Malta Notarial Records

Notaries were the official recorders of dowry and marriage contracts, wills, land, mortgage, business, and property records. Because these records exist from before the time of church records, they can be helpful in solving early research problems. Records are generally arranged by the notary and then chronologically. Usually there are no indexes so knowing where the person lived and where the closest notary facilitates use.

Time period: There are wills dating from the late 1300s. The earliest notarial records date from 1465. Wills were not mandatory until 1863. These records continue to the present.

Contents: Names of participants in contracts; names of heirs; relationships, residences; dates of death and sometimes of marriage.

Location: Notarial archives for the island of Malta are found at 3 M.A.Vassalli Street, Valletta and the Notarial archive for Gozo is on Republic Street in the city of Victoria. Pre-1863 wills are at the public registry offices in Valletta and in Victoria.

The Adami Collection

 * The Adami Collection on Microfilm
 * The Adami Collection is a transcription of parrochial records from the Maltese Islands (Malta and Gozo) that includes marriages, a few baptisms from one parish, marriage legacies or contracts, family trees, ecclesiastical benefices, notarial acts, and miscellaneous notes.
 * Marriage contracts (schede matrimoniali) form a record that resembles an index. They include the names of the bride and groom and both sets of parents, the contract date, and the parishes where the bride and groom lived.
 * Notarial records include wills, codicils, legacies, donations, sales, etc. On the first film containing notarial records, they are arranged in alphabetical order by the surname of the family and then by the name of the notary who drew up the papers for each act. In this catalog, the name of each notary is given along with the dates of his service. It may be necessary to check each notary to locate all of a family's records. In the large set of notarial acts, the records are arranged by family name.
 * Benefices involve the endowment of land and/or property to the church to be used by the church but to actually remain legally in the hands of the "donor". The descendants of the original donors were given first preference over the land and property. Decendancy charts are included.