Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If the deed is from X to Y, and you are Z, you may have an interesting historic piece of paper, but you don't have any interest in the property described in the deed. In fact, grantees can (but usually don't) throw away their original deeds once they are recorded. A deed is a one-time, one-purpose instrument, not proof of ownership. To be extra sure, you might want to show the instruments you acquired to a real-estate attorney in your county, but I'm pretty sure you have nothing but ancient history.

You may possess the deeds, but you don't own the property.