Link to French Blog vocabulary list: French vocabulary
The following definition from the ANOM website: http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr/Action-culturelle/Challenge-AZ.html
Notary
The notary is a public officer who drafts and receives deeds and contracts to which the stakeholders want to give an authentic character, that is to say a probative value to the document.
The notaries are solicited by the inhabitants in a private or professional capacity. They record marriage contracts, child recognition, property transfers (purchases, sales), mortgage release, auction specifications, lease and rental deeds, powers of attorney, money loans, receipts, donations, inventories of assets after death, wills, inheritance regulations, company deeds. But also during slavery and indentured labor: emancipation and domestic service commitments.
The ANOM keep more than 11,500 registers of duplicate minutes of notaries written in the French colonies, the oldest dating from 1637 from Canada.