Quebec Notarial Records
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Online Records
- 1637-1935 - Quebec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637-1935, index and images ($)
- 1647-1942 - Quebec Notarial Records (Drouin Collection), 1647-1942, index and images ($)
- 1800-1920 - Quebec notarial records : COLLECTION RECORD, 1800-1920
Parchemin
- The Parchemin database is a tool that finds notarial records from Québec's past compiled by the Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo. It provides a complete inventory of notarial minutes produced in Canada from 1626 to 1799, totalling 442,402 deeds. The information was entered in the language of the original document. The written form of the names of individuals and locations was respected. Each record informs researchers of the following data regarding a deed: deed type, name of the notary, intervening parties, their trade or profession, marital status, place of origin and place of residence. Presently the period of the documents in the database is 1635 to 1800, but the Society’s own data bank holds millions more, and they will assist you:
- Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo
2320, rue des Carrière
Montréal, Québec H2G 3G9
Telephone: 514-763-6347
BAnQ (Archives of Quebec)
Several databases that can help locate marriage contracts or estate inventories are available online.
- Marriage contracts of the Charlevoix region, 1737-1920
- Marriage contracts of the Saguenay region, 1840-1911
- Marriage contracts of the Québec City region, 1761-1946
- Inventory of transcriptions of notarial deeds
- Estate inventories in the judicial districts of Québec City, the Charlevoix, Beauce, Montmagny and Kamouraska regions, 1785 -1955
- Estate inventories in the Montréal region, 1791-1840
- Estate inventories in the Rimouski judicial district (CN101), 1822-1918]
Notarial Records
There are other legal records that are useful. A notarial record is a private agreement written by a notary in the form of a contract. Some of the most common ones are marriage contracts, wills, estate inventories, leases, and sales contracts. See Quebec Notarial Records, Canada Court Records, and Canada Notarial Records. Most legal records are notarial and are found in the individual notary’s greffe, which, after 80 to 100 years, is usually in the appropriate regional branch of the Archives des notaires du Québec (ANQ).
Earlier notarial records are held by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), but Library and Archives Canada holds copies of some records in the collection, Fonds des greffes de notaires du Québec. You can also use the advanced archives search to look up the name of an individual or a notary. The complete inventory of ANQ holdings is computerized or in microfiches: Finding Aid
Introduction
In Québec, notaires (notaries) have registered contracts since 1626. These include deeds, wills, marriage contracts, and other records that are important in family history research. The persons involved in the contracts received the originals. The notaries kept copies. The copies are called "minutes."
Each document in a notary's minutes gives at least the name of the notary, the date and place the document was prepared, the names and addresses of the persons involved, and the names and addresses of the witnesses. The ages and relationships of the witnesses and the persons involved are sometimes included.
Notarial records are usually listed by the name of the notary and the dates he functioned. They are not normally indexed by the names of the persons involved in the contract.
Notarial records are first sent to the judicial archives, but they are eventually deposited in the branches of the Archives Nationales du Québec.
Types of Notarial Record
There are many types of notarial records. They include property deeds and related documents. In early Québec, wills and marriage contracts were the most common notarial records. After the mid-1800s, marriage contracts were much less common. The most useful notarial records for family history research are:
Contrats de mariage (marriage contracts). These may describe the bride's dowry and the division of property if the marriage is dissolved. They often include names and places of residence of the spouses' parents. This information is important if church records are missing or incomplete.
Testaments (wills)
Inventaires après décès (inventories of the estates of deceased persons). These are similar to English probate records.
Partage (settlement or share-out papers). Partage records list family members who will receive a share of the estate.
Tutelle et curatelle (guardianship papers). These are records about orphans and the conservation of their property.
Donations entre vifs (donation records). Some elderly parents make "early wills." While living, they divide their property among their children. Donations entre vifs are records of these donations. Some donations are to unrelated persons. The conditions to be fulfilled by those receiving the property are listed.
Engagements (indenture records). These are labor contracts. French men contracted to labor in Canada for a specific length of time in exchange for compensation. Notaries in French ports such as La Rochelle drew up the earliest engagements.
A description of the indenture of fifty-one men is:
Perron, Guy. Les engagés levés par François Peron pour le Canada en 1655 [et] 1656 (Indentured Workers Enlisted by François Peron to Go to Canada in 1655 and 1656). L'Ancêtre 18, number 2 (October 1991): 43–50; and number 4 (December 1991): 132–42. (Family History Library book 971.4 D25a v. 18.) Text in French.
Notaries in Québec also prepared engagements for French Canadian men involved in the fur trade. See Quebec Business Records and Commerce for information about fur trade records.
Availability
When a person stops being a notary, they send their minutes to the protonotaire (prothonotary) of the local judicial district.
Notarial records before 1900 have been collected at branches of the Archives nationales du Québec. Many are on film at the Family History Library. Two ways to find the records in the FamilySearch Catalog are:
Look for the notary's name in the Author/Title Search of the microfiche version of the catalog.
Look in the Locality Search under QUEBEC, [COUNTY] - NOTARIAL RECORDS. To find the records, you will need to know which counties were in the notary's judicial district (see below under "Finding Aids").
An important early notary was Léon Lalanne. He was a notary for the entire Eastern Townships area between 1799 and 1815. This included the Bedford Judicial District and the St. Francis Judicial District. The counties in the Bedford district are Brome, Missisquoi, and Shefford. The counties in the St. Francis district are Compton, Richmond, Sherbrooke, Stanstead, and Wolfe.
There are few church records for the Eastern Townships in that time period. Lalanne's records are critical sources of information about early Protestants in the Eastern Townships. His records are in English. Because they were deposited in the Bedford Judicial District, the notarial records of Léon Lalanne are found under:
QUEBEC, BROME - NOTARIAL RECORDS
QUEBEC, MISSISQUOI - NOTARIAL RECORDS
QUEBEC, SHEFFORD - NOTARIAL RECORDS
They are also available under Lalanne, Léon in the Author/Title Search of the catalog on microfiche.
Notarial records after 1900 are only available to the person involved or the person's legal representative, who may request copies from the judicial district office that has the records. Addresses of the judicial district offices are given in Marthe Faribault-Beauregard, La Généalogie: Retrouver ses ancêtres (see Quebec For Further Reading). Current addresses of the district offices are listed in annual editions of the Canadian Almanac and Directory. See Canada Directories.
Finding Aids
A NEW collection of images of the notarial records for Quebec, from 1800 to 1900, is now available at FamilySearch Historical Records "Quebec Notarial Records, 1800-1900." See "Quebec Notarial Records" article for more information.
Notaries and Their Localities. Names of deceased notaries and the localities they served are included in both of the following:
Laliberté, J. M. Index des greffes des notaires décédés, 1645–1948 (Index of Deceased Notaries). Québec, Canada: B. Pontbriand, 1967. (Family History Library book 971.4 N3L; fiche 6046554.) Text in French. Many notaries' records are no longer at the repositories indicated in this book.
Quintin, Robert J. The Notaries of French Canada, 1626–1900: Alphabetical, Chronologically, by Area Served. Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA.: R. J. Quintin, 1994. (Family History Library book 971.4 N3n; film 1750788 item 120.)
The Family History Library does not have any maps showing the judicial districts and the counties they cover.
Indexes to Notarial Records. A few indexes for notarial records are available, especially for notaries for the city of Québec.
Drouin Collection Internet index of French Canadian records 1621-1967. This collection has over 15 million entries for French Canadian genealogical and vital records. It includes Quebec notarial records.
An index to marriage contracts is:
Index des contrats de mariage, 1780–1930 (Marriage Contract Index, 1780–1930). [Sainte-Foy, Qué.]: Archives nationales du Québec, 1986. (On 90 Family History Library fiche 6334283.) Text in French.
Indexes or inventories of some notaries' records are in:
Instruments de recherche des registres notariaux (Finding Aids for Notarial Records). [Sainte-Foy, Qué.]: Archives nationales du Québec, [1981–1984]. (On 2,548 Family History Library fiche beginning with fiche 6333604.) Most of the inventories are in French.
Abstracts and partial indexes of some notarial records before 1760 are in:
Archives nationales du Québec. Inventaire des greffes des notaires du Régime Français. (Inventory of Notarial Records of the French Régime.) 27 Volumes. Québec, Canada: Éditeur officiel du Québec, 1943–1976. (Family History Library book 971.4 N3q.) Text in French. Includes the records of 81 notaries in the province before 1760.
Compact Disc Index. Complete indexes to all notarial records before 1765 are available on compact disc (CD-ROM). The indexes are at a few archives and libraries in the province of Québec and at the Archives nationales du Québec in Montréal.
- PARCHEMIN created the indexes as part of a project called Nouvel accès aux archives notariales du Québec ancien 1635–1885 (New Access to Notarial Archives for Old Québec 1635–1885). The project plans to index every notarial record to 1885. It is based at the national archives branch in Montréal. (For the address, see Centre d'archives de Montréal in Quebec Archives and Libraries.) Information about the project is in:
- Lafortune, Hélène. Parchemin s'explique: guide du dépouillement des actes notariés du Québec ancien. (PARCHEMIN Explained: Guide to the Extraction Project for the Notarial Records of Old Québec.) Montréal, Québec, Canada: Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo, 1989. (Family History Library book 971.4 N32L.) Text in French.
Other aids. Legal terms used in notarial records are defined on pages 81–96 of Parchemin s'explique (see above).
A discussion of handwriting and abbreviations is:
- Lafortune, Marcel. Initiation à la paléographie franco-canadienne: les écritures des notaires aux XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles (Introduction to French-Canadian Paleography: The Handwriting of the Notaries in the 17th and 18th Centuries). Three Volumes. Montréal, Québec, Canada: Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo, 1982–88. (Family History Library book 971.4 G3L.) Text in French.
See Canada Notarial Records for further information.
Archives nationales du Québec (ANQ) Local Addresses
Throughout Québec there are regional Provincial Archives centers known as Les centres d’Archives nationales du Québec:
- Abitibi-Témiscamingue et Nord-du-Québec
27, rue du Terminus Ouest
Rouyn-Noranda, Québec J9X 293
Telephone: 819-763-3484
Email: archives.rouyn@banq.qc.ca
- Bas-Saint-Laurent et Gaspésie,Iles-de-la-Madeleine
337, rue Moreault
Rimouski, Québec G5L 1P4
Telephone: 418-727-3500
Email: archives.rimouski@banq.qc.ca
- Côte-Nord
700, boulevard Laure, Bureau 190
Sept-Iles, Québec G4R 1Y1
Telephone: 418-964-8434
Email: archives.sept-iles@banq.qc.ca
- Estrie
225, rue Frontenac, bureau 410
Sherbrooke, Québec J1H 1K1
Telephone: 819-820-3010
Email: archives.sherbrooke@banq.qc.ca
- Gaspé
80, boulevard de Gaspé
Gaspé, Québec G4X 1A9
Telephone: 418-727-3500 ext. 6573
Email: archives.gaspe@banq.qc.ca
- Mauricie et Centre-du-Québec
225, rue des Forges, bureau 208
Trois-Rivières, Québec G9A 2G7
Telephone: 819-371-6015
Email: archives.trois-rivieres@banq.qc.ca
- Montréal
535 avenue Viger est
Montréal, Québec H2L 2P3
Telephone: 514-873-1100 option 4
Email: archives.montreal@banq.qc.ca
- Outaouais
855, boulevard de la Gappe
Gatineau, Québec J8T 8H9
Telephone: 819-568-8798
Email: archives.gatineau@banq.qc.ca
- Québec
Campus de l’Université Laval
Pavillon Louis-Jacques-Casault
1055, avenue du Séminaire
Case postale 10450, succursale Sainte-Foy
Québec, Québec G1V 4N1
Telephone: 418-643-8904
Email: archives.quebec@banq.qc.ca
- Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean
930, rue Jacques-Cartier est, bureau C-103
Chicoutimi, Québec G7H 2A9
Telephone: 418-698-3516
Email: archives.saguenay@banq.qc.ca