Quebec Land and Property

Canada   Quebec   Land and Property

What’s Available on the Internet
FamilySearch Québec Notarial Records - 558738 images from the judicial districts of Montreal, Québec and Terrebonne from 1800-1900 are available to browse. At the time of printing there was no searchable-by-name database.

Ancestry.ca Québec Notarial Records (Drouin Collection) 1647-1942 - These are available on this subscription site. Most of the records are in French although there are some in English.

Library and Archives Canada- Lower Canada Land Petitions Library and Archives Canada have an index database for Upper Canada Land Petitions searchable by name and place. The results provide the necessary information to access the petition by microfilm.

Websites of Interest

 * Québec Family History Society
 * Société généalogique canadienne-francaise
 * Société de recherché historique Archiv-Histo
 * Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec

History
Québec is the oldest and largest Canadian province with the first permanent settlement established by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. The first colonist family arrived in 1617. For the next 46 years, there were conflicts between fur traders and colonists and between New France and the British colonies to the south.

Québec became a British colony by the Proclamation of 1763 and extended west to include land that is now known as Ontario. British merchants arrived after the Conquest and demanded British law. In 1774 the Québec Act adopted both British criminal law and French civil law.

The Constitutional Act of 1791 (dividing Québec into Upper and Lower Canada) was passed in order to meet the demands of the Loyalists. The land east of the Ottawa River became the Province of Lower Canada. The rebellions of 1837 resulted in the Act of Union in 1841 changing Upper and Lower Canada to Canada West and Canada East (Québec). Confederation in 1867 saw Canada East become the Province of Québec in the Dominion of Canada.

This capsule of history provides an outline of the changing boundaries and policies that were all part of the growth of Québec. As each different nationality vied for power and control, the laws of the land were adjusted accordingly. This will aid you in determining what records were created and why. This should enable you to plan your strategy and to be able to understand when and how people arrived and settled in Québec.

Seigneurial Records
From the beginning, large grants of land were issued by the Crown to seigneurs (lords) who held them in feudal servitude to the king. The lords hired indentured land workers and habitants (the French farming class) to work the land. The lords did not own the land, but in time they could buy and sell the land by the "right of occupancy," much as we do today. Although this system was French, the English retained it after they acquired New France in 1763. The system was finally abolished in 1854.

The French Canadians generally used a river-lot system to divide the land on the seigneuries. The land was divided into narrow strips of irregular size, but each strip bordered on the river.

If your ancestor lived in a seigneury (the land of a seigneur), look for records of family members in the parish registers of churches in or near that seigneury. See Quebec Church Records.

The French king's grants to original seigneurs are in:


 * Québec (Province).Législature. Assemblée legislative. Land Grants of Seigneuries 1674–1760 Quebec: Appendice du Onzième Volume des Journaux de L'assemblée Legislative de la Province du Canada, Appendice (H.H.H.H.). Québec, Canada: Secretary's Office, 1853. (Family History Library .) Text in English.

A map with the names of the original seigneurs, their successors in 1791, and the boundaries of the original seigneuries is in:


 * Matthews, Geoffrey J. Historical Atlas of Canada, Volume 1, From the Beginning to 1800, Editor R. Cole Harris. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1987. (Family History Library .) The map is plate 51.

Detailed maps and land descriptions of the seigneuries along the Saint Lawrence River are in:


 * Trudel, Marcel. Le Terrier du Saint-Laurent en 1663 (Lands Occupied in the St. Lawrence Valley in 1663). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa, 1973. (Family History Library .) Text in French.

Seigneurial records include:


 * Land grants
 * Fealty and homage records
 * Aveux (oaths of allegiance)
 * Dénombrements (censuses)

Land Grants generally give the name of the colonist, the maiden name of his wife or widow, the name of the seigneury and its boundaries, the names of immediate neighbors, and the obligations the colonist accepted or the price paid.

Fealty and homage records are registers of the pledges a seigneur made to the king when he received land. These records may show how an individual was entitled to receive the land, either by a grant or by inheritance, and may provide names of relatives of the seigneur.

Some land grant and fealty and homage records are summarized in:

Roy, Pierre Georges. Inventaire des concessions en fief et seigneurie, foi et hommages et dénombrements conservés aux Archives de la province de Québec (Inventory of Seigneurial Records at the Archives of the Province of Québec). Six Volumes. Beauceville, Québec, Canada: L'Éclaireur, 1927–1929. (Family History Library ; on 24 .) Text in French. Includes index.

Aveux and dénombrements for the Saint Lawrence River Valley are transcribed in:

Mathieu, Jacques, and Alain Laberge. L'Occupation des terres dans la vallée du Saint-Laurent: aveux et dénombrements, 1723–1745 (Occupation of the St. Lawrence River Valley: Oaths of Allegiance and Censuses, 1723–1745). Sillery, Québec, Canada: Éditions du Septentrion, 1991. (Family History Library .) Text in French. Describes each seigneury, lists its farms, and gives the names of the habitants. Has information on approximately 7,400 farms (more than 98 percent of the seigneury farms in Québec during the French régime). Includes indexes of the names of the seigneurs and habitants.

Notarial Records
In Québec, deeds and other documents about land transfers are in the notarial records. Notaries (notaires) have registered all types of contracts since 1626. These deeds, wills, marriage contracts and other records were recorded and the originals given to the parties involved with the notary keeping a copy known as “minutes.”

The information included in the 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.

These records are not normally indexed by the names of the persons involved in the contract; instead they are collected by the name of the notary. These notarial records are sent to the protonotaire of the local judicial district when the notary involved no longer is employed as a notary. Notarial records before 1900 have been deposited in the branches of the Archives Nationales du Québec (see contact information at end of this module).

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.

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 offices are given in Marthe Faribault-Beauregard’s La Généalogie: Retrouver ses ancêtres. Current addresses of the district offices are listed in annual editions of the Canadian Almanac and Directory.

Finding Aids
If there is a reference to any materials at the Family History Library, or their filming arm, the Genealogy Society of Utah, it has been given in brackets after the reference as Family History Library with the book, film or computer reference number shown.

Names of deceased notaries and the localities they served are included in both of the following:


 * Laliberté, J.M., Index des Grèffes des Notaires Décédés, 1645-1948 (Index of deceased Notaries). Québec: B. Pontbriand, 1967. Note: Many notaries’ records are no longer at the repositories indicated in this book.


 * Quinton, Robert J., The Notaries of French Canada, 1626-1900: Alphabetical Chronologically, by Area Served. Pawtucket, Rhode Island: R.J. Quintin, 1994.

Indexes
Since 1997 the Chambres des notaires has collaborated with the Archiv-Histo Society to produce the Parchemin Project (Banque Parchemin), an index to the files (greffes) of deceased Quebec notaries. The database is searchable online (in French) or by a set of CD-ROMs held by major research repositories. You can search the database by key word (mot-clé) such as your ancestor’s surname, or by the name of a local notary. There is also a map-related feature for determining the name of a notary who worked in your ancestor’s locale. The database includes other types of papers prepared by notaries, besides land-related documents. 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

Crown Land Records
After 1763, areas in the Eastern Townships and counties on the Ottawa River were surveyed for settlement by the British and by Loyalist Americans. This included counties such as Argenteuil and Gatineau. The areas were divided into townships (cantons).

In contrast to the French river-lot system, the English usually divided the land into sections called ranges or "concessions." The concessions were then divided into regularly shaped farm lots of 100 to 200 acres.

Beginning in 1764 in Québec and in 1795 in Ontario, land was given in crown grants instead of in seigneuries. A settler who wanted free land in a township submitted a petition directly to the governor or lieutenant governor. Crown grants became especially popular because of the American Revolutionary War. Grants were made to all Loyalists or children of Loyalists. Later, any settler in the provinces of Canada could receive these grants. Free grants were abolished in 1827, except for relatives and descendants of Loyalists.

The petitions for land and the patents-certificates that granted the land are the most important crown land records for genealogical research. The petitions may have information on the petitioner, his family, parentage, military service, time of settling the land, etc. The patents give the name of the grantee, a description of the land, and the date of the grant.

Several manuscript records relating to crown lands are at the National Archives of Canada and at the Archives nationales du Québec. The most easily available include:

List of Lands Granted by the Crown in the Province of Québec from 1763 to 31st December 1890. Québec, Canada: Charles- François Langlois, 1891. (Family History Library .) This book is a transcription of information from land patents. It is an especially good source to begin with if you are looking for English-speaking settlers. It gives the date of the patent and the county, township, and lot number where the grant was located. The index at the end of the volume is alphabetical only by the first letter of the surname.

Lower Canada. Executive Council. Land Committee. Land Petitions and Related Records, 1637–1842. National Archives of Canada series RG 1, L 3 L. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Public Archives of Canada, 1965–1995. (On 126 Family History Library films beginning with .) Indexed.

Upper Canada. Executive Council. Petitions for Land Grants and Leases, 1791–1867. National Archives of Canada series RG 1, L 3. Salt Lake City, Utah, USA: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1992. (On 257 Family History Library films beginning with .) Includes records for the years between 1842 and 1867, when Canada East (Québec) was part of the Province of Canada. Index films and some series films are available at the Family History Library.

The Family History Library has a combined index to Petitions for Land Grants and Leases, 1791–1867 and to the following minute books:

''Québec, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Canada Executive Council. Minute Books (on Land Matters) 1787–1867.'' National Archives of Canada series RG 1, L 1. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: National Archives of Canada, [19—?]. (NAC films C-94 through C-96 and C-100 through C-110). Includes records of hearings before land committees of various executive councils. Although these are not at the Family History Library, microfilms of the "Land Books" can be loaned by the National Archives of Canada to any public library which participates in the interlibrary loan system.

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Quebec, Quebec Judicial District, Guardianships (FamilySearch Historical Records)