§ 121.007.Form for Ordinary Certificate of Acknowledgment

The traditional certificate, and its structure follows the requirements of the sections before it.

The form must be substantially as follows — which, read with the alteration section, means it is a model rather than a script.

It opens with the state and county, fixing where the acknowledgment was taken. That matters because an officer’s authority is territorial.

Then the officer’s own appearance line: "Before me ____ (here insert the name and character of the officer) on this day personally appeared ____".

"Character of the officer" means the office held — notary public, county clerk — since the chapter’s authority runs to offices rather than to individuals.

The identity clause is the substance of the long form: the person is "known to me (or proved to me on the oath of ____ or through ____ (description of identity card or other document))".

Those three alternatives are the three routes the identity section allows, and the certificate is where the officer records which one was used — the notation that section requires.

Then the acknowledgment itself: the person is "the person whose name is subscribed to the foregoing instrument" and "acknowledged to me that he executed the same for the purposes and consideration therein expressed".

The form closes with the seal and the date, "Given under my hand and seal of office".

This is the form to use where a record of the identification method is wanted; the short forms omit it and are quicker, which is why both survive.