Essex South's computer system has a limited address search bar, but since they don't take all docs by address (FTL/MTL, etc) it's not terribly useful.  Their new, improved computer system, has a "continuous entries with no breaks" option, so that everything scrolls on one page; so everything is much easier to see - it's sort of like looking at the old enormous entry books. 

My personal opinion is that the title company is possibly at fault, for not aka'ing him, given that they should have known how he took title on the deed. 

The other thing that is interesting in this regard  is one of my earlier posts about avoiding a mortgage by a bankruptcy judge, due to a name/signature/notarization issue.  The judge's reasoning was somewhat convoluted, but it worked.