The most common form notaries public complete is the Certificate of Acknowledgement. The certificate of acknowledgement (California acknowledgment) must be in the form set forth in California Civil Code section 1189.
In the certificate of acknowledgement, the notary public certifies:
• That the signer personally appeared before the notary public on the date indicated in the county indicated;
• To the identity of the signer; and
• That the signer acknowledged executing the document.
So, what is a acknowledgment?
It’s a form that the notary fills out to verify that the person signing the document in front of him or her is who they say they are and that they’re signing voluntarily. That way, if there’s ever a dispute about whether the signature is real or not, you can say, “Hey! Look at this paperwork!”