10 Things to Know About the Hampden County Registry of Deeds

1. We have TWO (2) FULL-SERVICE OFFICES (Record in Both Recorded and Registered Land and Record Plans):

 

• Springfield – 436 Dwight Street, B42, Springfield, MA 01103 

• Westfield – 59 Court Street, Rm#104, Westfield, MA 01085

 

2. We have Historical Documents (images) going back to 1636.

 

3.    We have Indexed Documents going back to 1947.

 

4. E-Recording is available for BOTH Recorded and Registered Land.

 

5. You can E-Record Multifunctional Documents in our Recorded and Registered Land departments up to 10 notations (check with your E-Recording company for participation and availability and check with our Office for filing fee determination).

 

6.    We offer FREE Public Notary service for anyone who wishes to record a Declaration of Homestead form with our Office.

 

7.1Emailing complicated documents in advance for our review is HIGHLY recommended and encouraged to avoid unnecessary rejections and delays.

 

8.   We have a FREE FRAUD ALERT SERVICE, the Consumer Notification System – sign up and be alerted immediately should any document that includes your name be recorded at our Registry.

 

9.    Our Registry offers FREE workshops (Registry on the Go!) to any of the 23 Cities and Towns within Hampden County where we discuss the following topics:

 

• What we do and where we are located

• Declaration of Homestead 

• Consumer Notification System – Free Fraud Alert

• Free Certified Copy of Deed and Declaration of Homestead to any Hampden County resident

Just contact us to schedule a workshop in your City and Town!

 

10.  We are constantly working with the newest technology to improve our images and records.  We are currently partnering with Boston University to create a transcription program to digitize our historical records. The goal is to transcribe the Old English Script which was used in the early 17^th Century to digitized print…Stay Tuned!!! 

10 Things to Know About the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds

1. The Suffolk Registry of Deeds requires that when a Condominium is created under MGL c. 183A – at the time of the recording of the

Master Deed and Condominium Trust/Association By-laws both a set of Floor plans and a Site plan are recorded. After recording, the most commonly requested recording by unit owners is the Site Plan.

 

2.    The Suffolk Registry of Deeds records 83% of Recorded Land documents electronically. It is important to remember that documents assigning or releasing more than one previously recorded document cannot be recorded electronically – a multi-fee document must be walked in or mailed in.

 

3.    The Suffolk Registry of Deeds offers a Consumer Notification Service.  You can monitor any recordings under your name or property address at the Registry by signing up for the service at www.sufolkdeeds.com – at the top or the page click on Consumer Notification Service located on the right-hand side of the webpage.  Upon signing up, the individual will receive an email notifying them when a document is recorded under their name or address.  Upon receiving the email, the individual may contact the Suffolk Registry of Deeds for assistance in locating the document in question. Receiving an email does not always mean you are the victim of fraud - many times documents are recorded by the IRS, DOR and municipalities regarding income taxes and property taxes.  

 

4.    In order to electronically record, an account must be established with an electronic records vendor; the documents are then submitted through the vendor. Suffolk currently accepts electronically recorded document from CSC, ePN and Simplifile. Contact information for each of these vendors is available at www.suffolkdeeds.com.

 

5.    The Suffolk Registry of Deeds will begin accepting Registered Land documents for electronic recording in the spring of 2025!

 

6.    On occasion, a deed is submitted for recording conveying property into a trust referencing a trust recorded in another county in Massachusetts.  The indefinite reference statute (MGL c. 184, §25), the good faith purchaser of interests in real estate from trustees statute (MGL c. 184, §34), and the trustee’s certificate statute (MGL c. 184, §35) all make reference to instruments recorded in the Registry of Deeds for the county in which the land lies. As a result, the Suffolk Registry of Deeds requires that the trust or a trustee’s certificate under MGL c. 184, §35 are to be recorded with the deed conveying the property into the trust.

 

7.    The story of the Suffolk Registry of Deeds begins with the founding of the town of Boston.  In 1629, the Cambridge Agreement was signed in England by the Puritan shareholders of the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous residents – the Massachusett.  The name can be segmented as follows: mass is “large”, adchu is “hill”, s is a suffix meaning “small” and ett is a locative suffix meaning “place”.  The place of the large, small hill to which it refers is the Great Blue Hill, commonly known as Big Blue.  The first broadcasting tower for Boston’s public television station – Channel 2 – was at the top of the Great Blue Hill, as a result, the station’s call sign was WGBH.   

  

 

8.    On September, 1630, John Winthrop announced the foundation of the settlement at Boston. In his famous sermon “A Model of Christian Charity,” Winthrop described the new colony as “a City upon a Hill.”  Shortly thereafter, the inhabitants’ behavior became anything but “Christian” as they began to fight about “who owned what” land. 

 

9.    Before there was police, fire or public education, the basis of an orderly, civil society required our government to become actively involved in land recording:

 

On April 1, 1634, the General Court ordered that a survey be undertaken of all the improved and enclosed lands owned by every free inhabitant, the findings of that survey were then to be entered into a book.  From time to time, when such lots and homes were sold, the record of such sale was to be entered into this book for a fee of six pence.  It was in compliance with this order that the Boston Book of Possessions was compiled.  Mass. Bay Rec. Vol. 1 p. 116.

   On August 6, 1637, the General Court ordered that some course be taken to cause men to record their lands, or to fine them that neglected.  Mass. Bay Rec. Vol. 1 p. 201.

   On September 9, 1639, the General Court issued an order to record all men’s houses and lands certified by an individual who was deputized for the ordering of their affaires.  The charge for recording was 2 shillings and six pennies.  Mass. Bay Rec. Vol. 1 p. 276.  In one of the first acts of nepotism in North America, the first recorder for Boston, Steven Winthrop, was none other than the Governor’s brother.

On March 7, 1640, the General Court ordered: “For avoiding all fraudulent conveyances, and that every man may know what estate or interest other men may have in any houses, lands, or other hereditaments they are to deal in, it is therefore ordered, that after the end of this month no mortgage, bargain, sale or grant hereafter to be made of any houses, lands, rents or other hereditaments, shall be of force against any other person except the grantor and his heirs, unless the same be entered and recorded.”  Mass. Bay Rec. Vol. 1 p. 306.  The statutory justification for the modern-day Registry of Deeds finds its origins in this order.  The order’s language for all intents and purposes mirrors the present statute’s language requiring the recording of land conveyances in order to provide public notice and protect good faith purchasers. Mass. Gen. Law c. 183, §4.

 

10.    In 1643, the General Court divided the Massachusetts Bay Colony into four counties; the decree read as follows:

 

“The whole plantation within this jurisdiction is divided into four shires, to wit:

Essex - Salem, Linn, Enon (Wenham), Ipswich, Rowley, Newberry, Glocester and Cochichawick (Andover).

Middlesex – Charlestowne, Cambridge, Watertowne, Sudberry, Concord, Wooborne, Meadford, and Linn Village (Reading).

Norfolk – Salsberry, Hampton, Haverill, Excetter, Dover, and Strawberry Banck (Portsmouth, NH).

Suffolk – Boston, Roxberry, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymoth, Hingham and Nantaskot (Hull).”

 

The size of Suffolk County has expanded and contracted over the centuries.  The county is currently comprised of the City of Boston, the City of Chelsea, the City of Revere and the Town of Winthrop.  In 1999, the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds was placed under the general superintendence of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, thus changing its name to the Suffolk Registry of Deeds. Mass Acts of 1999, Ch. 127, p. 53.  Today, the County of Suffolk stands simply as a geographical boundary and is comprised of a total of 120 square miles: 58 square miles of land and 62 square miles of open water. It is the second smallest county in Massachusetts in terms of land area (Nantucket County having less land area) and the smallest county in terms of overall size (Nantucket County being comprised of more open ocean).

10 Things to Know About the Dukes County Registry of Deeds Part 4

 

Register Paulo C. DeOliveira

 

1.    Fun Facts:

 

Dukes County was a county of the Province of New York from 1683 to 1691. It consisted of the Elizabeth Islands, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Island. In 1691, the county was transferred to the newly formed Province of Massachusetts Bay, where it was divided into Dukes County and Nantucket County in Massachusetts.

 

Thomas Mayhew sold Nantucket Island to Tristram Coffin and other Salisbury investors in 1659 for “thirty pounds plus two beaver hats one for my wife, and one for myself." See transcribed records in Book A Page 26.

 

Philip J. Norton was the longest serving Register of Deeds in Dukes County, 59 years of service, from December 1918 to January 1977.

 

Josiah Smith, as Register of Deeds, kept his office at home in Pohogonot until the new courthouse was built in 1858.

 

2.    All land transfers and any transfers of interest, for consideration or not, including leases (of 30 years of more) must be processed through the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank prior to being recorded at the Registry of Deeds, with the exception of properties located in Gosnold.

 

3.    To record a deed electronically, you must upload the Land Bank forms to the Simplifile portal. Land Bank forms can be downloaded from their website. Simplifile will route the package to the Land Bank first and once processed by them, the document is routed to the Registry of Deeds for recording.

 

4.    You can e-file in Registered Land (Land Court) using Simplifile.

 

5.    Registered Land documents are now being returned to the customer after recording.

 

6.     Grantor and Grantee Index books are available on www.masslandrecords.com/Dukes beginning in 1641.

 

7.    The 318 gingerbread cottages, which are clustered together in Oak Bluffs, are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Since transfers are done through a bill of sale and a year-to-year lease to the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association, all changes in ownership must be recorded with the MVCMA office and Town of Oak Bluffs. There are no deeds filed at the Registry of Deeds.

8.    You can view many documents not yet available on MassLandRecords.com at dukescountydeeds.org under Book Vault.

 

9.    We have a link on our website http://www.massrods.com/dukes, where the public can sign up for Consumer Notification Alerts.

 

10.   From 1970s to 2004, surveys were segregated by town and called Case Files. For example, Edgartown Case File No. 102 can be found as Plan Book E, Page 102. West Tisbury Case File No. 5 can be found as Plan Book W, Page 5.

Simplifile Screenshot showing where to upload Land Bank Forms:

Dukes County Courthouse 1858:

Dukes County Registry of Deeds circa 1956:

Paulo C. DeOliveira is the Register of Deeds for Dukes County and the current President of the Massachusetts Registers and Assistant Registers of Deeds Association. 

10 Things to Know About the Registries of Deeds Part 3

 The following is the third installment of a series of “10 Things to Know About the Registries of Deeds” presented by the REBA Registries Section.  This month’s installment is from Dick Howe, recently-retired Register of Deeds for Middlesex North County. REBA congratulates Register Howe on his retirement and thanks him for his collaboration over the years!  

1. In March 2020, Middlesex North moved from its home of 165

years in the Middlesex Superior Courthouse to the new Lowell Justice Center at 370 Jackson Street in Lowell. Space constraints forced the registry to shrink its footprint from 15,000 square feet in the old building to 5,000 in the new. This caused the reduction of registry-controlled space for closings and title research.

2. The same week the Registry relocated the state shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For the next 15 months, the registry operated without members of the public allowed into the registry space. Most conveyancers recorded electronically or by regular mail; the rest dropped off documents for recording at the entrance. All customer service was performed by phone or email. Notwithstanding the trauma caused by the pandemic, this model of Registry operations worked well and has been retained as standard operating procedure. Consequently, documents walked in are recorded after the customer leaves and, while in-person customer service is available, virtual interactions are preferred.

3. Every document or plan ever recorded is available on the Registry’s masslandrecords website. However, if a digital image is illegible, the customer need only email lowelldeeds@sec.state.ma.us and the registry will promptly take and email a color digital photograph of the original to the customer. Because of the high quality of cellphone cameras and the zoom feature of digital photo viewers, the customer is able to see more detail from the digital color photo than they would from the original document. (The tradeoff for no closing or research rooms was being able to store all originals onsite which makes them immediately available for digital photography during normal hours of operation.)

4. Although all documents and plans are available online, they are not always easy to find. A detailed set of instructions on how to find even the most obscure document or plan is available on the Registry’s local website, massrods.com/middlesexnorth/ under the “search records” tab. That website, which works in parallel to masslandrecords, contains an abundance of registry-related information ranging from storm-related closings to the latest operational news.

5. A new version of the Massachusetts Deed Indexing Standards took effect on January 1st.  The Indexing Standards explain how registries of deeds in Massachusetts index documents and provide guidance on issues that frequently arise during the recording process. First issued in 2000, other editions were published in 2006, 2008, and 2018.  The REBA Registries Committee offered extensive comment on preliminary drafts of the Standards. 

6. Another pandemic practice that remains is the requirement that all registered land documents intended to be registered first be emailed to lowelldeeds@sec.state.ma.us for pre-approval. Incoming submissions are quickly reviewed by local registered land staff who notify submitters of any additional requirements or approve the documents as is. The customer may then e-file, mail, or deliver the documents for registration. This procedure significantly improves the success rate of registered land submissions.

7. When researching nineteenth century records it is important to know that Middlesex North was not created by the legislature until 1855. All documents from before 1855 were recorded at the registry of deeds in Cambridge. When the Northern District registry was formed, clerks scoured the Cambridge books for any documents that affected the ownership of land in the ten towns that made up the northern district (Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Lowell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford, and Wilmington). These documents were then copied in new books organized by town and book number. Consequently, there is a Lowell Book 1, a Dracut Book 1, a Carlisle Book 1, and so on. These are alternatively called “Middlesex South Books” or “Pre-1855 Books.” Documents that were recorded after the new registry opened in July 1855 were placed in Book 1. So remember, if the document you seek was created before 1855, it is in one set of books; after 1855, it is in another. 

8. Since the onset of the pandemic, electronic recording has accounted for 85 percent or more of all recordings. This level of usage has persisted and shows no sign of diminishing. In 2023, the registry began accepting registered land via electronic recording, however, the ability to record plans electronically remains elusive. Using current systems, it might be feasible to have a scanned version of a tangible plan transmitted to the registry electronically for recording, but it would be better to develop a fully electronic process. Almost every subdivision plan today is created on a computer. The surveyor then prints the plan on plastic sheeting (“Mylar”) and signs a certification with a permanent marker. In most cases, someone from the municipality also signs the tangible plan with a permanent marker. That tangible plan is carried to the registry where it is recorded and scanned to create a digital image. So a plan that was born digitally is printed on plastic only to be scanned by the registry to create a second generation digital image. A better approach would be to transmit the original digital file directly to the registry for the registry’s permanent record. An added challenge to this would be obtaining the signature of the necessary town officials. Perhaps that could be done on the electronic plan file or it could be on an ancillary document that was logically connected to the plan. In any case, it seems unlikely this vision will be realized anytime soon.

9. Middlesex North is exploring the use of artificial intelligence in registry operations. Perhaps the most encouraging experiment has been the use of optical character recognition software enhanced by artificial intelligence to transcribe registry documents written in cursive. More than 800,000 pages of record books created before 1924 use cursive print. Since traditional OCR programs struggle with cursive, the only alternative for digitizing the text of such documents has been to have a human type each page, a process that is understandably expensive. Early experiments indicate that AI will be able to do this transcription accurately at a fraction of the cost. Regardless of how the full text of recorded documents is created, it will be a huge benefit for registry users. Now, the only way to find a document is through the index or by a reference in another document. With the full text of documents available in searchable form, words and phrases not captured by the index will be discoverable through the use of a Google search-like application. 

10. Finally, there is a new register of deeds for Middlesex North effective January 1, 2025. Former Register of Deeds Richard Howe announced last fall that he would not seek reelection and instead retired at the end of his term. Howe was first elected in 1994 and has been reelected four times. His tenure has coincided with the information revolution that has transformed how Middlesex North operates.  Middlesex North is now under the supervision of Register Karen M. Cassella. We congratulate Register Cassella on her new position and look forward to working with her!