I will give an example of the utilization of
Notarial Records for the genealogical research. I am working on the genealogy of a
family in the XVII century, between 1601 and 1677. This family lived in the Pontevedra Province (Galiza, Spain).
These are the records found for that family in that
time period:
Sales of real estate: 20 documents
Rent agreements: 10 documents
Wills: 9
documents
Agreements: 7 documents
Dowries: 5 documents
Exchange of real estate: 4 documents
Statements: 3 documents
Obligations: 3 documents
Settlements: 3
documents
Donations: 2 documents
Royal decree: 1 document
Goods recount: 1 document
We have a total of 68 documents. Some of them are
only a couple of pages and some wills are very long. It takes long time to read
all these documents and it is very painful because of the “notarial”
handwriting but they are a gold mine in terms of genealogical information.
