Click here for a "genealogy" of Bergen County's towns and townships,
prepared by Arnold Lang of the Genealogical Society of Bergen County.

For descriptions of historic town boundaries, see
The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries, 1606-1968, by John Parr Snyder .

Index to Heads of Household (and Different Surnames in Household)

To view these files you need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download here.

All heads of household and people in the household with different surnames are indexed. We encountered the usual problems which make indexing difficult—the enumerators’ handwriting, the enumerators’ spelling, and the quality of the microfilm. Always check alternate spellings, especially phonetic ones. Sometimes a duplicate entry was made for the same person. These entries, in italics, are alternate spellings or known corrections. This was not done for every questionable entry, but when the words would not alphabetize closely together. Question marks have been used for unreadable letters and to indicate that an interpretation is questionable.

Searching and Viewing with Adobe Acrobat Reader:

The index for each year is an Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file. You can download the free Reader here. Using the find function, enter the name in the search box (“last name” “first name” -- for example, naugle martha). It is also advisable to browse the pages. Use the scroll bar to move quickly to the desired part of the alphabet.

Race and Nationality Codes:

1885 & 1895 W=White, C=Colored, For.=Foreign Born

1905 & 1915 W=White, C or B=Black, Ch or Chin=Chinese, Jap or Jp=Japanese

Information in each census:

1885 and 1895: Name of every person, Sex, Race, whether Native or Foreign-Born (German, Irish, or Other), Age Category

1905 and 1915: Name of every person, race, sex, month and year of birth, age, marital status, birthplace (state or country) of individual and parents, number of years in U.S., citizenship status, occupation, whether literate or fluent in English and whether home is owned or rented. Sometimes streets and house numbers are recorded.

Viewing the census:

The index should not be used as a substitute for viewing the actual enumeration sheet. To find the proper page requires year of census, roll number, civil unit, enumeration district (if given), and page number. The State Censuses for Bergen County are available on microfilm at Ridgewood Public Library, Morristown and Morris Township Library, New Jersey State Library, and the New Jersey State Archives.

They are also available from Family History Centers located throughout the world. Search the library catalog of the Family History Library by film number to view the specific towns on each reel.

1885 FHL US/CAN Film 865500
1895 FHL US/CAN Films 888645-888646
1905 FHL US/CAN Films 1688588-1688589
1915 FHL US/CAN Films 1465503-1465507

Townships and boroughs are arranged on the microfilm in alphabetic order by the name of the town (ignoring “Borough of” etc.) It is important to note the following cases of finding towns where you would not expect them:

1895

Midland Park Borough (found under Franklin Township, Borough of Midland Park)
Glen Rock Borough (found under Ridgewood Township, Borough of Glen Rock)
Saddle River Borough (found after Orvil Twsp, Borough of Allendale)
Allendale (found under Orvil Twsp., Borough of Allendale)

1905

Orvil Borough found under Orvil Township, Orvil Borough

1915

Orvil Township and Village of Ridgewood (film is in reverse alphabetic order)

Corrections:

You may be able with your personal knowledge of families, to decipher an entry better than we were able to. If you submit changes, we will add your interpretation and italicize it. The index will be updated periodically. (When submitting corrections, include the complete line as it exists in the index and then the complete line as you think it should appear.) Corrections or comments may be sent to Peggy Norris, Local History Librarian at pwnorris@ridgewoodlibrary.org.

Support:

Funding for this index has been made possible in part through grant funds administered by the Bergen County Department of Parks, Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs through a General Operating Support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a Division of Cultural Affairs in the Department of State.

Additional funds were provided by the Ridgewood Public Library. Volunteers from the Genealogical Society of Bergen County also made significant contributions to the project.