No instrument may be recorded unless proven either by acknowledgment of the signor or the affidavit of a subscribing witness. The following are the officials who are authorized to take acknowledgments; notaries public, commissioners of deeds, justices of the peace, judges of courts of record, mayors of cities, ambassadors and ministers residing abroad, consular agents, and commissioners of deeds appointed by governors of States to take acknowledgments in other States. Each of these officials has definite limits of authority. He cannot act outside the area of his authority. He may take therein an acknowledgment of an instrument to be recorded elsewhere. When he does this the instrument cannot be recorded elsewhere without a certificate attached from the clerk of the court of the county or city in which the official is qualified to act, stating that the official is qualified to take acknowledgments of instruments intended to be recorded in that State, that the signature of the official is known so the clerk and the signature affixed to the certificate of acknowledgment is genuine. (Appendix form 29.)