Included here are original (usually signed) birth certificates submitted to the Hunterdon County Clerk during the period 1804-1835. While the 1804 law did not require that the mother's name be included on the certificate, it almost always was. The father's name was included only in a few cases. Since the certificates were filed by the slave owners, they are arranged here alphabetically by slave owner name, and thereunder by the birth dates of the children. To aid researchers, the collection has also been listed as follows in the hard copy available in the Archives' Manuscript Room:

by first given name of child/birth date

by surname of child (if recorded)

by given name of mother/name of slave owner

by surname of mother (if recorded)

by given name of father (if recorded)

by surname of father (if recorded)

It should be noted that this series contains only the original copies of certificates sent to the County Clerk. It is known that additional birth certificates of children of Hunterdon County slaves are recorded in the Clerk's birth and manumission book now in the custody of the Hunterdon County Historical Society in Flemington. These were also abstracted in Phyllis B. D'Autrechy's Some Records of Old Hunterdon County (1979), pp. 158-173, 196-201, 203.