New Jersey became a state in 1787. The census began in 1790 and there is ongoing debate as to whether or not the 1790 census for New Jersey was burned. According to Kathleen W. Hinckley's publication, Your Guide to the Federal Census for genealogists, researchers, and family historians, Kathleen states, on page 112, as follows:

"MISSING OR LOST SCHEDULES

There is conflicting information regarding the loss of 1790 schedules for Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia. Most genealogical reference books report that these schedules were destroyed when the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. This is disputed in the 1909 publication A Century of Population Growth From the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth 1790-1900 (page 49):

There is a record that the 1790 returns for Virginia were destroyed when the British burned the Capital at Wasdhington during the War of 1812. But it is a question whether anything more than the marshal's summary was burned, if the First Census law was complied with, the original returns must have been in the custody of the clerk of the distrcit court of Virginia.

If this was true for Virginia, it was most likely the same for the other five states.

Consequently, New Jersey's census ostensibly began in 1790, but the 1790 through 1820 are missing or lost, except for the 1800 Cumberland County schedules. The below link will take you to the New Jersey census table at Rootsweb. Most of the rolls of film for the various counties still need transcribing for the Census Project. If you are interested in helping the Census Project, please be sure to check out the information available at the site below to volunteer. We always need more of your valuable assistance. Thank you.

THE INTERNET ARCHIVE - www.archive.org

The microfilm schedules for New Jersey for the following years are located at the Internet Archive and are provided by the Allen County Public Library, of Fort Wayne, Indiana:

1830 - 1840 - 1850 - 1860 - 1870 - 1880 - 1900 - 1910 - 1920 - 1930

The National Archives Record Administration has assigned numbers to the different rolls of census microfilm. They are as follows: