Guide to House Research at Monmouth County Archives

The Monmouth County Archives, a division of the County Clerk’s Office, is an excellent place to research your property. Do you know when your house was built, who built it, who owned it, or who lived in it? Monmouth County’s online databases and documents in the Archives can help you establish a chain of title.

                                       

Start your search online:

Current property deeds back to 1976 are searchable digitized public documents, available online on the  Open Public Record Search (OPRS) website, managed by the Office of Records Management, another division of the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office.  Most deeds have a “previously conveyed clause” referring to the Deedbook and page of the previous transfer. If the deed mentions a subdivision, a map may be available too.

For online digitized property research, OPRS offers:

  • Property records
  • Sales data
  • Subdivision maps
  • Tax maps
  • Tax list images

The Archives has many record groups pertaining to property ownership. Most of these databases and resources are not online, but are available by visiting the Archives.  They include:

  • Deeds and indexes back to 1665
  • Colonial Conveyances of East & West Jersey, 1664-1794
  • Building Contracts, 1847-1999, (agreements, architects, blue prints)
  • Mechanics’ Liens, 1845-1930, (lawsuits involving owners and builders)
  • Partitions of Land, 1762-1960, (division of property to heirs of estates)
  • County Atlases: Beers’ 1873; Woolman & Rose 1879; Wolverton’s 1889
  • County Wall Maps: Lightfoot, 1851; Beers’ 1860; Hagstrom 1930s
  • Road Returns, 1737-1979, (road surveys with some maps)
  • Aerial Photographs, 1947, 1957, 1997
  • Monmouth County Survey of Historic Places (index only)
  • 1790 Property owner list
  • and more.

Other resources not at the Monmouth County Archives:

For questions or an appointment to do research on-site at the Archives, email george.joynson@co.monmouth.nj.us or call (732) 308-3771 x 2.