Registry of Deeds

A recent email correspondent asked why the Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds district consists of just 10 communities whereas the Southern District had the other 44 communities in Middlesex County. Like so much else, the answer involves some history. To start, the Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds District consists of…

This evening at 6 pm I’ll present a seminar on the Massachusetts Declaration of Homestead at the Cameron Senior Center, 20 Pleasant Street, Westford. The event is free and open to the public. Recording a Declaration of Homestead at the Registry of Deeds protects your home from creditors. Tonight I’ll…

  On Tuesday, September 11, 2018, at 6:00 p.m. at the Cameron Senior Center, 20 Pleasant Street, Westford, I will present a Homestead Seminar that is free and open to the public. Recording a Declaration of Homestead at the Registry of Deeds protects your home from creditors. At this event,…

The following letter to the editor was published in the August 23, 2018 edition of the Lowell Sun. It’s from Richard Cuoco, a professional land surveyor from Tewksbury. Before Richard took over as Register of Deeds it pretty much functioned as it has since 1855, with the exception of the…

The Registry of Deeds will get a new computer system in 2019. I wrote the following article about the features it should contain for the Real Estate Bar Association of Massachusetts. Thoughts on a New Registry Computer System By Richard P. Howe Jr. Just before Memorial Day 2002, a team…

Coming Soon: All-Electronic Real Estate Closings By Richard P. Howe Jr. Until recently, the thought of a real estate closing that did not involve dozens of paper documents that contained cursive signatures made in ink seemed far-fetched. However, conversations with certain brokers, bankers and lawyers suggest that a tipping point…

Today I was interviewed by Steve Brogan of Tyngsborough cable TV about my Register of Deeds reelection campaign. It’s 30 minutes; please watch. Here’s a link to the video.

From hand-copied book pages in cursive to digital images that have never existed on paper, the records at the Registry of Deeds have become more accessible through the evolution of information technology. Here’s the story of how that has happened at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds: One of the…