2010 New York Code
RPP - Real Property
Article 9 - (290 - 336) RECORDING INSTRUMENTS AFFECTING REAL PROPERTY
314-A - Proof when witnesses are dead.

§  314-a.  Proof  when  witnesses  are  dead.  When the witnesses to a
  conveyance, authorized to be recorded, are dead, its  execution  may  be
  proved  before  any  officer  authorized  to  take  within the state the
  acknowledgment and proof of conveyances, other than  a  commissioner  of
  deeds,  a  notary  public,  or a justice of the peace.  The proof of the
  execution must be made by satisfactory evidence of the death of all  the
  witnesses  thereto, and of the handwriting of such witnesses, or any one
  of them, and of the grantor, which evidence, with the name and residence
  of each witness examined, must be set forth by the  officer  taking  the
  same,  in  his  certificate  of  proof.  A  conveyance  so  proved,  and
  certified, may be  recorded  in  the  proper  office,  if  the  original
  conveyance  be  at  the same time deposited in the same office, there to
  remain for the inspection of all persons desiring to examine  the  same.
  If  the  conveyance  affects  real  property  in two or more counties, a
  certified copy of the conveyance, with the proof and  certificates,  may
  be  recorded  in  each  of such counties. Such recording and deposit are
  constructive  notice  of  the  execution  of  such  conveyance  to   all
  purchasers of the same real property, or any part thereof, from the same
  vendor,  his  heirs or assigns, subsequent to such recording, but do not
  entitle the conveyance or the record thereof, or  a  transcript  of  the
  record, to be read in evidence.