As soon as the deed has been delivered, it should be taken to the recorder's office to be recorded. Every state has offices in the towns or counties for keeping a perfect copy of all deeds relating to the transfer of the lands within the limits of the town or county. The object of this is to protect purchasers, for, if this were not done, the owner of land might sell it to a purchaser a second time who knew nothing of the previous sale, and then someone would be the loser. To guard against such frauds the system of registration was established at an early day in American history. A purchaser therefore should take his deed at once to the proper recording office for record, and this is regarded as notice to the world from the time of delivering the deed to the recorder, who makes a note thereon of the day and hour it was left with him. Suppose that some creditor of the grantor, not knowing of the sale, should attach the land as the property of the grantor to secure a debt due to him, could he hold it as against the purchaser? Ordinarily the purchaser could still retain the land, and the same rule would apply between him and a second purchaser, though buying in good faith supposing the grantor was the real owner. In some states a statute protects the purchaser by giving him a fixed period of two or three months or more to record his deed. The safe rule is to leave the deed with the recorder as soon as possible after receiving it.
It is a general practice to do another thing with deeds, to make or take an acknowledgment of them, and in some states this must be done before they can be recorded. This consists on the part of the grantor going before a proper officer, often a notary public, justice of the peace, clerk of a court of record, commissioner of deeds, and making oath that he has duly executed the above deed. This oath appears in the form of a certificate at the bottom of the deed or appended thereto and is signed by the officer, who also attaches his official seal. When a deed has thus been acknowledged it can be used in a legal proceeding as evidence without requiring further proof of its execution. But if it had not been acknowledged, then a court would require some proof that the deed had been made and delivered before accepting it as proof of the fact.