Civil Law Notaries - Using Notarial Records to Build a Family History

Notarial records are a valuable resource in those areas of the world where civil law notaries recorded all legal transactions. Property deeds [land, personal, or agricultural], mortgages, wills, dowries, late birth registrations, marriage permissions, and many other types of documents can be found within this record set. These records often provide key details about a family, their relationships, and financial transactions which cannot be found within any other type of genealogical resource.

Understanding the procedures behind the preparation of these documents is key to understanding their method of conservation, the formats the documents will be found in, and the contents therein. This lecture will provide examples of several Italian and French documents that were particularly descriptive and which provided key details on the families being researched.

This webinar is hosted and sponsored by the Board for Certification of Genealogists.