Research strategies for finding New Jersey government documents online
How to Find New Jersey State Publications Online
Author Archives: Heather Husted
Alcoholic Beverage Control Bulletins reveal social history of New Jersey
Caitlyn Cook, New Jersey Reference and Digital Librarian in the State Library Information Center, recently digitized the Bulletins of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) (1933-Current). Like other digitized New Jersey State documents, they are public domain and free to download in the New Jersey State Publications Digital Library.
When federal Prohibition laws were repealed in 1933, New Jersey and other states established commissions to regulate alcohol. The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control was tasked with supervising the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the State “in such a manner as to promote temperance and eliminate the racketeer and bootlegger.” Bulletins summarize the results of undercover field investigations by ABC agents, document the testimony of licensees and witnesses, and establish legal precedence. They contain notices to licensees, statistics on Commission activities, and summaries of agency investigations.
From the beginning, the ABC was asked to fill both a both a regulatory and a moral mandate. They were tasked to monitor, investigate, and protect the public from fraudulent practices and criminal enterprises. The mandate also granted the ABC a wide degree of social control over licensees, regulating how licensees could run their businesses, who they could hire, and who they could serve. This authority evolved over time and the Bulletins are key to understanding that history.
Bulletin 188 (dated June 22, 1937) illustrates one of ABC’s political positions. Bartenders at the time had the discretion to refuse service to any person except on the basis of “race, creed, or color.” Many bulletins contain decisions where the ABC upheld the rights of non-white citizens to open and operate licensed establishments and be protected from race-based discrimination. In Bulletin 231 (February 24, 1938), ABC affirmed that a bar could not legally serve non-white patrons in different glasses and at different prices than those offered to white patrons. Commissioner D. Frederick Burnett reminded the questioner of the provisions of the Civil Rights Act and the unlawfulness of bar’s actions, stating:
This means that it is unlawful in this state to refuse the service of liquor to a man merely because of his color. It means that it is unlawful to discriminate by serving beer in thin glasses to the white and in mugs to the colored folk. It means that a licensee cannot lawfully charge more to colored patrons than to those who happened to have been born white. The fact that no prices are posted is immaterial. Discrimination is demonstrated by what is done in the effort to keep the patronage white.
Yet the following year the Commissioner upheld an earlier ruling of a municipality’s right to enact ordinances prohibiting women from being served (see Bulletin 257).
It has been said that “a woman has as much legal and moral right to take a drink as a man”. Re Harris, Bu11etin 16, Item 8. But, really, it is not a right but a privilege. She may lawfully be restricted in that privilege. So may a man. If social policy in a given municipality declares that it is better for the sake of others that she may not drink at the bar- there is nothing arbitrary in the exercise of police power to prevent her. Notwithstanding her modern emergence, the eternal verities remain. We find her at both ends of the human gamut. We prefer to idealize her in the higher register. But we may encounter her in the lower depths. She is the exemplar of refined living. Alas, she is also the more deadly of the species.
The ABC’s moral mandate impacted New Jersey society in a number of ways. Camp Nordland, a camp which hosted Nazi and KKK sympathizing events in Andover, NJ, had been the subject of public outcry, but the municipality had little legal recourse against the camp’s hateful behavior. When the municipality denied the renewal of the camp’s liquor license, the ABC upheld the municipality’s judgment stating, among other reasons, that “[l]icensed premises will not be tolerated as hot-beds in which to incubate hate and inculcate subversion. There is no room for the swastika. The appeal is denied.” (see 1939 Bulletin 344, the last in a series of ABC rulings regarding Camp Norland). Not long after the ABC ruling, additional violations were uncovered, the camp was raided by the Sussex County Sheriff’s office, the property seized, and camp leaders arrested for various crimes (See the NJ Herald’s article on Camp Nordland for a brief history).
Morality policing led the ABC to wage a destructive campaign against the LGBTQ community and licensees who created establishments to serve them. In its earliest regulations, the ABC named a prohibition against “female impersonators.” Examples appear throughout the Bulletins of bars having their licenses suspended or revoked based on investigators’ reports that a masculine appearing individual demonstrated stereotypically feminine mannerisms. During the 1950s and 1960s, investigations shifted toward identifying “apparent homosexuals,” people whose appearance and mannerisms seemed to defy societal gender norms; Bulletins 1656 and 1557 are two of many examples. This campaign of punishing licensees who allowed perceived LGBTQ persons to gather in their establishments would culminate in a 1967 NJ Supreme Court ruling against the agency (One Eleven Wines & Liquors, Inc. v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 50 N.J. 329). Though this ruling ended the blanket prohibition against LGBTQ persons assembling in and patronizing licensed establishments, Bulletin 1763 makes it clear that the agency would seek to police and prohibit any behavior deemed “offensive to public decency.” The One Eleven Wines and Liquors case would not end discrimination against LGBTQ persons, but it was a significant moment in advancing the rights of New Jersey’s LGBTQ community.
These are but a few examples of the work of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission and its impact on the social and moral history of New Jersey. The entire Bulletin collection is available to review.
Researching New Jersey’s Mental Hospitals
On Tuesday February 5, Digital Librarian Caitlyn Cook presented “From Dorothea Dix to the Post-War Era: Historic Reports of New Jersey’s Mental Hospitals.” Cook discussed the unique contents of over seventy years of government documents, during a period when the treatment of mental illness was undergoing profound change.
The State Hospital network included facilities in Trenton, Morristown, Ancora (Hammonton), Glen Gardner, Arthur Brisbane (Farmingdale), and Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital. Our collection is incomplete, but you can browse our print holdings in our catalog under the heading Psychiatric Hospitals – New Jersey or by searching the State Library catalog by facility name. The most complete collections of reports in the Library’s collection are from the Trenton and Morristown facilities and these, as well as Ancora, have been digitized. Additional reports will be digitized over time. We actively collect and will add new state documents to the library’s collection when they are made available to us.
Digitized State Hospital Collections
To date, librarians have digitized the following State Hospital collections.
- Annual Reports of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum at Trenton (later, New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton) 1848–1921 (we are missing 1849, but it is available from Hathitrust)
- Annual Reports of the State Asylum for the Insane at Morristown (later, New Jersey State Hospital at Morris Plains, then New Jersey State Hospital at Greystone Park) 1876–1969 (missing 1948-1950, 1961, 1963-1965)
- Ancora Psychiatric Hospital (1961-1975)
What do Asylum Reports contain?
Other Sources for Asylum Research
Asylum reports did not name individual patients and will be of limited use to the genealogist. Extant patient records are in the collections of the New Jersey State Archives and are unavailable to the public except under extraordinary circumstances. Records of the chancery court (also held at the State Archives) may contain information about the legal circumstances under which patients were committed.
U. S. Federal Census returns include names of all patients and staff residing on the campus. On some returns, resident occupations and ethnicity were included. To find state asylum listings on the Census, try searching for the superintendent at the time the census was conducted. For example see the 1850 record for asylum superintendent Dr. Horace Buttolph; asylum residents and staff appear on pages 30-35. See Dr. Buttolph’s record in 1870; residents and staff are enumerated on pages 47-64.
About the Digital Publications Library
The New Jersey State Library’s State Publications Collection preserves all works published by the State and its entities, whether print or born digital. The digitization of our extensive print holdings is ongoing. Visit our collections in the New Jersey State Library Digital Publications Library. For questions about asylum reports, state publications, and other digital collections, contact Caitlyn Cook, New Jersey Reference & Digital Librarian, or Deborah Mercer, New Jersey Collections Librarian.
Using Ratables for New Jersey Genealogy
What are ratables?
Ratables are lists of heads of household compiled in order to levy a tax. Heads of household were typically males and in some cases widows. These taxes were levied periodically from 1773-1822.
Tax rates were based on a number of variables set by the New Jersey General Assembly, such as how many “improved” (i.e. arable) acres were owned, how many and what type of livestock, whether you owned a carriage, and how many servants and enslaved persons were contracted and owned.
The specifics of what was taxed and at what rate changed when each new tax was issued. Information collected about the taxpayer varied based on what was being taxed for the period of that ratable.
What can you do with ratables?
Ratables are an important primary source for pre-1830 genealogy research in New Jersey.
The first set of ratables was issued in 1773-1774, while New Jersey was a province, then regularly until 1822. There was no statewide census of colonial New Jersey. The federal census returns for New Jersey conducted from 1790-1820 are lost; the first available statewide census return for New Jersey is 1830. There are less census returns available for New Jersey than any other state. Genealogy researchers use ratables as a census substitute.
Lists of all known taxpayers in a town and lists of all known taxpayers with the same surname facilitate cluster genealogy, name studies, local history studies, and brick wall research.
Revolutionary Census of New Jersey
There are several published transcriptions and compilations of tax lists. The Revolutionary Census of New Jersey compiled by Kenn Stryker-Rodda is the most used. This index groups individuals by last name from three different ratables: 1773-1774, 1778-1780, and 1784-1786. There is no complete set of ratables for all regions in this time period, so by using these three sets, all townships are covered.
“For the revolutionary period there is at least one list for each of the townships into which the thirteen counties of the colony/state were divided… Two successive lists have been incorporated into this index whenever possible, as individuals were sometimes omitted from a list, and because names were spelled differently even by the same assessor.” (Stryker-Rodda, p. v.)
The index is alphabetical by last name, and includes their township. For the financial details and to see all taxpayers of the same town listed together, you can refer back to the transcriptions of the ratables published in the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey. A “code” in the front of the book indicates which issue of GMNJ contains the transcription. The New Jersey State Library has a complete set of the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey available for in-library use.
What can you learn from ratables?
The account of the taxpayer’s property lists several features of his wealth. Tax was calculated by multiplying these numbers by rates. For example, the tax burden for a householder in 1773/1774 ranged from 2 shillings to £4. Those who owned a furnace or glass-house could be taxed up to £10. There are a number of carve-outs and exemptions, similar to modern tax policy.
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Information Contained in Ratables |
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Other Indexes to Ratables
- Jackson, Ronald Vern, ed. New Jersey Tax Lists, 1772-1822. five volumes. American Tax List Indices. Salt Lake City, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1981. This work is an alphabetical index of taxpayers and includes the taxpayer’s name, town, county, and date they appeared on the tax list. It is not comprehensive, does not include all lists or even all counties. The contents are also searchable as part of Ancestry’s database New Jersey, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643-1890.
- Norton, James S. New Jersey in 1793: An Abstract and Index to the 1793 Militia Census of the State of New Jersey. Salt Lake City, Utah, 1973. This is a transcription of ratables created as a result of an NJ Law of 30 Nov 1792 “to take a list of all and every free and able-bodied white male Citizen, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five Years.” Those who did not serve and paid a $3 tax, as well as certain occupations, are listed as “exempt.” There are no extant 1793 ratables from Bergen, Cape May, Salem, and Somerset, but the author reconstructed a list of these men from other sources.
Access to Ratables at the New Jersey State Archives
Of the total number of ratables recorded, only about a thousand (4% of the total) still exist. Almost all original extant ratables are in the collections of the New Jersey State Archives and are available on microfilm.
The Tax Ratables Collection Guide published by the New Jersey State Archives lists all extant ratables and microfilm copies available at the NJSA. “This series includes original tax ratables from the period 1773-1822, as well as photocopies of several tax lists currently in the custody of various historical societies.” Ratables are part of the New Jersey General Assembly Collection.
These collection guides (also known as finding aids) include the microfilm reel as well as the citation to GMNJ if a transcription has been published.
- Miscellaneous & Bergen Counties
- Burlington County
- Cape May & Cumberland Counties
- Essex County
- Gloucester County
- Hunterdon & Middlesex Counties
- Monmouth & Morris Counties
- Salem, Somerset & Sussex Counties and Transcripts
Questions about access to microfilmed ratables should be directed to the New Jersey State Archives. Researchers are welcome to browse the print indexes listed above and issues of the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey in the State Library Information Center on the fourth floor of the New Jersey State Library.
Selected New Jersey Colonial and Revolutionary Legislation on Ratables
If you have additional citations or references, please send them to the author.
An Act to Settle the Quotas of the Several Counties in This Colony for the Levying Taxes. (6 Dec 1769) Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New-Jersey (Allinson), chapter CCCCXCV, https://books.google.com/books?id=Yd81AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA317#v=onepage&q&f=false
An Act for the Raising of Four Battalions. (27 Nov 1776) Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey, chapter IX, http://njlaw.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/diglib.cgi?page=9&collect=njleg&file=001&zoom=100
An Act for Better Regulating the Militia. (15 Mar 1777) Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey, chapter XX, http://njlaw.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/diglib.cgi?page=26&collect=njleg&file=001&zoom=100
An Act to Raise a Fund by Taxation for discharging the Debts and defraying the necessary expences [sic] of the State of New-Jersey. (26 Mar 1778) Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey, chapter XXIII, https://njlaw.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/diglib.cgi?collect=njleg&file=002&page=0056&zoom=100
Some of the above acts created exemptions; other legislation creating and modifying exemptions
An Act for Encouraging the Manufacture of Paper in the State of New Jersey. (20 Jun 1778), Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey, https://njlaw.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/diglib.cgi?collect=njleg&file=002&page=0088&zoom=120
An Act to encourage William Parker, William Corlies, Richard Lippincott, Jeremiah Borden and Laurence Hartshorne, to erect Salt-Works in the State of New-Jersey. (5 Oct 1776) Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey, chapter VIII, https://njlaw.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/diglib.cgi?collect=njleg&file=001&page=0008&zoom=120
An Act for Granting a Bounty upon Wool, Flax and Hemp, Raised and Sold within the State of New-Jersey. (14 Apr 1778) Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey, chapter XXII, article 56, https://njlaw.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/diglib.cgi?page=55&collect=njleg&file=002&zoom=120
An Act for the Speedy and Effectual Recruiting of the Four New-Jersey Regiments in the Service of the United States. (3 Apr 1778) Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey, chapter XXIV, section 24), https://njlaw.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/diglib.cgi?collect=njleg&file=002&page=0070&zoom=120
