Researching Gloucester
For those researching Gloucester, this page intended to provide some guidance about Gloucester and the area.
Things to consider:
Gloucester was once in Gloucester County NJ, but in 1844 became part of present day Camden County, NJ.
Gloucester County once included all of present day Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester Counties.
Gloucester Town was the county seat of Gloucester County until 1786.
Present day Gloucester Township NJ is not the same as Gloucester City.
But "Gloucester Town Township" was a thing and Gloucester was part of it.
Gloucester City was part of Union Township from 1833-1868.
Centre Township was once part of Union Township but was created when Gloucester Town started to grow and out vote the rest of the township.
Highland Park section of Centre Township became part of Gloucester City in the 1920's.
Gloucester Heights was originally part of Haddon Township, but was annexed to Gloucester City in 1925.
When searching for "Gloucester" online, old typeset will OCR the "s" as a "f", so be sure to search "Gloucester" and "Gloucefter" ( until around 1805 ).
Gloucester is often spelled Gloster in Colonial times.
Gloucester was also known as "Gloucester Point" but so was the area in Pennsylvania across the Delaware River which is today known as "Greenwich Point" especially form 1760's to 1800's.
Three cemeteries exist in Gloucester City:
Cedar Grove, Union and Old St. Mary's.
St. Mary's cemetery is managed by the Camden Diocese. Old St. Mary's is closed to new burials since 1925 but New St. Mary's in nearby Bellmawr is where many Catholics from Gloucester.
Cedar Grove is still active and run by volunteers.
Union is still active but is in need of management and volunteers.
The Gloucester City Historical Society has some record for each of the cemeteries and can provide limited help researching those cemeteries.
Some of the closed churches in Gloucester have donated some of their records to the historical society. The society can provide some assistance with research request.
You may get a quicker response by asking a question on two Facebook sites: