A centralized database system for supporting transactions in property. The central database is accessed by system users over a public network such as the Internet. The central database forms a title registry recording the entitlements of the users, who are a defined group, to perform prescribed actions in relation to electronically created records. The electronically created records represent a strictly defined series of rights and obligations in relation to underlying property with one record being created for support of one transaction. The users become entitled by virtue of their designation to prescribed roles by a previously entitled user. Designation of a user to a prescribed role in a record takes place by means of a system user sending an electronic instruction to the database, these electronic instructions being referred to as registry instructions or title registry instructions.