N.Y. Real Property Law § 314-a: Proof when witnesses are dead

§ 314-a. Proof when witnesses are dead. When the witnesses to a

conveyance, authorized to be recorded, are dead, its execution may be

proved before any officer authorized to take within the state the

acknowledgment and proof of conveyances, other than a commissioner of

deeds, a notary public, or a justice of the peace. The proof of the

execution must be made by satisfactory evidence of the death of all the

witnesses thereto, and of the handwriting of such witnesses, or any one

of them, and of the grantor, which evidence, with the name and residence

of each witness examined, must be set forth by the officer taking the

same, in his certificate of proof. A conveyance so proved, and

certified, may be recorded in the proper office, if the original

conveyance be at the same time deposited in the same office, there to

remain for the inspection of all persons desiring to examine the same.

If the conveyance affects real property in two or more counties, a

certified copy of the conveyance, with the proof and certificates, may

be recorded in each of such counties. Such recording and deposit are

constructive notice of the execution of such conveyance to all

purchasers of the same real property, or any part thereof, from the same

vendor, his heirs or assigns, subsequent to such recording, but do not

entitle the conveyance or the record thereof, or a transcript of the

record, to be read in evidence.