4.2 Public Records Research and Indexing

Why Records Research Comes First

Most boundary surveys begin in the public records, because the documents that created and transferred the parcel define where its lines are supposed to be. Recorded instruments include deeds, subdivision plats, recorded surveys, easements, mortgages and their releases, road dedications, court decrees, and tax records. A surveyor reads these to build the parcel's history before ever setting foot in the field.

Recording serves a specific legal purpose. Under state recording acts, a properly recorded instrument gives constructive notice—it is presumed to be known to everyone, whether or not they actually read it. Constructive notice is the foundation of priority: a later purchaser cannot claim ignorance of a recorded prior interest. A key trap on the exam is the reverse idea: recording does not cure a defect. Recording an invalid or forged deed does not make it valid; it only provides notice and fixes the time of filing for priority purposes.

Indexes: Finding the Documents

Recorded documents are useless if you cannot find them, so counties maintain indexes. The two dominant systems organize information very differently:

With a grantor-grantee index, you trace a chain by following names: find the current owner as grantee, identify who conveyed to them (the grantor), then find that grantor as a grantee in an earlier transaction, and so on backward in time. A tract index lets you pull all instruments affecting a specific parcel directly. For a lot in a subdivision, the recorded plat is indispensable—it shows the dimensions, monuments, and easements that the deed's "Lot 6, Block 2" reference incorporates.

The Search Sequence and Adjoiner Research

A reliable boundary search is not a single deed; it is a sequence:

1. Identify the subject parcel and pull its current deed and recorded plat.
2. Trace the chain of title backward through prior conveyances to the parcel's creation (the deed or plat that first carved it from a parent tract).
3. Examine adjoining deeds, especially where the subject and neighbor descriptions may overlap, leave a gap, or call for the same monument or line.
4. Search for easements, reservations, exceptions, and other encumbrances that affect or burden the parcel.
5. Note discrepancies for field verification.

Adjoiner research is frequently tested. When a deed calls for an adjoining owner's line (a "call for adjoiner"), that neighbor's senior deed may control the common boundary. Ignoring adjoining records is a classic cause of overlaps and gaps. The surveyor's goal is a coherent picture of how the parcel and its neighbors were created, so field evidence can be interpreted against the record.

Notice, Priority, and Other Records

Recording acts come in three broad flavors that determine who wins when two people claim the same land, and the FS exam expects familiarity with the underlying idea of notice:

The common thread is bona fide purchaser protection: the system rewards a buyer who pays value and lacks actual, constructive, or inquiry notice of a prior claim. Inquiry notice is especially relevant to surveyors—visible occupation, a fence, or someone living on the land can put a buyer on notice to investigate even when nothing is recorded. This is why field evidence and record research must be read together.

Beyond deeds and plats, several other public records inform a boundary survey:

• Tax/assessor maps and parcel data — useful for locating parcels but not authoritative for boundary dimensions.
• Probate and court records — wills, partition decrees, and quiet-title judgments that move or fix boundaries.
• Road and dedication records — establish rights-of-way and the limits of public ownership.
• Recorded surveys and corner records — prior professional retracements that may report found monuments.

A recurring trap: assessor (tax) maps are not legal descriptions. They are drawn for taxation convenience, frequently generalized, and must never be relied on to set a boundary. The controlling geometry comes from the deeds, plats, and the monuments those instruments call for—verified in the field.

Finally, a thorough search recognizes that not every interest reaches the records the same way. Easements may be express (recorded), implied, or prescriptive (arising from long use), and only the first reliably appears in a name index. Likewise, a lis pendens warns of pending litigation that may affect title. Because some interests live partly outside the record, the prudent surveyor treats records research and field reconnaissance as two halves of one investigation, each capable of revealing what the other misses.