The term "flaw" is used to describe an apparent gap or break in the chain of title, which, when occurring constitutes in many cases an unsurmountable impediment. A requisition must in such case be made for the missing links, whether the interruption be partial, as where one of several persons shown to possess a unity of interest fails to convey, or entire, as where no privity of title is shown to exist between present claimants and past owners. Where the original title fails, and requisitions for the purpose of showing connection are returned unsatisfied, the title asserted becomes adverse to the original title and necessarily inquiries in pais must be made to show an indefeasible title by adverse possession.

An apparent break in the chain often occurs in the case of descents, the estate of the intestate never having been settled in probate; and when the only heirs are married women, and conveyance is subsequently made by them, if no description of the person or of the capacity in which they grant is given, the break, upon the record, will, of course, be complete. When a grantee under an unrecorded land contract has gone into possession, but no deed has ever been made, the same state of facts will exist in respect to conveyances by him. Again, and these cases are by no means uncommon, simple or ignorant people frequently go into possession under deeds which they never cause to be recorded, and this apparently breaks the continuity of interest and title. Requisitions, in many instances, will suffice to discover the missing evidence, but when this cannot be found, possession and claim of title under the statute of limitations must be relied on.

A serious defect of the character under consideration will frequently be found at the very initiation of title, the abstract showing only the original entry at the government land office, supplemented, possibly, by the local record of the Receiver's duplicate receipt. Now, it is immaterial how long the premises may have remained in private occupancy, nor" through how many hands it may have passed; the title, in such a case, is only an equity, for no limitation runs against the government. Yet, such defects are very common. From a very early day in the history of the public land system, settlers and purchasers seem to have been strangely indifferent in the matter of securing possession of the government patents for their lands, and in hundreds of thousands of instances the foundation of title, as exhibited by local records, to lands purchased from the government, some of them of vast present value, is merely the duplicate receipt above alluded to. Probably, this indifference has arisen chiefly from ignorance on the part of purchasers that a patent constitutes the only positive evidence of the transfer of title from the government to the individual, but whatever may be the cause the fact exists,83 and this vital link, showng the original derivation of title, should be restored whenever it is found to be wanting.84

83 It would seem from the report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the year 1875, that at that time there were remaining in the files of the general and local land office nearly two millions of uncalled for patents, covering probably not less than 150,000,000 acres, no small proportion of which were lands purchased from the government more than half a century before, lying in the older states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, etc. 84 The initial statements taken from the government Tract Book will always furnish a clue