Loved and Lost is a statewide media collaborative with a goal of identifying and celebrating the life of every resident in New Jersey who has died due to COVID-19.

The project originally began in March 2020 led by The Record/NorthJersey.com, and in June was re-launched as a statewide collaborative coordinated by the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University.

We invite members of the public to submit the names of loved ones who they’ve lost to the disease using our open submission form or by emailing us at [email protected]. Media partners and members of the Center’s staff are also collecting names of people who are publicly identified as having died from COVID-19.

A person’s name is recorded on the wall of names on the Loved and Lost site after one of the following criteria are met:

• A working link to a publicly-available death notice or obituary published by a funeral home is verified with the person’s name and personal details.
• A working link to a publicly-available paid death notice or obituary published by a news organization (often through sites such as Legacy.com) is verified with the person’s name and personal details, or a paper copy of the paid obituary is obtained and verified with the person’s name and personal details.
• Center staff has spoken via phone or email with the next-of-kin to the deceased and verified the person’s name and personal details.
• The person was publicly identified in some other way by a reputable source as having died of COVID-19, and a working link to a written notice or audio or video recording is available to verify. This includes the people that New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy names during his daily press conferences, for example.

Please note that Loved and Lost is open to including the names of all people suspected in New Jersey of having died of COVID-19, as not every person who passed — especially early in the pandemic — was tested. If you or your loved one’s doctors suspect their death was related to COVID-19, we welcome you to submit their name to our wall of names.

Members of the Center for Cooperative Media’s staff working on name verification include Denise Shannon, Ashley Steimle, Malika Jenkins and Betsy Abraham; Stefanie Murray and Joe Amditis are working on coordination with media partners and keeping the website updated; Betsy Abraham and Nicole Wigfall are working on community outreach. On behalf of The Record/NorthJersey.com, Jim O’Neill is assisting with name verification and is leading profile assignment and editing; Deirdre Sykes is also editing.

If you have any questions, please let us know at [email protected].