Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

How is it possible? They forged your name. There is no reason the county recorder would know the documents were forged. If you want to protect yourself, you wil need to take action. You need counsel to advise you in recovery of your property.

Your answer is in your question. If your signature was forged, then it was done with your signature. Not your VALID signature, but that doesn't matter to the county recorder/assessor's office clerks. They aren't forensic signature examiners. They rely on the signatures being notarized. The more challenging question is how did they get the documents notarized with forged signatures. There is no way to answer that without an investigation into the whole matter.