New York Laws
Article 9 - Recording Instruments Affecting Real Property
314-A - Proof When Witnesses Are Dead.

§ 314-a. Proof when witnesses are dead. When the witnesses to a
conveyance, authorized to be recorded, are dead, its execution may be
proved before any officer authorized to take within the state the
acknowledgment and proof of conveyances, other than a commissioner of
deeds, a notary public, or a justice of the peace. The proof of the
execution must be made by satisfactory evidence of the death of all the
witnesses thereto, and of the handwriting of such witnesses, or any one
of them, and of the grantor, which evidence, with the name and residence
of each witness examined, must be set forth by the officer taking the
same, in his certificate of proof. A conveyance so proved, and
certified, may be recorded in the proper office, if the original
conveyance be at the same time deposited in the same office, there to
remain for the inspection of all persons desiring to examine the same.
If the conveyance affects real property in two or more counties, a
certified copy of the conveyance, with the proof and certificates, may
be recorded in each of such counties. Such recording and deposit are
constructive notice of the execution of such conveyance to all
purchasers of the same real property, or any part thereof, from the same
vendor, his heirs or assigns, subsequent to such recording, but do not
entitle the conveyance or the record thereof, or a transcript of the
record, to be read in evidence.

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