Introduction to Microfilm Index

Introduction: Index to Archdiocese of Newark Parish Sacramental Records on Microfilm

for Use in Family History Research

The Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center serves as the archives for the Archdiocese of Newark (ADN), founded in 1853. While the Archdiocese once encompassed all of New Jersey it now covers only the counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union. If you are looking for records originating in parishes other than the ones currently belonging to the Archdiocese of Newark, you will need to contact the diocese to which it currently belongs. The other dioceses of New Jersey are Trenton (1881 – Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth & Ocean Counties), Camden (1937 – Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem Counties), Paterson (1937 – Morris, Passaic & Sussex Counties) and Metuchen (1981 – Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset & Warren Counties).

• We have the sacramental records from the closed parishes in the Archdiocese of Newark.  With 2 exceptions in each field, we do NOT have any school or hospital records.  We do now have some entrance/exit and sacramental registers for St. Mary’s Orphanage, Newark along with some records on individuals from other orphanages.  [View a listing of Closed Parishes below for the exceptions whose records are housed here.]  For school records, contact the Secretariat for Education at the Archdiocesan Center, (973) 497-4260.  For information on orphanage records, please contact our office at (973) 761-9476.  For information on hospital records, please contact the Archdiocesan Center at (973) 497-4000 and ask where your call should be directed.

• Sacramental records are accessible by parish only. There is no “central database” of records. If you do not know the parish at which the person of your search received the sacraments, try looking at parishes in the area in which they lived. An address from a civil record can help to narrow the search to a few parishes.

• When one receives the rite of a sacrament, a certificate is given to the family. The church of origin does not keep a copy of the ”certificate”, but it is recorded in a register. The sacramental registers for most of the parishes in the Archdiocese of Newark have been microfilmed by the Latter Day Saints (LDS). If you do not find the parish you are seeking in the LDS Film Index on the previous page, you may open the link to the list of Non-Microfilmed Church Records; you would need to contact those parishes directly to obtain records from them. If the parish is closed and not microfilmed, please open the link to Closed Parishes. In some cases their records went to a receiving parish, and in others, the records are now housed here in the Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center. If records are housed here, you may open the Genealogy Letter below for information on contacting us regarding those records. In addition to parish sacramental records, indices from many of the Archdiocesan cemeteries have been microfilmed. Please open the link to Cemeteries for information on those holdings. Please keep in mind that some registers have been lost due to disasters and time. Thus there may be some gaps in the registers or some that are missing for the parish in which you are interested.

• The LDS Film Index is in alphabetical order first by the current city, then by parish. Many cities’ names have changed over time. Several parishes are known by more than one name. We have tried to cover these instances in the index. Please remember to use the search tool as you look through the list. You can also use the bookmarks on the left to jump to the first parish in that city or to expand the bookmark to see all parishes in the city. In addition, you can use the forward and backward navigation at the bottom of the window to move through the list.

• Once you have located the parish and confirmed the sacrament and timeframe for which you are looking, you can select one of 3 methods by which to access the microfilm for family history research: 1.) You can make an appointment to come to the Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center to conduct the research yourself. 2.) You can order copies of the same film(s) to be sent from Salt Lake City to your local LDS Family History Center; or 3.) you can order a search through the Msgr. William Noé Field Special Collections Center and Archives using the form on the Genealogy Research Requests page. Please contact us at (973) 761-9476 for more information concerning the fee for family history research by mail.  

• Access to the microfilm at the Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center is by appointment only. The only fee for on-site research is for photocopies from the microfilm at $.25/copy. Images from microfilm can also be scanned and saved to a thumb drive as PDF or JPG at no charge using our microfilm scanner.  Remember to bring a thumb drive if you are interested in saving digital images.

To make an appointment or for more information about our services please contact Jacquelyn Deppe, Special Collections Assistant, via email: jacquelyn.deppe@shu.edu or phone at: (973) 761-9476.