Contrats de mariage du Régime Français 1635-1765

Typical marriage contract during the French Regime in Nouvelle France from 1635 to 1765
Please note, the text below has been reproduced precisely in the French language as it was written from 1635 to about 1765.

Pardevant le greffier et notaire de lisle de Montreal et temoins soubzsignez furent presant en leurs personnes sieur Anthoine Athanville marchand bourgeois demeurant de presant au Montreal fils de deffunt sieur Nicollas Athanville marchand bourgeois de Paris et de Marie Leducq ses peres et meres demeurans en la rue de la pelleterie proche le pallais a Paris paroisse de Saint Jacques la Boucherie d’une par et Jeanne Gadois fille de Pierre Gadois maître armurier et bourgeois de ce lieu et de Jeanne Begnard sa femme…
Référence: le 2 janvier 1683, Claude Maugue, notaire, Montréal

Translation of a same marriage contract during the French Regime in Nouvelle France

In the presence of the court clerk and notary of the Island of Montréal and witnesses listed below being present at said reading, Sieur Anthoine Athanville merchant and member of the middle class of Montréal, son of the late Sieur Nicollas Athanville, merchant and member of the middle class of Paris and of Marie Leducq his father and mother whom resided on de la Pelleterie street, near the Palace in Paris within the parish of Saint Jacques la Boucherie in the first part and Jeanne Gadois, daughter of Pierre Gadois, master gunsmith and member of the middle class of this city of Montréal and of Jeanne Begnard, his wife…
Reference: January 2 1683, Claude Maugue, notary, Montréal

At the QFHS Library, one will find 6 volumes of indexes of marriage contracts written by notaries during the French Regime of Nouvelle France from 1635 to 1765.

A total of about 27,000 marriage contracts are listed in about 1,800 pages.

QFHS books #GN-150.3 R6 – Vol 1 to 6
Inventaire des Contrats de mariage du Régime Français – Archives judiciaires du Québec

A typical index will read as follow:
> Gagné (Gasnier), Pierre, et Louise Faure (Auber, 28 octobre 1668)
The latter refers to Claude Auber, notary who served in Québec City from 1650 to 1693

Furthermore in order to determine precisely which Archives nationales du Québec (nine in total across the province plus one research centre), one must determine in which ”district judiciaire” (judicial district) a notary served. For notarial acts prior to 1900 in the majority of cases are stored within the nine Archives nationales du Québec, depending of the location a notary served during the years of his or her practice.

In order to determine precisely where a notary practiced, refer to the following index kept at the QFHS Library.

QFHS book #GS-150.3 L3
Parchemin s’explique – Guide de dépouillement des actes notariés du Québec ancien
284 pages

In order to facilitate the access to the above books, they have been moved to the Estelle Brisson cabinet.

A future posting will deal with the availability online of notarial acts at www.banq.qc.ca

Posted by Jacques Gagné for Genealogy Ensemble