Look here: Rivers of New Jersey

Passaic? (wikipedia)

Yes, I did those things already but no river starts with P and ends with Y, G or any other letter that hangs below the line.

I liked the Passaic because the double s could work as written but then what to do with they ending letter?

I think it may be 'Passaic' also. The written word looks like it would be pronounced like that. Is that 'Pasaig'? I think the long letter is an 's'.

Spelling is fluid...since “Passaic” presumably derives from a Native American word who’s to say the spelling hasn’t changed slightly over the years?

As an example, a town near where I live was originally named “Duidgee” after an Australian Aboriginal word. Now it’s “Toodyay”- and this in less than 150 years.

I think it is a misspelling of Passaic. It is pronounced " Pah sake" (" sake " as in for-goodness sake) in NJ which might have been written as Pahaig by the transcriber,

I think that letter in the middle is a long 's' See Link: Long S. I've seen a better explanation in the past, but I'm not sure where to find it.

Yes, the double s in the middle. And maybe it should be a q at the end. I tried to use that spelling and google gave me stuff I didn't want. I'm going to go with the spelling I have; it's close to what the name of a NJ river is now according to google. This is my brick wall family. I'm going to work on this guy for a couple of weeks and then...? He's out there. Somewhere. I'm actually looking for Ebenezer but Uzal's papers mention Ebenezer so there I go down that rabbit hole. Looks so much like all the other rabbit holes maybe I've already been there.

I have seen a reference to Pasaig (We used to live near there and mom still is in NJ by the the Passaic river.)...So, same river, different spelling.

I think that it is Passaic River. The double ss is written as in old style where the second s is highly elongated and often confused with f the difference being that the elongated s top and bottom loops are drawn in opposite directions whereas the f has both loops on the right side of a vertical line.

It is possible that the spelling is different from modern spelling, but there is another possibility. The descender on the last character might be an artifact. Underneath that word are extraneous marks.

I looked at some the other parts of this text to see if the writer had a habit of dragging the pen downward at the last character of words, but I did not detect such.

The copy shown in your query is too poor to do a good examination. It may help if you could give us a reference URL to this text and I know this may not be practical depending on your source.

I found only 2 rivers that are near Newark, NJ and those are the Passiac and the Hackensack. The Passiac flows through Newark.

Imhappy....fascinating project.

I think you may have to look at older maps. My reasoning is that some rivers have been turned into canals or if small enough and seasonal may have simply been built over. Think of Manhattan at one time there were probably rivers/streams running all over it. Years ago when I saw the Brandywine River for the first time I was shocked because it was the size of what in this area is called a creek or small stream not a river.

I think that original came from ancestry... or not! I did all sorts of things to it so I could read it. This bunch of papers were really good compared to the next guy. Reading these all the time makes it easier, too.

I should have looked at an old map but I was in a hurry to put the name in there. No excuse. I know better. I do think you are right; that's a q on the end and that's how it was pronounced therefor that's how it was spelled.

My 2018 goal is to sort ALL the Ward stuff I have. Try to define an area to concentrate on rather than New England. The Loyalists left from New York and I couldn't wrap my head around how they got from their homes everywhere to Long Island to get on boats to go north. Try to find a link to Prince Edward Island other than the one link I have through Digby, NS and the Loyalist papers. You would not believe how many Ebenezer Wards there are. Sometimes, but not always, a family name that shows up in every family in every generation producing half a dozen of them born roughly the same time. So far this hasn't turned into multiple spouses with his, hers, theirs children. But maybe that's why I'm stumped; maybe that will be the story. I need more DNA testers. It doesn't seem like my branch of Wards is very interested in genealogy. I know of 2 others my age who work on it, otherwise, zilch in good family trees anywhere on line. Mine is the most fleshed out and I'm against the brick wall.

The Canadian web sites are really improving in every way. I found the images of things I had transcripts for. Always good to see the original. I found new things that weren't on line before or at least I hadn't found them. All the genealogical societies have been very helpful and often send me more than I ask for when they find stuff. And kudos to American states that are hosting their old town records. It's getting easier every year to research from my chair and I'm getting those brick walls knocked down. By rights, I shouldn't expect to solve this for at least 18/24 more months. My average is just over 2 years per brick wall.

Doing this family history stuff this far back has shown me what a shallow person I am. My Mayflower ancestors led a very hard life both before and after getting here. Some of them turned out to be people I'm not proud of. Most of them were not as religious as we think. And the Loyalists. All I knew was what I read in the history book in school. Even the American history class I took in jr. college didn't begin to touch on the real story. It brings to mind the phrase that the person who counts the ballots decides who wins. But would I have the guts to leave everything behind and move to a new country for my beliefs? I dabbled in Canada/Nova Scotia/PEI house hunting last year but when it came down to it, didn't know how I could take my animals with me and even though there is nothing to keep me here, I stay. Partly because Canada doesn't want an old retired woman!

What about Piscataway? I don't know if there is a river close by but it could be. I used to live there years ago

The river that flows in Piscataway is the Raritan.