When any record book or books of the register’s office of any county have been damaged or mutilated by fire or otherwise, so that any part of the record in any book is destroyed, or mutilated, or is likely to become destroyed, or mutilated by continual use, the county legislative body of such county shall cause the same to be transcribed by the register, in a fair and legible hand, into a well-bound book or books, to be procured by the county legislative body, all such record books in the order of the dates of the original registration, marking at the top of each copy the original book and page or pages from which the transcript is made, so that no variation may appear between the pages of the transcript and those that were noted in the certificates on the original instruments; and, in all cases where the record of any word, part of word, sentence, part of sentence, or part of instrument, is destroyed, all that remains shall be copied, and the destroyed part indicated with asterisks.