Illinois Code § 8

§ 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.)