An abstract should be prepared in a neat and orderly manner, and so disposed as to facilitate the labor of counsel in passing an opinion on the title. A formal caption should apprise the reader at the outset of the subject of the examination, while the different searches should be arranged under classified heads, and for purposes of convenient reference the various statements should be numbered consecutively from the beginning. As far as possible the chronological sequence of the conveyances should be preserved. The result of the search should be recapitulated at the conclusion by a certificate covering all the essential features of the examination. The formal parts should be brief and yet explicit.

The object of the caption is to definitely describe the subject of the examination. The caption, therefore, should consist of a full description of the parcel or parcels of land under examination, and the time from which the search is made. Where the examination commences at the source of title, as where a devolution from the United States is shown, no announcement of the time from which the search dates is necessary, but when any intermediate point is selected it is customary to indicate same.

The different conveyances and stages of title are usually shown in chronological order so as to present, as far as possible, a connected chain, and are numbered seriatim from the beginning. The hens and incumbrances when connecting title should be set forth in regular chronological order in conjunction with other instruments, and releases or discharges should immediately follow the incumbrance or hen which they purport to affect, irrespective of the time they bear date. The aim of the examiner should be to present, so far as may be, the course of title in unbroken sequence through whatever forms or instrumentalities it may pass. Judgments against the person, mechanic's Hens, taxes and tax sales, are better shown after the course of title has been traced, in the shape of appendices and under appropriate heads. Decrees, judgments, orders affecting the land, and tax deeds, of course appear in regular order in the body of the abstract.

The result of the examiner's labors should be summed up in conclusion, by a brief recapitulatory and explanatory certificate, embodying the essential features of the search. It should be certain in its statements, leaving nothing to implication, and contain no more than is developed by actual investigation. If the examination is made from the records it should so state, enumerating the different classes examined, or describing the offices or depositories from which the information was obtained, but where it is made from indices kept by the examiner, it is customary to certify from such indices. It should be signed by the examiner and dated, such date being usually the date of the examination.26