My article originally appeared in Connections, the magazine of the Quebec Family History Society.
As we piece together our family trees, we tend to consult the most familiar sources-- family members, bibles, church records, census returns and newspapers--resources common to all Canadians.
But here in Quebec we have an additional and very unique source which is often overlooked, our notarial records.
These records exist because Quebec, being a colony of France, ran under the principles of French law and all civil or non-criminal matters were handled by notaries. They drafted many commercial transactions such as land sales/purchases, mortgages, leases, powers of attorney and loans.
Notaries also were responsible for papers of great interest to genealogists such marriage contracts, wills, discharges of bequests and applications for tutorships for insane individuals or minor aged children, among others.
One would expect that after the British took over Quebec from the French that they would impose the British legal system on their new colony. However, with dissent brewing in their American colonies to the south, the British decided to try to keep peace in their northern colony and so the Quebec Act of 1774 was born.
Under the Act, the old French civil law (and the important role of notaries) was restored, with the exception of land grants which were to be made under English freehold tenure instead of the old French seigniorial system. English criminal law, milder than the French laws, was instituted and freedom to practise the Roman Catholic faith re-emphasized.
I should warn you that mining notarial records for the nuggets of information they hold takes time and patience because parts of them are written in legalese, a language unto itself. Still, it is well worth the effort and can provide many insights into the lives of our ancestors.
It would seem to make sense to focus on documents such as wills or marriage contracts, but even land transactions should be scanned because they sometimes note a familial link between the seller and purchaser. Married women were almost always referred to under their maiden names, making notarial records often the only source for this all too rare information.
Some notaries even made a practice to refering to previous husbands if a widow was remarried, sometimes proving a link which is very difficult to establish through church records. Thus, you might see an land sale refering to a woman as Mary Smith, wife of John Baker and widow of Thomas Best.
It is important to read the little scraps of paper salted in among the legal documents. For instance, among the notarial papers of Samuel Gale which cover the years between 1802 and 1819 is a land sale by a Silas Gardner. Under it is a tiny note written to the notary saying that Mr. Gardner has disappeared and left a wife and eight children with no means of support.
Surprisingly, notarial records also give us a glimpse into the day-to-day lives of people. Did you know that some early settlers were so poor they could only afford to lease a milk cow, not own one? Or that men often gave dowries to their wives under early marriage contracts, and that if the marriage did not go through they were obligated to pay out the money, often a substantial sum? It's all there to be read.
Today we take pensions for granted, but for the elderly who lived before our modern social safety net was cast the deed of donation (often to their eldest son) created the security our governments now provide.
Under these deeds, the parents would give everything they owned to the son in return for the right to a home, clothing, food, heat, medical care, care of any minor aged children still at home, and at their death a decent burial. The deeds usually also stipulated cash bequests to be paid siblings after both parents were dead.
The deed could be revoked (and in a surprising number of cases was revoked) if the stipulations--often detailed down to changes of clothes, bushels of corn and cords of wood-- were not met.
Thus, not only do you get detailed genealogical information in these donation deeds, listing parents, children, you also get a sense of the standard of living the family enjoyed.
Quebec was a very patriarchal society and this is reflected in the civil code and notarial papers. Between 1866 and 1931 a married woman was legally inferior to her husband, sharing the same status as a minor child and people deprived of their civil rights because of mental disability.
I won't go into the very strict limitations put on women in a short overview such as this, but if you'd like to find out more I recommend you read a chapter entitled "The Status of Women" in Quebec, A History 1867-1929 by Paul-André‚ Linteau, René Durocher and Jean- Claude Robert (translated by Robert Chodos).
So, where do you go to get your hands on notarial records? Most pre-1900 notarial records are available to researchers on microfilm at the regional branches of Les Archives Nationales du Quebec, grouped under the old system of judicial districts just as church records are.
However, you should keep in mind that just because your ancestors lived in the District of Bedford, that doesn't necessarily mean they always patronized a notary who practiced in the District of Bedford. It's best to start with the notaries who served the area in which your ancestors settled, but you may have to check out notaries in surrounding districts as well.
For example, I have seen transactions involving individuals in Vaudreuil, Chambly, Wickham Twp., and Compton (to name a few places that come to mind) handled by notaries in the District of Bedford.
As reported in an earlier article in Connections, notarial records are being indexed, which will take away some of the "needle in a haystack" feeling we get as we begin to try to track our elusive ancestors' legal footsteps. The project has begun with the very earliest records and is moving forward chronologically so it may be some time before the years that interest you are available through the Parchemin project.
In the meantime, why not take a look through these records yourself?
© Marlene Simmons. Last updated Jan. 1, 1997.
Email: simmons@endirect.qc.ca