This county is available for Adoption. Please contact MaryAlice Schwanke, the NJGenWeb State Coordinator for more information.
New Jersey was first spied in 1609 by Captain Henry Hudson of the Dutch-East India Trading Company. Soon after the first European settlers started inhabiting the area. The first settlers were Dutch, followed a few years later by the English. The 1631 Cape May Land Patent stipulated that there were permanent Native American settlements in peninsula that forms Cape May County. The present Cape May County was formed by whalers, many of whom moved here from Long Island and Connecticut.
Some early Surnames of Cape May are: Eldredge, Stites, Hand Cresse, Whildin, Hewitt, Hughes, Spicer, Godfrey, Fish, Mason, Swain, Church, Edwards, Young and Richardson among others. You will find information on early sttlers in the Genealogy section along with information to help you get started on your own journey to discovering your roots.
Our thanks to former Cape May County Coordinators, Sue Loder 1999-2006; Janice Brown 2007-2008; and Laverne Tornow 2010-2019.
We hope you enjoy your visit to this site and come back often!
Before the county was settled by Europeans, the indigenous Kechemeche tribe of the Lenape people inhabited South Jersey. Beginning in 1609, European explorers purchased land from, and contributed to the decline of, the indigenous people. The county was named for Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, a Dutch captain who explored and charted the area from 1620 - 1621, and established a claim for the province of New Netherland.
In 1685, the court of Cape May County was split from neighboring Burlington County, although the boundaries were not set until seven years later. In 1690, Cape May (originally known as Cape Island) was founded, becoming America's oldest seaside resort. The county was subdivided into three townships in 1798: Lower, Middle, and Upper. The other 16 municipalities in the county, including two no longer in existence, were established between 1827 and 1928. In 1863, the first railroad in the county opened, which carried crops from the dominant farming industry. Railroads later led to the popularity of the coastal resorts in the county. Improved automotive access led to further development after the Garden State Parkway opened in 1956. - Wikipedia
Atlantic County, New Jersey - north; Cumberland County, New Jersey - northwest; Kent County, Delaware - west; Sussex County, Delaware - southwest
To submit information to the Cape May County Genealogy project, contact the County Coordinator or the State Coordiantor for instructions. Please do not submit anything that is under copyright unless, you are the copyright holder or have written permission for it to be displayed by the NJGenWeb on one of our county sites. Permission for copyrighted material must accompany the material at the time of submission or the material will not be displayed. Do not send information about living individuals.
We welcome original material, cemetery transcriptions, photographs, documents and ephemera that is related to Cape May County's People and its history. If there is a group or organization wishing to help with the placement of material we are happy to work with them in getting the material online. We are always looking for people willing to transcribe documents, index records, photograph cemeteries or other places of interest in Cape May County. Our goal is to keep as much New Jersey Genealogy and History in a free online atmosphere that the only requirement for access is a computer that has an internet connection.
To adopt a New Jersey County, please visit the NJGenWeb Project's Volunteer Page. We do have a few requirements for a County Coordinator, but we also have many volunteer opportunities for just about anyone who wishes to help. Then contact the State Coordinator to express your interest.
If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:
Coordinator - Vacant
State Coordinator: MaryAlice Schwanke
If you have questions or problems with this site, email the Acting State Coordinator.
