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Archiver > GEN-FR > 1996-04 > 0828591070


From: "John P. DuLong" <>
Subject: Re: Notary Weddings
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 04:11:10 GMT


(CarolAnn7) wrote:

>The tradition of using notarial contracts for marriages as well as
>numerous other things, was brought over to Quebec from France. You can
>thank Napoleon for that, as that is the way they still do things in
>Quebec. Many times you read, "a la mode de Paris", in a contract written
>up by a notary.

You have the Customary Law of Paris to thank for marriage contracts in New
France. This was the standard legal code used in the colony per the order of
the king, not the emporer. Napoleon had nothing to do with except in the sense
that some of
the laws in the Customary Law of Paris made there way into the Code Napoleon
which did influence Quibec Civil Law in the mid-eigtheenth century.

John P. DuLong, Ph.D.
Acadian and French Canadian Genealogy
959 Oxford Road
Berkley, Michigan 48072-2011
(810) 541-2894
Web Page: http://wwnet.com/~dulong

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