LowellDeeds

Now that the new website is online, our next project is to begin updating the Massachusetts Deed Indexing Standards. Enacted on January 1, 2000 by the Massachusetts Registers of Deeds Association, the Indexing Standards have played a very important role in bringing predictability to indexing practices from registry to registry (at least at the registries that follow them). In the three years since their implementation, however, we have discovered a number of ambiguities and situations not covered by the existing standards. For example, the standards state that no punctuation shall be used in the index. But now, we have names such as E*Trade and 1-800-East-West-Mortgage in which punctuation marks are an integral part of the name. We hope to have supplemental standards ready for publication early in the summer. This is an area where reader comments would be especially welcome. So, if you have any pet peeves about indexing, please let us know.