Wills

Essex County Surrogates Court (mail or in person)
Hall of Records
465 Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 621-4900

Information from Joan M. Lowry:

        They have all of the paperwork for all Essex County estate matters since the inception of Essex County.  Copies from them are $3.00 per page for plain copies, $5.00 per page for certified copies (and $5.00 for certification.)  They have additional fee schedules if you order the whole file or other services.   You can call for a copy of the fee schedule if you want one.

        The easiest way to get a copy of the Will and the Petition is to write to the Essex County Surrogate's Court and enclose a check "for not more than $25.00" or an amount like that,  requesting those documents for your decedent.  That way, they can do the search for the file, which costs $3 or $5 I think, and make the copies and mail them out to you all at once.

Before 1901

NJ State Archives (mail or in person)
Indexed

1902 to 1949

NJ State Archives (mail or in person)
Indexed

1902 to Present

Superior Court of New Jersey (mail)
Records Management Center 
171 Jersey Street 
CN 967 
Trenton, NJ 08625

Phone 609-777-0092
Fax 609-777-0094

Information from Joan M. Lowry:

        The Superior Ct Record Center has ONLY the wills and the Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.  They do not have other related papers that can prove to be most useful for genealogical research.  They do not have the Petition (or Application or Complaint) for Probate or the Petition for Letters of Administration.  These documents are very important because they list the current names and addresses of the closest next of kin at the time the paperwork is filed, usually within a year of death.  This often includes not only the married names of the daughters, but also their spouses' names.