How do I cite a deed or other real estate record in MLA style?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

To cite a real estate record, follow the MLA format template. The author is the entity that produced the document, the title is a description of the document’s contents, and the container is the place you found it, whether online or in a physical archive. For example, if you wanted to refer to a deed relating to 1 World Trade Center found in a publicly searchable database, you might produce the following citation:

NYC Department of Finance, Office of the City Register. Deed to 1 World Trade Center. Automated City Register Information System, 9 Jan. 2019, a836-acris.nyc.gov/DS/DocumentSearch/
DocumentImageView?doc_id=2008102200366001.