Local Records 3 Resources 4 Stickers 5 WikiTree's US Black Heritage Project 6 Sources

Goals

This team is part of the US Black Heritage Project. Our goals are the following with specific emphasis on New Jersey:

• To collect in one place information and resources to assist in building and documenting African-American Genealogies.
• To create the largest online public database of connected African-American families.
• To bring together WikiTreers interested in connecting African-American families to the Global Family Tree.
• To process all types of documents from New Jersey regarding free and enslaved ancestors with the goal of creating their profiles and connecting them to their descendants.
• To provide and maintain a logical and organized structure to help individuals identify their ancestors and celebrate their history.
• To improve all profiles of ancestors with Black heritage in New Jersey, which may include biography building, sourcing, and making correct connections.

Projects

• Locating and documenting all African-American cemeteries in New Jersey, including developing profiles on WikiTree for persons found, as well as free space pages for the cemeteries.
  • See New Jersey, African-American Cemeteries for existing categories. The categories are broken down by county, then by cemetery, profiles and free space cemetery pages respectively, designated with the number in each area currently on WikiTree.
  • Some African American Cemeteries at Find A Grave
• Locating and developing profiles for Freedmen in New Jersey.
• Begin One Place Studies for African-American towns and communities in New Jersey.

Current Project: Middlesex County

1880 US Census based profiles

• Create profiles using Middlesex County, New Jersey 1880 US Census. The 1880 US Census spreadsheet for Middlesex County is noted here for identifying persons listed as race: black, mulatto, colored etc. who were enumerated in the census. By creating profiles for these families we may be able to connect them to the earlier census records of 1840-1870 as well as manumission and slave birth records.
• Create profiles using Cape May County, New Jersey 1880 US Census. The 1880 US Census spreadsheet for Cape May County This county is smaller than Middlesex and it has some interesting families to create.

Miscellaneous Records

• Another project to consider investigating would be the Middlesex County Miscellaneous Records project. The Miscellaneous spreadsheet contains early death records, Seamans' Proof of Citizenship, manumissions for all 3 counties that are indexed, and early marriage records including NJ residents who married out of state. Some of these records contain minute details of the target individual and provide a more intimate picture of them.

Completed Projects

• An additional challenge for March 2024 was to complete at least one county. Ocean County had less than 100 residents. The 1880 US Census spreadsheet for Ocean County Thanks to the help of wonderful WT volunteers, the county was completed on 21 March 2024!

Local Records

Middlesex County: The area was settled by the Dutch and as early as 1626, the first enslaved Africans were brought by them to the region of the New Netherlands colony The British gained control over New Netherland in 1664, and New Jersey was divided into the Quaker-run West Jersey who eventually banned the practice of slavery, and the East Jersey population of Dutch settlers, Puritans, and Barbadian planters embraced it. ^[1]Perth Amboy was designated a "Site of Memory" by the UNESCO Slave Route Project in 2019.^[2]

• Infamous Slave Trading Ring Middlesex County, New Jersey
• Research by James Nash Shackleford
• Aaron Hush, Civil War Veteran

Middlesex/ Somerset Counties

• Murder in Franklin causes racial tension 1894

Resources

See African-American Resources for New Jersey.

Stickers

Along with the {{African-American Sticker}} you may also wish to add an New Jersey sticker to profiles.

Place {{New Jersey Sticker|born in New Jersey}} below the African American sticker if they were born in New Jersey. Place {{New Jersey Sticker}} below the African American sticker if they lived in New Jersey for a large part of their life, but were not born there.

WikiTree's US Black Heritage Project

• US Black Heritage Project
• US Black Heritage: Heritage Exchange Portal
• US Black Heritage Index of Plantations

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.middlepassageproject.org/2020/06/17/african-presence-in-new-jersey/ Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP) .
2. ↑ https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2021/10/04/middle-passage-perth-amboy-nj-honors-african-slaves-port-marker/5947149001/