MERS provides tracking numbers for the hundreds of millions (billions?) of mortgages across the country. Look for the bar code.
Mortgages (and other instruments) change hands so often, a private database was created.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MERS
The curious part of this whole thing is that the mortgage discharge document is the first time any indication of MERS' involvement is recorded. I have no indication that the property has changed hands (I can't find this out right now because the discharge occurred so recently), so a mortgage discharge in the absence of any other documentation seems odd.
I’ve got the bar code for the mortgage discharge document right in front of me. What exactly am I looking for on this?