The Coopers of Long Hill

Document I.64 · Published Genealogies and County Histories · transcription: verbatim

Index of wills, inventories, etc. in the Office of the Secretary of State prior to 1901 (NJ Department of State, 1912; compiled by Charles J. Aitkin, NJ State Archivist beginning 1907) — full 3-volume corpus = AUTHORITATIVE state-published index of ALL ~250,000 NJ wills/inventories/administrations/guardianships filed 1666-1900 in the Sec'y of State's office, organized alphabetically under each county. Companion series to [I.54](I.54.yaml) Documents Relating to the Colonial History of NJ (Series I Vols 1-42, 1631-1817 coverage) — Aitkin 1912 picks up post-1817 through 1900 + indexes ALL counties (vs I.54 selective coverage). v191.20 2026-05-10 corpus introduction surfaced William Cooper 1811-1880 docket 5781N (Inv. 1880, intestate) primary-source-INDEX-confirmation for [G.102](../G-Cemetery/G.102.yaml) probate (catalogued at [A.33](../A-Probate/A.33.yaml)) + Peter Cooper 1761-1847 WILL EXISTS at docket 3127N = NEW catalog discovery; never previously catalogued. Plus 50+ other Morris-Co. Cooper persons + cross-reference confirmation of [A.9](../A-Probate/A.9.yaml) Daniel Sr 1795 (873N B.36 p.67) + [A.10](../A-Probate/A.10.yaml) Daniel Jr 1787 (672N B.29 p.472) + [A.29](../A-Probate/A.29.yaml) John of Morristown 1778 (456N B.20 p.227). Vol 3 (Morris-Warren + Prerogative + Addenda) is the v191.20 priority volume; Vol 1 (Atlantic-Essex) + Vol 2 (Gloucester-Monmouth) cover remaining NJ counties for future Cooper rule-out and identification work. All 3 volumes online full-text-OCR-readable at archive.org (free). Also reprinted as 'New Jersey Index of Wills and Inventories, 1663-1900' (Heritage Books / Genealogical.com).

Transcription and notes

Source identification

Element Value
Title Index of wills, inventories, etc. in the Office of the Secretary of State prior to 1901
Compiler Charles J. Aitkin (NJ State Archivist beginning 1907)
Publisher New Jersey Department of State, Trenton, NJ
Publication date 1912-1913
Coverage All NJ wills/inventories/administrations/guardianships filed 1666-1900 in the Office of the Secretary of State, indexed alphabetically under each county; ~250,000 entries total
Volumes 3
Reprint editions "New Jersey Index of Wills and Inventories, 1663-1900" (Heritage Books / Genealogical.com / Ancestry database)
Local files (post-2026-05-10 download — TBD by maintainer) (image held in the family archive) + (image held in the family archive) + (image held in the family archive) (~150 MB total estimated)
archive.org sources (online + free)
- Vol 1 (Atlantic-Essex) https://archive.org/details/indexofwillsinve01newj
- Vol 2 (Gloucester-Monmouth) https://archive.org/details/indexofwillsin1279newj
- Vol 3 (Morris-Warren + Prerogative + Addenda) https://archive.org/details/indexofwillsinve03newj
Capture date 2026-05-10 (v191.20 corpus introduction; Vol 3 used to resolve G.102 probate question)
Hit count (Vol 3 Morris-Co. Cooper section only) 54 Cooper entries verbatim catalogued at A.33
OCR readability All 3 volumes 100% full-text-OCR-readable on archive.org; OCR has systematic character substitutions (t↔5, i↔1, X↔N) requiring sequential-docket-number reasoning to disambiguate

Why this entry exists

The 1912 Aitkin Index is the AUTHORITATIVE state-published index for all NJ probate records 1666-1900 held in the Sec'y of State's office. It is the companion / successor to the I.54 NJ Colonial Documents Series I corpus:

Series Coverage Source institution Format
I.54 NJ Colonial Documents Series I, Vols 1-42 1631-1817 (will calendars + governor council journals + newspaper extracts + marriage records) NJ State Archives published series Multi-volume narrative + abstracts
I.64 NJ Index of Wills (Aitkin 1912) 1666-1900 (probate INDEX only — docket numbers + dates + types; no abstracts) NJ State Sec'y of State office 3-volume index, alphabetical by county

Critical complementarity: I.54 provides will abstracts for a subset of pre-1817 probate records. I.64 provides the complete docket-number INDEX for all NJ counties through 1900, including the post-1817 period that I.54 doesn't reach. Together they enable end-to-end primary-source location for any NJ Cooper probate record 1666-1900.

The v191.20 trigger was the A.32 Ancestry-search NULL for William Cooper d. 1880 Morris NJ. The Ancestry NJ Wills & Probate Records 1739-1991 collection has Morris Co. coverage gaps; pivoting to I.64 Vol 3 (the authoritative state index) immediately revealed the William 1811-1880 docket at 5781N + the never-previously-located Peter Cooper 1761-1847 will at docket 3127N.

Verbatim — Vol 3 Morris County Cooper section (54 entries)

The full 54-entry verbatim catalog is at A.33. Headline finding:

Entry #52: "Cooper, William, [5]78[1]N. Inv. 1880."

(OCR rendered "t78iN" — 't' misread for digit-5, 'i' for digit-1; sequential to entry #53 William H Cooper 5780N W. 1880 = same 1880 batch.)

This is a HIGH-PROBABILITY MATCH for G.102 William Cooper 1811-1880 of Long Hill, son of Peter & Susan Cooper per C.22. Match tests:

Test Entry #52 G.102 William Match
Surname Cooper Cooper
Given name William William
Middle initial (none) (none)
County Morris Long Hill = Morris
Year 1880 d. 2 Jul 1880
Document type Inventory only (no Will) (consistent with intestate)

Cross-reference table — Vol 3 entries that map to existing catalog

Vol 3 Morris Co. entry # Person Docket Maps to
#7 Daniel Cooper W. 1795 873N B.36 p.67 A.9 Daniel Sr
#8 Daniel Cooper Jr Int. 1787 672N B.29 p.472 A.10 Daniel Jr
#23 John Cooper W. 1778 456N B.20 p.227 A.29 John of Morristown
#41 Peter Cooper W.+Inv. 1847 3127N G.91 Peter 1761-1847 — NEW catalog discovery
#52 William Cooper Inv. 1880 ~5781N G.102 William 1811-1880 — v191.20 highest-priority match
#54 William S Cooper W. 1862 4790N D.233 Wm S Cooper hotel-keeper

50+ additional Cooper-Morris persons in Vol 3 not yet mapped to catalog — see A.33 for the full verbatim transcription.

Catalog implications — summary

CATALOG-CHANGING FINDS from Vol 3 Morris-Co. Cooper section (v191.20 2026-05-10):

  1. William Cooper 1811-1880's probate LOCATED: Morris Co. Surrogate's Court docket 5781N, intestate (Inv. only, no Will). Resolves G.102 probate-question + A.32 Ancestry-search NULL = the null was Ancestry-coverage-gap, not probate-absence. v191.19 highest-priority Y-DNA-carrier-son question pathway is now resolvable: pull docket 5781N administration papers + bond → name administrator → primary-source pointer to William's heir-network.
  2. ** Peter Cooper 1761-1847's WILL EXISTS: Morris Co. Surrogate's Court docket 3127N**, Will + Inventory 1847. NEW catalog discovery; never previously catalogued from primary source. Pull priority: medium-high. Will would name his sons-as-heirs (= independent corroboration of C.22 + identification of all children's specific bequests + may explain William 1811's intestacy via property-transfer-during-life pattern).
  3. Primary-source-INDEX cross-references for A.9, A.10, A.29: Daniel Sr's 1795 will at docket 873N B.36 p.67; Daniel Jr's 1787 estate at docket 672N B.29 p.472; John of Morristown's 1778 will at docket 456N B.20 p.227 — all confirmed at NJ-State-Sec'y-of-State-Index level.
  4. 50+ NEW Morris-Co. Cooper persons to catalog in future passes (notable adjacency: Abby Cooper 1880 docket 5779N = 2 dockets before our William's 5781N = same year + same Surrogate session = possible kin).
  5. Methodological: state-published indexes can outperform commercial-database indexes (Ancestry NJ Wills & Probate) when the latter has coverage gaps. Always check the authoritative state index before concluding "no probate exists".

Future-work scope — Vol 1 + Vol 2 + Vol 3 (Warren section)

v191.20 has only opened Vol 3 Morris Co. The remainder of the corpus is awaiting future-passes:

Vol 1 (Atlantic-Essex) — high-priority Cooper context

Vol 2 (Gloucester-Monmouth)

Vol 3 (Morris-Warren + Prerogative + Addenda)

Future-pass priority-ordered list (5 county-section read-throughs) — STATUS

Ranked highest-to-lowest priority. Not tiers — each item is a single read-through task. 4 of 5 completed v191.21 2026-05-10:

  1. DONE A.37 v191.21 2026-05-10: Vol 3 Warren Co. Cooper section — 5 entries; NULL FINDING for Aaron Cooper Sr = pivots project pr.33 Aaron Sr Warren Co probate.md from Sec'y of State to Warren Co. Surrogate's Court
  2. DONE A.34 v191.21 2026-05-10: Vol 2 Hunterdon Co. Cooper section — 8 entries; Capt Benjamin 1704J = canonical Sec'y-of-State INDEX entry for A.6/A.7; William Cooper 488J 1854 = G.55 candidate match
  3. DONE A.36 v191.21 2026-05-10: Vol 3 Somerset Co. Cooper section — 19 entries; NULL for Polly Annin + Charity Haas + Caty Dayton (probated under married names; companion search Annin/Dayton/Haas indexes needed)
  4. DONE A.38 v191.22 2026-05-10: Vol 1 Essex Co. Cooper section — 21 entries; PRIMARY-SOURCE-INDEX confirmation of A.24 Col John Cooper Newark 1732 (851-852G B.C p.154) + candidate-brother Samuel (883-888G B.C p.173); NULL for Daniel Cooper / Grace Manning Cooper Essex despite 1768 marriage
  5. DONE A.35 v191.21 2026-05-10: Vol 2 Middlesex Co. Cooper section — 7 entries; NULL FINDING for Daniel/Grace Cooper Piscataway-pre-1729 = 10th source in 9-tradition consilience-NEGATIVE chain

Caveats and follow-up

Companion / parallel corpus

v191.20 catalog products

v191.20 primary subjects

Catalog cross-references confirmed at NJ-Sec'y-of-State-Index level

Companion source registry

Memories