MSS 289 - Notarial Archives Collection: Inventory

Notarial Archives COLLECTION

(Mss 289)

Inventory

Earl K. Long Library

University of New Orleans

 

Summary

 

Size:                          21 linear feet (60 volumes)

 

Geographic

locations:                 New Orleans, La.

 

Inclusive dates:      1928-1962

 

Bulk dates:              1929-1961

 

Summary:                Bound volumes containing notarial acts compiled by notaries Milton E. Burglass and Cecil M. Burglass, both individually and jointly, and A. Konrad Lagarde.  The acts pertain almost exclusively to sales of movables with chattel mortgages, or simple chattel mortgages.  They involve the purchase and/or the mortgaging of household furniture or furnishings, appliances, radios, automobiles and trucks, shop machinery and equipment, or vessels.

 

Source:                     Deposit, 1997

 

Access:                     No restrictions

 

Copyright:                Physical rights reside with the Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans.  Other rights are retained by the Notarial Archives of the Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana.

 

Citation:                    Notarial Archives Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

 

Historical Note

 

            According to “The Plan Book Drawings of the New Orleans Notarial Archives” by Sally K. Reeves. [1] “The New Orleans Notarial Archives was created by an act of the Louisiana State Legislature in 1867.  It is the only notarial archives in the United States, Louisiana being the nation’s only civil law (as opposed to common law) state.  The Archives bears similarities to those repositories of notarial records found in other civil law jurisdictions such as Quebec, Mexico, France, or Spain.” (p. 81).

 

            “Notarial acts in civil law jurisdictions are in essence contracts between living people or officially recorded declarations by individuals.  In New Orleans, these contracts include sales of real property or of slaves, mortgages, leases, building and marriage contracts, wills, procurations, emancipations, business incorporations, family meetings, meetings of creditors, and so on. . . . The office holds the records of some 6,000 Orleans Parish notaries whose acts date from 1731 to the present.  The total holdings consist of over 37,000 volumes containing about 35,000,000 pages of original textual and visual materials (ca. 26,500 linear feet” (pp. 81-82).  Some 50,000 to 60,000 acts are added to the archives annually.

 

            “The civil law notary is a highly trained professional who transcribes into documentary language the agreements or individual declarations of parties who appear before him.  The notary then functions as an archivist of the document he creates.  The notary is a semipublic official whose signature to a document guarantees the identity of appearing parties, along with the authenticity of their agreements and the genuineness of their signatures.  Unlike the modern attorney representing the interests of one side in a transaction, the traditional notary is a dis­interested third party who represents both sides.  He makes sure that the contracts he witnesses are neither onerous (unfair to one side) nor vague, which would make them subject to litigation later. . . . In trying to ensure that acts were flawless and thus not prone to be litigated later, the law set itself up as a benign influence that promoted stability in society, championed the family, and provided a secure and inexpensive framework for citizens to conduct their private business.  They used the notarial act to ascertain and give permanent evidence to their rights.  They could count on that evidence because the act bears on its face all that is needed for a legal con­tract. . . . Notarial acts involving more than one party are invariably amicable agreements.  They represent what functions in society, not what malfunctions,” and they “generally reflect relationships between private parties, not between the individual and the state” (pp. 82-83).

 

            “By law, the notary had a serious obligation to preserve his acts indefinitely.  As a precaution against fire, he had to locate his étude or office in a brick building with a tile roof.  He had to bind and conserve his acts and plans in chronological order within prescribed intervals and make them available for public inspection during regular hours.  He also had exclusive right to make `true’ or authenticated copies from his acts, the intellectual concept for which derives from medieval times” (p. 84).

 

            “Before 1867 the New Orleans notary achieved a certain permanence by officially passing his records down to a commissioned successor in office.  After 1867, Louisiana law provided for the Notarial Archives to function as the preserving agent, authorizing the custodian to demand and retain the complete works of deceased or retired notaries.  Over the years the various safeguards in the system provided for the survival of the collection that exists today in spite of war, political change, and Louisiana’s damp, insect-infested, flood- and hurricane-prone environment” (p. 84).

 

            On deposit at the University of New Orleans are 60 volumes of acts compiled by three notaries: Cecil M. Burglass, Milton Burglass, and A. Konrad Lagarde.  The acts are concerned almost exclusively with the sales of movables with chattel mortgages, or simple chattel mortgages.  They involve the purchase and/or the mortgaging of household furniture or furnishings, appliances, radios, automobiles and trucks, shop machinery and equipment, or vessels.  Volumes sampled contain the following data elements:

 

                        Acts of Milton and Cecil Burglass:

                        Ø         name of mortgage company (A. Burglass, 1400 Canal Street)

                        Ø         name, address, marital status of mortgagor

                        Ø         address to which newly purchased furniture must be delivered (usually)

                        Ø         value, date, and terms of mortgage

                        Ø         description of items purchased

                        Ø         original signatures

                        Ø         some mortgagors are from outlying parishes, such as Lafourche

                        Ø         volumes sampled are indexed

 

                        Acts of A. Konrad Lagarde:

                        Ø         name of lending company

                        Ø         name, parish, street address (usually) of borrower

                        Ø         value and terms of loan

                        Ø         movables generally mortgaged:

                                                automobiles: maker, type, model name, status [new/used]

                                                trucks, motorcycles

                                                household furniture (all rooms, with descriptors)

                                                small business equipment and machinery of grocers, bakers, etc.

                                                amusement machines (e.g., pinball)

                                                vessels (description, tonnage, name, etc.)

                        Ø         original signatures

                        Ø         some from out of parish

                               Ø         volumes sampled are indexed.

 

[1 ]In The Cultivation of Artists in Nineteenth-Century America, ed. Georgia Brady Barnhill, Diana Korzenik, and Caroline F. Sloat (Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1997).

List of Series

 

Series I.         Volumes compiled by the notary Milton E. Burglass, 1928-1931 (4 volumes).

 

Series II.        Volumes compiled by the notary Cecil M. Burglass, 1931-1938 (12 volumes).

 

Series III.       Volumes compiled jointly by notaries C. M. Burglass and Milton Burglass, 1939-1941 (23 volumes).

 

Series IV.      Volumes compiled by A. Konrad Lagarde, N.P., 1939-1962 (21 volumes).

Container List

 

Series I.         Volumes compiled by the notary Milton E. Burglass, 1928-1931 (4 volumes).

 

Volume 1        1928, November - December.

 

Volume 2        1929, January - December.

 

Volume 3        1930, January - December.

 

Volume 4        1931, January - June.

 

 

Series II.        Volumes compiled by the notary Cecil M. Burglass, 1931-1938 (12 volumes).

 

Volume 1        1931, July - December.

 

Volume 2        1932, January - December.

 

Volume 3        1933, January - December.

 

Volume 4        1934, January - December.

 

Volume 5        1935, January - December.

 

Volume 6        1936, January - July.

 

Volume 7        1936, August - December.

 

Volume 8        1937, January - July.

 

Volume 9        1937, August - December.

 

Volume 10     1938, January - June 4.

 

Volume 11     1938, June 6 - October 10.

 

Volume 12     1938, October 10 - December.

 

 

Series III.       Volumes compiled jointly by notaries C. M. Burglass and Milton Burglass, 1939-1941 (23 volumes).

 

Volume 1        1939, January - April.

 

Volume 2        1939, May - August.

 

Volume 3        1939, September - December.

 

Volume 4        1940, January - May.

 

Volume 5        1940, June - October 14.

 

Volume 6        1940, October 14 - December.

 

Volume 7        1941, January - March 27.

 

Volume 8        1941, March 28 - June 9.

 

Volume 9        1941, June 9 - August 8.

 

Volume 10     1941, August 9 - October 22.

 

Volume 11     1941, October 22 - December.

 

Volume 12     1942, January - April.

 

Volume 13     1942, May - July.

 

Volume 14     1942, August - December.

 

Volume 15     1943, January - December.

 

Volume 16     1944, January - December.

 

Volume 17     1945, January - December.

 

Volume 18     1946, January - December.

 

Volume 19     1947, January - December.

 

Volume 20     1948, January - June.

 

Volume 21     1948, July - December.

 

Volume 22     1949, January - November.

 

Volume 23     1949, December.

 

 

Series IV.      Volumes compiled by A. Konrad Lagarde, N.P., 1939-1962 (21 volumes).

 

Volume 1        1939, December 14 - December 31.

                        1940, January - December.

                        1941, January - July 31.

 

Volume 2        1941, August 1 - December.

                        1942, January - May 22.

 

Volume 3        1942, May 23 - December.

 

Volume 4        1943, January 1 - June 18.

 

Volume 5        1943, June 19 - December.

                        1944, January - March 31.

 

Volume 6        1944, April - December.

 

Volume 7        1945, January - June.

 

Volume 8        1945, July - December.

 

Volume 9        1946, January - June.

 

Volume 10     1946, July - December.

 

Volume 11     1947, January - July 22.

 

Volume 12     1947, July 23 - December.

                        1948, January - July 13.

 

Volume 13     1949, January - December.

 

Volume 14     1950, January - December.

 

Volume 15     1951, January - December.

 

Volume 16     1952, January - December.

 

Volume 17     1953, January - December.

 

Volume 18     1954, January - December.

                        1955, January - December.

 

Volume 19     1956, January - December.

                        1957, January - December.

 

Volume 20     1958, January - December.

                        1959, January - December.

 

Volume 21     1960, January - December.

                        1961, January - December.

                        1962, January - March.

Index Terms

 

Burglass, Cecil M.

Burglass, Milton

Lagarde, A. Konrad

Notarial Archives

Notaries—Louisiana—Orleans Parish

Orleans Parish.  Central Office of Notarial Records