specially authorized to that a sufficient number of blank effect.-C. N. 36. 41. The public officer reads to the parties, or to their attorney, and to the witnesses, the act which he makes. -C.N. 37. | 42. Acts of civil status are inscribed in two registers of the same tenor, kept for each Roman Catholic parish church, church, private chapel or mission, and for each Protestant church or congregation or other religious community, entitled by law to keep such registers, each of which is authentic, and has in law equal authority. R.S.Q. 5777.1 42a. The duplicate registers for acts of civil status may be divided into three volumes, one for acts of births, one for acts of marriage, and the third for acts of burial; or into two volumes, one for acts of birth and of marriage, and the other for acts of burial. Such volumes of the duplicate registers may be either blank, or may be prepared with printed forms, running conseentively through each volume; but when one volume is used for acts of birth and of marriage, the first part shall contain, in consecutive order, the forms for acts of birth, and the last part, the forms for acts of marriage. Id. 5778. pages shall be placed at the end of the volume for the certificates of death of persons whose bodies have been, before burial, delivered to a school of medicine or university for the purposes of the study of anatomy. Id. 42c. An alphabetical index is made at the end of each duplicate of the registers of civil status for each church, congreg. ation or other religious community, by the person entitled by law to keep such registers. Id. com 43. The registers are furnished by the churches, congregations or religious munities, and must be in the form prescribed by the Code of Civil Procedure.-C. C. P. 1311 et s. 44. The registers are kept by the rector, curate, priest or minister having charge of the churches, congregations or religious communities, or by any other officer entitled so to do. In the case of Roman Catholic churches, private chapels or missions, they are kept by any priest authorized by competent ecclesiastical authority to celebrate marriages or administer baptism and perform the rites of burial. R. S. Q., 5779; C. C. 129. 42. Whenever the duplicate 45. The duplicate register so registers are divided into vol-kept, before it is used, must, at umes and are in printed forms, the instance of the party keep The Protestant churches or congregations referred to in article 42 of the Civil Code, comprise all churches and congregations in communion with the Church of England or Scotland, and the several religious communities and denominations in the Province, mentioned in the special acts concerning them, and the priests or ministers thereof, who may validly solemnize marriage, and may obtain and keep registers of civil status, subject to the provisions of the said acts with reference to each of them respectively-R.S.Q. 5499. Vide R. S. Q. 5500 et s. for special provisions as to registers of civil status in a certain portion of the district of Saguenay. In the case of Roman Catholic churches, private chapels or missions, the register must be granted under the name mentioned in the certificate of authorization by the bishop, the ordinary of the diocese, the vicar general, or the administrator, and the priest on presenting the register for authentication must exhibit the certificate of authorization.-R.S.Q. 5780; C. C. P. 1311. 46. Acts of civil status, as soon as they are made, are inscribed in the two registers in successive order and without blanks; erasures and marginal notes are acknowledged and initialed by all those who sign the body of the act. Everything must be written at length without abbreviation or figures.C. N. 42. 47. Within the first six weeks of each year, the person who kept the said registers, or who has charge thereof, deposits in the office of the prothonotary of the Superior Court of the district in which the registers were kept one of the said duplicates. Such delivery is acknowledged by a receipt which the prothonotary is bound to give free of charge.-R.S.Q. 5781. 48. Within six months after such deposit, each prothonotary is bound to verify the condition of the registers deposited in his office, and to draw up a sum mary report of such verification.--Id. 5782. 49. The other duplicate register remains in the custody and possession of the priest, minister or other officer who kept the same, to be by him preserved and transmitted to his successor in office. In the case of a Roman Catholie mission, such other duplicate is deposited by the priest in charge of such mission at the palace of the bishop of the diocese to which the mission belongs; and for the purpose of authenticating copies or tracts from any such register and for all other purposes connected therewith, the bishop or his secretary is deemed to be the depositary thereof-Id. 5783; C.C.P. 1812. ex 50. The depositary of either of the registers is bound to give extracts thereof to any person who may require the same; and such extracts, being certified and signed by him are authentic.-C.N. 44. 51. On proof that, in any parish or religious community no registers have been kept, or that they are lost, the births, marriages and deaths may be proved either by family registers and papers, or other writings, or by witnesses.-C. N. 46; C.C. 159, 232, 233. 52. Every depositary of such registers is civilly responsible for any alteration made therein, saving his recourse, if any there be, against the party altering the same.-C.N. 51. 53. Every infraction of any article of this title by any of the officers therein named, which does not amount criminal offence, and which is not punishable as such, is pun to a ACTS OF CIVIL STATUS. ished by a penalty not exceed | celebrated or the burial took 53a. The father, or in case of his death or absence the mother, of every child born, who has not caused such child to be bap tized, or who, being of a creed other than Roman Catholic, has not caused the birth of such child to be registered by the persons authorized to keep a register of acts of civil status, is bound to cause the birth of such child to be registered within four months from the date thereof, at the office of the secretary-treasurer or of the clerk of the municipality or city of his domicile, or else with the nearest justice of the peace and the latter shall during the first two weeks of the month of January in each year, make to the secretary-treasurer or to the clerk of the municipality or city a report of the births by him so registered. The secretary-treasurer clerk of the municipality or city or shall each year during the month of January transmit a statement of such births to the office of the provincial secretary.-R.S.Q. 5784. 536. Every person authorized to celebrate marriages, or to preside at burials, who is not authorized to keep registers of Civil Status, shall immediately prepare, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code, an act of every marriage which he celebrates, and of every burial at which he presides, and, within thirty days after such marriage or burial, forward the same, with a solemn declaration attesting the truth thereof, to the prothonotary of the district in which the marriage was CHAPTER SECOND. OF ACTS OF BIRTH. the day of the birth of the child, 54. Acts of birth set forth that of its baptism, if performed, its sex, and the names given to it; the names, surof the father and mother, and names, occupation and domicile also of the sponsors, if any there be.-C, N. 57. both registers, by the officer 56. When the father and to the public officer are either mother of any child presented or both of them unknown, the ter.-C. N. 55, 56, 58; C. C, 232. fact is mentioned in the regis CHAPTER THIRD. a OF ACTS OF MARRIAGE. marriage, the officer who is to 57. Before solemnizing perform the ceremony must be furnished establishing that the publicwith a certificate ation of bans required by law has published them himself, in has been duly made; unless he which case such certificate is not necessary.-C. N. 63; C. C. 130 et s. 157. signed by the person who pub58. This certificate, which is lished the bans, mentions, as do also the bans themselves, the names, surnames, qualities or |