Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I suggest starting with your title report, assuming that you purchased title insurance at the time you purchased the house. It should list easements of records, usually as exclusions to insurance coverage.

A thorough search would include (a) looking at your title report; (b) looking at you deed; (c) going to the county recorder's office and reviewing such documents as the most-recent deeds to your neighbor's property and to the property for the benefit of which the easement supposedly exists (if you go at an off-peak hour, a clerk may be willing to assist you); (d) asking the neighbor who told you about the easement how he knows about it; and (e) maybe asking the owner of the supposedly benefitted property.

An easement can be abandoned, but it takes quite conclusive evidence to prove; mere non-use is not in itself sufficient.

I have seen unrecorded easements shown on subdivision maps. These maps are prepared as part of the process of applying for a subdivision and may later get recorded, possibly not in association with each parcel of the subdivision. Therefore, you might also visit the county planning department and ask where and how you can obtain prints of any subdivision map or application affecting your parcel, at least in recent years.