If a deed, duly executed and delivered, is lost or destroyed before being recorded, the grantee or person claiming under him may file a copy of it in the registry of deeds in the county where the land lies. It shall have the same effect as a record for 90 days. He may thereupon proceed to have the depositions of the subscribing witnesses and others knowing the facts taken, as depositions are taken in perpetuam; but if any person supposed to have an adverse interest lives out of the State in an unknown place, the Superior Court may order notice of the taking of such depositions by publication as it deems proper. The filing and recording of such depositions and copy within said 90 days shall have the same effect as if the deed itself had been recorded when said copy was first filed. Certified copies thereof are evidence when the original would be.