Sussex County (N.J.). Clerk's Office

As required by 1795 legislation, the clerk of each New Jersey county was responsible for copying the marriage returns into a book kept solely for that purpose. Legislation of 1848 required clerks to submit annual returns of vital records to the Secretary of State; further legislation in 1878 authorized marriage officiants to submit certificates to municipal clerks or assessors, who in turn, filed these records with the Secretary of State, thus eleminating this function at the county level.

From the description of Marriage returns, 1795-1878. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70952035

Original birth records for children of slaves, listed by name of slave owner, submitted to the Clerk's Office, as the result of an act passed by N.J. state law (P.L. 1804, chap. CIV, p. 251) in 1804, which pronounced every child born to a slave mother after 4 July 1804 "free" at birth, but bound as a servant to the mother's owner until the age of twenty-five for males or twenty-one for females. Persons entitled by the law to such bound service were required to file with the county clerk, within nine months of the birth of the child, a written certificate containing the name of the slave owner and the name, sex, and age of the child. In turn the clerk was directed to record this information in a special book. The law also allowed for the abandonment of such children by the owners at the age of one year, and in this case, the child became a ward of the local county government.

From the description of Birth certificates of children of slaves, 1806-1821. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70951872