Definition: A complete history of instruments used to transfer ownership in a piece of property from the U. S. Patent to the last record owner. Chain-of-Title breaks when a document is missing. A sample chain-of-title would look like this:

Thomas Jefferson, grantor, >> Sally Hemmings, grantee
Sally Hemmings, grantor >> Mildred Watkins, grantee
Mildred Watkins, grantor >> Jeremy Irons, grantee
Jeremy Irons, grantor >> Theodore Roosevelt, grantee
Theodore Roosevelt, grantor >> Mae West, grantee
Mae West, grantor >> Albert Einstein, grantee
Albert Einstein, grantor >> Farah Fawcett Majors, grantee
Farah Fawcett Majors, grantor >> Angelina Jolie, grantee

If a title searcher could not locate the deed from Roosevelt to West, the chain-of-title would be broken.

_{At the time of writing, Elizabeth Weintraub, DRE # 00697006, is a Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento, California.}