There is a variety of instruments which do not rise to the dignity of deeds, but which yet have a direct bearing upon the question of title, and which must be included in all properly prepared abstracts whenever they appear upon the records during the period covered by the search. Of this nature are affidavits, letters, municipal ordinances, etc., all of which are proper, and, under certain conditions, competent evidence, in support of the facts presented.

Without entering into a discussion of the nature, requisites and validity of ordinances, which, as a rule, must be determined by reference to the charter of the municipality, it may be stated generally, that such ordinances must be adopted by the proper body and be published in the manner provided by law, the practical operation of an ordinance dating from its passage and publication. When so passed and published ordinances afford constructive notice to all persons bound to take notice of them.

The only occasions when it will be necessary to show the acts of municipal bodies, will be in respect to the opening or vacation of streets and alleys, with an occasional conveyance of municipal real estate, which latter event should be prefaced 'by a synopsis of the ordinance or resolution authorizing same. Being in the nature of public laws no record of municipal acts is required in the registry of deeds, and recourse must usually be had to the corporate records.

Certificates of officers having the legal custody or supervision of records, as well as of ministerial officers in the performance of some legal duty, are of frequent occurrence. Usually they are appended to some kind of documentary evidence to which they have special relation, but they may be used as affirmative and independent proof of matters within the certifying officer's jurisdiction. Instances are afforded by the certificates of levy, attachment, etc., made by officers executing the process of courts and which afford internal evidence of the matters therein recited.

Aside from the certificates of officers, and others, reciting their own acts in connection with some particular proceeding in the line of their official duty, there is a class of official custodians who certify from the books, records, files, etc., committed to their care, and to whose certificates, under their official seal, if they have any, the statute in some cases and comity in others, attaches a certain degree of evidentiary value.

Certificates attached to other documents for the purpose of proof or verification do not, as a rule, require extended notice, but when standing alone, and as affirmative evidence of some particular fact, they acquire a certain dignity that calls for commensurate treatment. When these certificates, for instance, allude to facts which appear from the books, files and records of the officers of State in regard to the transfer of land by, or to the government, either Federal or State, or by the State to individuals, the original evidence of which is not accessible, or has been destroyed, or lost, they become of the highest importance and should be shown in detail.

In the compilation of English abstracts the general subject "incorporal hereditaments" plays a conspicuous part, but in the United States this term is now rarely employed, while the number of strictly incor-poral hereditaments is very small.78 In this country they are usually such things as come within the definitions and general doctrines of easements and servitudes.

An easement is technically understood to be raised or created by a grant, but may be reserved in a conveyance as effectually as by a grant by deed. Separate instruments are seldom employed to create easements, but occasionally grants of rights of way will be found as well as instruments granting riparian rights, and in all cases, where such instruments are matters of record, purchasers of land affected thereby will take the premises subject to whatever rights they may confer upon others and burdened with the stipulated service.79

In populous localities, party wall agreements are of frequent occurrence, and, though not technically conveyances of land, their legal effect is to give to each of the parties an easement on the other's land, which becomes appurtenant to their several estates and passes to their respective assignees by any mode of conveyance that may be effectual to transfer the land itself.

For a large variety of matters relating to interests in land and sales and conveyances of such interests, which by law are not required to be under seal or attested by any solemnity, epistolary correspondence, notes and memoranda, are competent evidence. This is particularly the case in regard to trusts, agreements

78 The principal incorporeal hereditaments according to the common law, are: Advowsons and next presentations, tithes, manors, franchises, offices, commons, rights of way, of light, wood, water, rents and annuities. Most of them are unknown in the United States. 79 Turpin vs. R. R. Co., 105 111., 11

• and conditions of sale, and sometimes in supplying missing information relative to descents, etc. Hence, it is not uncommon to find letters of record relating to, or concerning interests in land. A contract for the sale of land made by letter correspondence between the parties is valid and will be enforced, if the consideration to be paid, the time of payment, and the description of the property appear sufficiently certain to enable a court to make a decree. So, too, where a person acquires title to land in trust for another and writes him a letter clearly showing that he holds the same in trust, this will be sufficient to manifest the trust as required by the statute of frauds.

In abstracting the proceedings of courts, in matters relating to title, affidavits will occasionally be met with, but as a rule, they are of such a nature that their contents are immaterial to the examination, and they may be disposed of in a single line and frequently passed without notice. There is, however, another class of affidavits, resorted to by conveyancers under a choice of difficulties, which frequently figure on the records and in the abstract. These are the ex parte sworn statements of individuals respecting some question raised by the examination, usually relating to deaths, marriages, births, etc., concerning which no other or better evidence can be found. Family records are not universal, nor even where, as is the custom of many states, a record of births, deaths and marriages is kept by proper officers, can the requisite information be always obtained. When such is the case resort must be had to the next best and most available testimony which is usually supplied by the affidavit of some person setting forth his knowledge of the matter under inquiry. Such instrument, it is true, possesses no legal validity, and not being made under the sanction of a court or in any legal proceeding, is not strictly evidence for any purpose; yet, being all that can be adduced, it has been, as it were, by common consent, adopted as evidence in the examination of titles and the testimony taken as corroborative of general reputation, concurrent possession, etc. Such affidavits, though possessing no legal efficacy, should yet be attended with the same solemnities and formalities as are required in affidavits for use in court.