(765 ILCS 45/8) (from Ch. 116, par. 12)
Sec. 8.
It shall be the duty of the judges of the circuit court of the
county to examine into the state of the records in such county, and in case
they find any abstracts, copies, minutes or extracts from the records
existing after such destruction as above stated, and find
that the abstracts,
copies, minutes or extracts were fairly made before the destruction of the
records by any person or persons, in the ordinary course of business, and
that they contain a material and substantial part of the
records, the
circuit judges of the circuit shall certify the facts found by them in
respect to such abstracts, copies, minutes and extracts, and the
judges shall cause all evidence produced as to the abstract books to be
reduced to writing and shall cause all such evidence to be filed of
record as a part of the order of the court; and also
(if they are of that
opinion) that such abstracts, copies, minutes and extracts tend to show a
connected chain of title to the land in that county, and upon filing of a
certificate of such circuit judges with the county clerk of the proper
county, the county board may, with the approval of the judges of the
circuit, purchase from the owners thereof such abstract copies, minutes or
extracts, or such part thereof as may tend to show a connected chain of
title to the land in such county, including all such judgments
as form part of any such chain of title, paying therefor such fair and
reasonable price as may be agreed upon between them and such owners, the
amount thus agreed to be paid for such abstracts, copies, minutes or
extracts shall be paid by such county in money or in bonds, to be issued by
such county, as the county board may determine, or such county board may,
with such approval, procure a copy of the
abstracts, copies, minutes and
extracts instead of the original, to be paid for in like manner. Any
owner of the abstracts, copies or minutes shall
have the right to file a petition in the circuit court of the proper
county, in which petition he, she or they shall set forth the manner in which
such abstracts, copies or minutes were made or procured, and if the court
finds from the evidence produced (which evidence shall be preserved as
hereinbefore provided) that the abstracts, copies or minutes were fairly
made in the regular course of business before such destruction of the
records, the court shall enter a judgment to that
effect, and the evidence
produced on the trial of the cause entered as a part of
the judgment of the court. Thereupon the abstracts, copies, or minutes,
of the burnt records shall be taken prima facie evidence of all such
matters as they contain (but no such abstracts, copies, minutes or extracts
shall be taken or held to be prima facie evidence of what they contain that
does not purport to recite all deeds and mortgages previously executed and
recorded, and describing the several tracts of lands and town lots to which
the abstracts, copies, minutes or extracts refer from the date
of entry). All abstracts to separate tracts of lands made by
the owner of the abstracts, copies, minutes or extracts shall also be
taken and held as prima facie evidence of what they contain when they were
accompanied with an affidavit signed and sworn to by the owner or owners
of the abstracts, copies, minutes or extracts, showing that
the separate
abstracts contain a full, true and perfect copy of all transfers on the
tract or tracts set forth in the separate abstracts as appears
upon the
abstracts, copies, minutes or extracts, as established by the circuit court
of .... County, on the .... day of ...., .... and that the separate
abstracts contain all deeds, mortgages and other liens on the separate
tracts, as shown by the abstracts, copies, minutes or extracts established
as above stated.
(Source: P.A. 84-1308.)
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