Upon payment of a fee of two dollars ($2), the register of deeds of any such county shall examine the numerical index to any tract of land in the county and furnish to the person paying said fee a certificate showing whether or not any portion of numerical index pertaining to such tract is destroyed or illegible and showing whether or not any material part of the record of any instrument shown in the numerical index for such tract is destroyed or illegible. Such certificate shall also state the date upon which the records were damaged or destroyed and by what event. For the purpose of making such certificates each government quarter section or part thereof in case of unplatted lands and each block or part thereof in the case of platted land, shall be deemed a separate tract.