The governor of Louisiana is authorized to appoint by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as many Notaries Public in the different parishes as may be deemed necessary. Notaries have the power, within their respective parishes, to make inventories, appraisements, partitions, receive wills, make protests, matrimonial contracts, conveyances and, generally all contracts and instruments of writing. Notaries are also authorized to hold family meetings, meetings of creditors to receive acknowledgments of instruments under private signature, to affix the seals upon the effect of dead persons and to raise the same. All acts executed by a notary, in conformity with the provisions of Article 2234 of the Civil Code, shall be authentic acts. Pursuant to Louisiana Revised Statute 35:191(L), a Notary Public appointed in Acadia may perform notarial functions in the parishes of Acadia, Lafayette, and Vermilion. Also a Notary Public appointed in Acadia, Lafayette, or Vermilion parishes have the same privilege. Notary tests are now administered by the Secretary of State. For more information, you may call the notary division of the Secretary of State’s Office at 225-922-0507.