(765 ILCS 5/36) (from Ch. 30, par. 35)

Sec. 36. Whenever upon the trial of any cause in this state, any party to the cause, or his or her agent or attorney in his or her behalf, shall, orally in court, or by affidavit to be filed in the cause, state under oath that the original of any deed, conveyance or other writing, of or concerning lands, tenements and hereditaments, which shall have been or may hereafter be acknowledged or proved according to the laws of this State, and which by virtue of any of the laws of this state, shall be required or be entitled to be recorded, is lost, or not in the power of the party wishing to use it on the trial of any such cause, and that to the best of his or her knowledge the original deed was not intentionally destroyed or in any manner disposed of for the purpose of introducing a copy thereof in place of the original, the record of such deed, conveyance or other writing, or a transcript of the record thereof, certified by the recorder in whose office the same may have been or may hereafter be recorded, may be read in evidence in any court in this state, with like effect as though the original of such deed, conveyance or other writing was produced and read in evidence.

(Source: P.A. 83-345.)