Welcome to Old Newark

My name is Glenn Geisheimer and I am the creator and Site Administrator for the Old Newark group of web sites. In the mid 90’s I began to research my ancestors. The majority of them had lived and worked in Newark since they arrived here beginning in 1850. As my research progressed I found that others were researching the same businesses, churches and cemeteries as I was. Not all of these places had their information readily available so I decided to place my research on the web for everyone to access. I hoped in return I would get leads into my own research from visitors to my site.

In May 1998 Old Newark was born as Virtual Newark NJ. The site consisted of information on a few Newark Churches and Cemeteries along with some images of the city. My goal was to place on line information about every church that ever was in Newark through 1930. The information included the name and address of the church along with the reverends names. I found most of this information from Newark City Directories and Church history books. Using this information a researcher could possibly find further information about their ancestors.

As the site grew I added information on where to obtain vital records such as birth, death & marriage certificates along with census records. Around this time I began to receive many requests for images of the city so I began collecting as many images as I was able. A good source for these images were books written on the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s and early 1900 postcards. The emails that I received also requested information on Hospitals, Homes, Orphanages, Schools, Businesses, Industry, Associations, Organizations and various areas of the City. Once I completed the Church information I worked on each of those areas. The last big section to be started was the Streets, Wards, & EDs section. This section is comprised of a page for every street that existed in Newark, along with the ward and ED it was in for selected years. This section, as is every section on the site, is a work in progress. Information is added as I research it or receive it.

As visitors to the site increased I began to receive volunteers to do lookups in various reference material that they owned, such as census records, city directories, yearbooks and church records. With this a Lookup Section was born. This section connected visitors with additional research material.

Up to this point the site had been just for research. The beginning of 2000 brought a major change to the web site. In late 1999 I began to receive a few emails from visitors that contained stories about their life in Newark. By January 2000 I had 5 of these memories. At that point I decided to begin a Memories section. By the end of 2000, 30 memories were posted on the site. At the end of 2001, there were close to 70. At the end of 2002, over 240 memories were submitted to the site. As 2003 came to a close there were over 450 total memories on the web site. Currently there are over 1,100 memories in the Newark Memories section. These memories have brought the web site as well as Newark in the 1900s to life.

Another addition to the site that has given it life was Newark Talk. Newark Talk was used for many purposes. Visitors could just stop in and say hello, some told a little about themselves, some visitors had questions to ask and some wanted to reminisce about Newark. An offshoot of Newark Talk was called Newark Trivia. Various regular visitors asked and answered trivia questions on Newark, which ranged from easy to hard. Unfortunately both these sections were hacked a few years ago and I have had to close them.

A recent addition has been the collection of photos of Newark and its residents called Newark Photos. I have separated them into different sections, from the sites of Newark to the People of Newark. There are some very good Photo Essays there also. The photos range from the present to the 1800s. Some are very unique in appearance. This section brings all the photos on the web site to one place. Currently there are over 20,000 photos of Newark.

The web site averages 30,000 hits daily, accessing an average of 70000 web pages. Visitors vary from children to adults, educators to the military, non-Newark citizens and Newark citizens old and new. Besides visitors from the United States, people frequently visit the web site from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, Singapore, Israel, New Zealand, Australia and other countries.

OldNewark.com is divided into the following sections:

Areas; Associations/Organizations; Bibliography; Biographies; Business & Industry; Cemeteries; Census; Education; Events; Historical Homes, Landmarks, Plaques & Statues; Historic Newark Newspaper Contents; History & Historical Odds ‘n Ends; Hospitals, Homes & Orphanages; Immigrants & their Communities; Links; Lookup Volunteers; Maps; Military; Parks; Pictures of You; Public Buildings & Meeting Halls; Public Housing Projects; Public Servants; Religion; Resources; Rosters; Sports; Streets, Wards & EDs, Vailsburg; Vital Records; Vital Statistics; Waterway & Bridges; Your Ancestor’s Neighborhood; Your Newark Memories.

OldNewark.com is constantly growing. I add new images and information on a weekly basis. Plans for the future include a section on "Future Newark". This section will include plans for Newark that were never carried out.

If there is something you would like to see or if you have any questions, please e-mail me.

All information should be taken only as a guide and verified by a second source. All years are estimates. Please remember that variant spellings and phonetic spellings apply here as well as in all genealogy work. All wording is Historical (from the period).

This web site is a work in progress. I add sections/information when I find it, which will explain why some parts only have a single entry and others are full of information. I am always happy to receive any information that I can add to the site.