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Welcome to Cape May
County New Jersey Genealogy Research
Cape May circa 1925
My name is Bob
Jenkins and I created this
website to provide genealogy
information and links to genealogy
information to assist people in
researching
their Cape May County New Jersey
ancestors.
I would appreciate any
contribution that you would like to
make to this site:
biographies, obituaries, birth,
marriage, death info, grave info,
photographs....etc
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Use the box below to
search for
Cape May
County Data
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Brief
History:
Cape May County is the
southernmost county in the U.S. state of
New Jersey.
Much of the county is located on the
Cape May Peninsula, bounded by the
Delaware Bay to the west, and the Atlantic
Ocean
to the south and east. Adjacent to
the Atlantic coastline are five barrier
islands that have been built up as seaside
resorts.
Before the county was settled by
Europeans, the indigenous Kechemeche tribe
of the Lenape people inhabited South
Jersey.
Beginning in 1609, European
explorers purchased land from, and
contributed to the decline of, the
indigenous people. The
county was named for Cornelius
Jacobsen Mey, a Dutch captain who explored
and charted the area from 1620 to 1621,
and
established a claim for the province
of New Netherland. In 1685, the court of
Cape May County was split from neighboring
Burlington County, although
the boundaries were not set until
seven years later. In 1690, Cape May
(originally known as
Cape Island) was founded, becoming
America's oldest seaside resort.
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