Source Information

Ancestry.com. Prominent Families of New Jersey Vol. II [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
Original data: Myers, William Starr, ed. Prominent Families of New Jersey. Two Volumes. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2000.

About Prominent Families of New Jersey Vol. II

Among the many multi-volume collections of biographies/genealogies published by the Lewis Historical Publishing Company is the 5-volume Story of New Jersey, edited by William Starr Meyers and published in 1945. Volumes I-III of this collection focus on the history of New Jersey, while the concluding two volumes comprise the "mugbook," or biographical component of the work. Volumes IV and V feature hundreds of essays, many with illustrations, of prominent or successful New Jersey citizens and their families that were known to the compilers at the time of the work's original publication in 1945. Out of consideration for the researching purposes of our patrons and in the interest of economy, we have elected to reprint only Volumes IV and V of The Story of New Jersey, which we have renamed Prominent Families of New Jersey.

The majority of the essays in this reprint are biographical in nature rather than genealogical. The essays emphasize the subject's education, military service, career, and various memberships and affiliations. Prominent Families of New Jersey is hardly without genealogical merit, of course, as in virtually every essay we learn the names and associated dates of marriage, birth, and death of the principal subject and his parents, spouse, and children. In most instances the genealogical record is extended back to the 19th century. In perhaps a quarter of the essays, moreover, such as that of C. Edward Murray of Trenton, the genealogy is traced as far back as the mid-1700s. In all, this rich source of New Jersey biographical and genealogical data covers the history of nearly 4,000 family lines and refers to nearly 20,000 individuals.