About the Recorder’s Office

The Recorder’s Office maintains, secures and retrieves the official land records for all real estate located in Vermilion County. Our records, dating back to 1826, are used to document physical measurements and land titles. Many names of historical note may be found in our records.

Every individual holds the Constitutional right to own property in their own name. That freedom is protected in the Office of the Recorder by permanently maintaining a record of all instruments affecting the title of real estate within Vermilion County (the Official Public Record). This makes the County Recorder an integral part of property ownership. It is critical to the protection of the right to property ownership that citizens enjoy complete confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the Official Public Record – making it possible to effectively determine property rights and ownership.

Instruments filed with the Recorder’s Office include deeds, subdivision plats, land surveys and monument records, mortgages, releases and assignments, as well as judgment, federal and state liens. The Recorder’s Office also maintains and secures Military discharge papers (Forms DD-214).

The primary responsibility of the Recorder’s Office has not changed since the early 1800’s. It is our responsibility to accurately index, store, restore, preserve for future generations, and make available on a daily basis all documents reflecting the chain of title to all real estate within the County. Our Office servers two (2) critical purposes then: One is to collect information (both recorded documents and information about those documents) and the other is to provide efficient access to people who need the information contained in the Official Public Record to determine clear property title.

When a document is presented for recording, it is assigned a document number and date and time stamped. It is then indexed by names and legal description and scanned into the permanent storage system. The original instrument is returned to the filer. Our records dating from 1987 are indexed and available to search and view by digitial images on the computer. All documents and index books, with the exception of those recorded between the years 1959 and 1987, may be viewed back to 1826. Those not yet available digitally, may be viewed in the Recorder’s Office on microfiche and microfilm.

More recently, the Recorder’s Office has done more than just manage and protect the Official Public Record. As criminals began utilizing personal identification information (such as Social Security Numbers) to hijack someone’s identify, our Office began to restrict access to such sensitive information. As criminals move to use the Official Public Record to steal someone’s property, our Office moved to protect the Public Record from such misuse. As our use of technology expands, it is our Office’s goal to offer increased access to the Official Public Record and yet offer significantly greater protection to the people and property referenced within that Record.