Notary and Court Records
While Parish Records are the starting point for researching an individual and his or her family members, Notary Records, and to a lesser extent, Court Records, are the most comprehensive records available for most individuals living in New France, especially for those individuals involved in the Fur Trade. New France was divided into three government areas: Québec, Trois-Rivières, and Montréal. The information below describing the Civil Practice of Law in New France was taken from Marcel Trudel, Introduction to New France (Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Quintin Publications, 1997 – First American Edition, pp. 215-218.
Civil Practice of Law in New France
The Coutume de Paris:
The Coutume de Paris refers to the customary laws practiced in Paris, France. The laws were written in 1510 and revised n 1580. In 1627, the Compagnie de Cent Associés chose to follow the Coutume de Paris in New France. However, other law systems were introduced into New France during the 17th Century. In 1664, Louis XIV established that the Coutume de Paris would be used exclusively as the Laws of New France; these laws governed every action taken by a French Canadian from birth to death during the French Régime.
Individuals who provided legal services to New France’s Residents during the French Régime
Legal Practitioners:
Louis XIV prohibited attorneys from practicing in New France in 1678 in order to avoid prolonged trials. Although Plaintiffs and Defendants could represent themselves in a law suit or trial, some individuals could not appear in a court proceeding in person; others felt that they did not have the expertise necessary to prepare the court papers or pleadings that Judges used to make a decision in a law suit. These individuals hired or authorized a legal practitioner to represent them in a law suit. Theoretically, Legal Practitioners were familiar with the practices in the court systems; they drafted legal documents and acted as attorneys.
Notaries:
Notaries drafted the legal documents used in a civil practice of law. These specific documents are described below. Notaries also practiced as legal practitioners. Two types of notaries practiced in New France: royal notaries and seigneurial notaries.
Royal Notaries: The Intendant appointed royal notaries and authorized him to practice over a specific geographic area. The royal notary had jurisdiction over the entire government area (Québec, Trois-Rivières, or Montréal) or in a smaller area.
Seigneurial Notary: The seigneur appointed the notary who practiced within the seigneury. His jurisdiction was limited to the seigneury. Typically, he only charged half the fee charged by a royal notary for a similar document or contract.
Legal Fees, Legal Knowledge, and other Professions Practiced: Notaries were scarce and poorly paid, therefore, legal knowledge was not considered absolutely necessary. Considering the pay, some notaries practiced another profession. Some notaries were shoe makers, cabinet makers, innkeepers, surveyors, bailiffs, or doctors.
Parish Priests and Missionaries: In the absence of a notary, parish priests and missionaries were authorized to draft marriage contracts and wills.
Commandants or Their Representatives: Although not discussed by Trudel in Introduction to New France, Commandants or their Representatives also drafted legal documents. Examples of these documents drafted from 1706-1710 in Detroit are contained in Le Détroit du Lac Érié – 1701-1710, Volume 1, by Gail Moreau-DesHarnais and Diane Wolford Sheppard, and Volume 2, by Suzanne Boivin Sommerville – see https://fchsmi.ens-10.com/cpage.php?pt=43
Notaries Practicing in the three Government Areas of New France during the French Regime
Thanks to a massive digitization effort by Bibliothèque et Archives nationales Québec (BAnQ) and Family Search, images of the summaries or indexes to the contracts as well as the actual contracts drafted by New France’s Notaries are now available for viewing and downloading on your computer. Click on the links below to access the lists of notaries practicing in Montréal, Québec, and Trois-Rivières.
Starting in 1942, Pierre Georges Roy and Antoine Roy began publishing the Inventaire de Greffes Des Notaires du Regime Francais. Each of the 27 volumes in the series contains a chronological list of the contracts drafted by the notaries. You can access these volumes from the following link at BAnQ.
See: https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2431906. Click on the "Files" link from the menu on the right and you will be taken to the list of the volumes. Once you have clicked on the link for a volume, you will be taken to the digitized volume which can be downloaded to your computer. An index to the first eight volumes is contained in a seperate volume; the remaining volumes have their own indices for each notary.
Example of a Notary Contract: On 1 October 1672 – Louis Jolliet signed a contract with the two partners and four men who would go on a trading expedition to Michilimackinac that would finance Jolliet and Jacques Marquette’s expedition down the Mississippi. His partners were his brother, Zacharie Jolliet, and François de Chavigny, sieur de LaChevrotière; the other men were Jean Plattier, Pierre Moreau dit La Toupine, Jacques Largillier, and Jean Thibierge. [Family Search.org, digitized film # 8710878 (Gilles Rageot), Images 324 and 325].
Ancestry (a subscription service that is available for free at many public libraries and Family Search Centers) has filmed the chronological list of documents drafted by notaries in Québec. You can search to see if an individual was a party named in one of these documents from the main search page at Ancestry. The individuals named in the Notary’s list would include individual such as the following: bride and groom (marriage contracts); engageur and engagé (engagements); lender and borrower (obligations), lessor and lessee (leases), etc. Ancestry has also filmed the actual notary records for Notaries practicing in the 19th and 20th centuries, but with the exception noted below, not those for the 17th and 18th centuries. Once you have found the reference to the individual, make a note of the name of the notary, the date of the act, and whether the act is numbered. Then go to one of the lists of notaries named above and access the record you are seeking.
The PDF for the Montréal Notaries, Québec Notaries, and Trois Rivières Notaries at the above links contains links to a typed chronological list of their acts available from BAnQ, a link to the handwritten list at Ancestry, and the actual films digitized by Family Search. If the notary practiced after 1765 you can access their records directly from www.FamilySearch.org. Click on Search, then Catalog, then chose author and type their name in the search box and click on search. You will be taken to a list of notaries. Click on the name of the notary who drafted the document you are seeking. You will then be taken to a chronological list of the films containing that notary’s records. At the far right is a column with symbols. Make a note of the dates covered by each film. Click on the camera symbol and you will be taken to the digitized film. At this point, you will need to guess where you will find the image you are seeking, based on the date of the document and the dates covered on the film. Enter a number in the box for the image number. Enlarge the image to check the date of the act and whether the act is numbered. Continue guessing for the proper image number until you reach the act you need. Once you reach the act that you need, you can download the image for each page and paste it into a document so that you can translate it in its entirety or translate the parts that are most relevant for your needs.
Notary Records Available from BAnQ: Type Notaire in the search box and then enter. Click on sort by titre - the names are sorted by first name. You can also sort the list by year (Année), chosing mons récente for the oldest records or plus récente for the newest records. The search form is available at this link: https://advitam.banq.qc.ca/recherche-avancee
The Parcheman Database: Thw database indexes notary records from 1626 to 1801 in Québec, Acadia, and some western Forts, including Detroit that were filmed by the Drouin Institure. Residents of the Province of Québec who have a BAnQ card can, as of December 2020, access this database through BAnQ. Access to this database is not available to residents of other provinces or to residents of the United States. Click on the Catalogue on BAnQ's search page and type parchemin into the search form. You will then need to enter your BAnQ card number and password at the prompt in order to access the database. See: Recherches | BAnQ
Michigan Land, Probate and Notary Records Available from FamilySearch.org
Click on the links below to access a description of the Michigan Land, Probate, and Notary Records Available from FamilySearch.org.
Detroit River Region Notary Records
Ancestry subscribers can access a transcription and index to the Notary Records from 1737 - 1796 in the Detroit River Region. To access these records, see the Detroit River Region Page on the FCHSM website: Detroit River Region (habitantheritage.org)
Types of Notary Documents – the list is not exhaustive
Business Agreements: many of these contracts or agreements apply to the fur trade, especially those marked with an asterisk. These types of contracts were also used in other business relations. See the Fur Trade Page on the FCHSM website: https://habitantheritage.org/cpage.php?pt=22 You should also download Loraine DiCerbo's presentation: Notarial Records Presentation on the same page. Loraine walks you through the process of accessing fur trade records using the resoures available on the FCHSM website, as well as the Voyageur Database.
- *Engagements or hiring contracts
- *Obligations or business loans
- *Formations of business relationships such as partnerships, companies, corporations, associations
- *Dissolutions of business relationships such as partnerships, companies, corporations, associations
- *Leases of the fur trade at a particular post or fort
- Leases of property and livestock
- Sales and exchanges
- Land grants or concessions
- Real estate purchases and sales
- Building construction
- Mortgages
- Purchase of church benches
Family Agreements:
- Marriage Contracts: see Suzanne Boivin Sommerville’s articles and presentation about Marriage Contracts on the French-Canadian Culture, Heritage, and Traditions Page on the FCHSM website: https://fchsmi.ens-10.com/cpage.php?pt=14
- Gifts and donations
- Wills
- Estate Inventories
- Appointment of Guardians for minor children
Miscellaneous Contracts:
- Affidavits
- Apprenticeships
- Powers of Attorney
- Ratifications of an agreement
Court Records
Fill in the boxes under “Mot(s) ou expression(s)” by using an individual’s name and click on “Recherer” at the bottom of the page. The results of your search will appear in a table in French. Google Chrome will translate the table, but not the details for each record. Click on an individual summary and you will be taken to a summary of the document. In the upper right corner of the summary document, you will see a box which reads “Voir la collection”. Click on that box and a new window opens which contains and image or images of the original documents. These images are in French.
Appellate Courts in New France:
The Conseil souverain and Conseil supéreur functioned as the appellate courts in New France. Seven volumes have been published which contain their decisions. These decisions can be downloaded from the following links:
Pierre Joseph Olivier Chauveau, Jugements et délibérations du Conseil souverain et Conseil supéreur de la Nouvelle-France
Vol. I: 18 September 1663 to 29 October 1675 – Table of Contents, p. 1015
Vol. II: 15 June 1676 to 1 January 1686 – Table of Contents p. 1055
Vol. III: 7 January 1676 to 19 December 1695 – Table of Contents, p. 1095
Vol. IV: 9 January 1696 to 22 December 1704 – Table of Contents, p. 1123
Vol. V: 2 January 1705 to 23 December 1709 – Table of Contents, p. 1065
Vol. VI: 7 January 1710 - to 22 December 1716 – Table of Contents, p. 1225
