I divorced in 1995. At the time, my then-husband and I had a mortgage on a house (tiny little house in a nearby town.) The divorce decree “awarded” him the house (we probably had about $1.47 in equity at the time, since it had only been purchased the year before.) In 1996, he told my mother that he couldn’t pay the mortgage and that it was being foreclosed. Nothing I could do at the time, so… I just assumed it went back to the bank. I hadn’t seen anything about the default on my credit report lately, but I assumed that was because it was darned near 20 years ago.
Okay, fast-forward to today: My oldest daughter sent a text - her dad needed me to get in touch with someone in this nearby town in order to get my name off that mortgage. 
<<<— That’s the look on my face. Anyway, I haven’t called that person yet, because I plan to get some legal advice first, but I did check with the tax assessor’s office: Yep, there’s my name on the records, house is now worth about 40% more than we paid, taxes are up-to-date. Hmmm, wonder what rights I have to that property?
Not that I want to assert those rights, but I definitely want to talk to an attorney before just signing off on something like this. Weird.