Canadian Genealogy Centre

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• Criminal Records
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• Notarial Records
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• School Records

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Notarial Records

Notarial records exist only for the province of Quebec. They are private agreements written by a notary that took the form of contracts such as:

• marriage contract;
• inventory;
• lease;
• engagement;
• obligation;
• will; and
• sale.

Marriage contracts provide information on the spouses and their parents. They were usually drawn up a few days before the religious ceremony. The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec holds the notarial records.

How to Search the Records

From 1626 to 1784

The Parchemin database, prepared by Archiv-Histo, provides an abstract of each notarial record giving the:

• date;
• notary's name;
• type;
• content; and
• parties' names.

Parchemin is available on CD-ROM at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and other institutions.

From 1785 to 1799

Inquiries must be sent to:

Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo
2320, rue des Carrières
Montréal, QC
H2G 3G9
Tel.: 514-873-6347
Email: archiv-histo@videotron.net

From 1800 to 1900

Step 1

You must first find the name of the notary who was practising in a specific place by consulting:

• Index des lieux de résidence et de pratique des commis...et des notaires 1621-1991, ainsi que les lieux de dépôt de leurs minutiers avec leurs côtes aux ANQ, by Jean-Marie Laliberté, 1991.
• Tableau de l'ordre, Chambre des notaires du Québec, 1984.

Step 2

Consult the index for each notary for that place to obtain:

• date of the contract;
• title of the contract; and
• names in the contract.

You can access digital images of those indexes through the finding aid Archives des notaires du Québec, des origines à 1906 [http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/notaires/index.html] (disponible en français seulement).

Step 3

Consult the contract on paper or on microfilm. For more information about where and how to consult notarial records, contact the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec or use Pistard, their online catalogue. Please note that digital images of original notarial records are added on a regular basis to the finding aid Archives des notaires du Québec, des origines à 1906 [http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/notaires/index.html].

Research at Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada holds copies of some early notarial records. Search Colonial Archives database under name of the person or the notary.