Notarial Records

The Notarial System

The European Civil Law tradition prevailed in Romania and Moldova, heavily influenced by the Napoleonic code. This means that transactional law and functions involved with the preparation and authentication—and even the preservation—of legal documents developed as a separate system from the functions of the courts and its advocates, or attorneys. Under a legal tradition that valued the introduction of written evidence over oral testimony, notaries were responsible for preparing those legal documents and authenticating them for presentation to the courts.

Notary records have existed in what is now Romania as far back as the thirteenth century and become more common during the following centuries.

Notarial Documents

Notarial documents include several that generally contain vast amounts of information on genealogy and wealth but, due to their sporadic nature, they are generally not digitized or as available as other sources.

The books kept by these notaries include various types of legal documents such as wills, codicils, land transactions, powers of attorney, contracts, dowry arrangements, bonds, mortgages, complaints, court cases, and so on; therefore, they become rich resources for historians. These books are generally organized chronologically under the name of the notary. Notarial records are usually housed in the public archives.

Be aware that in many cases, the law required a document to be signed before the notary but did not require that it be recorded for permanent preservation.