I inherited 10 Acres Mineral Rights in Hopkins County. I contacted the County Clerk several years ago to ask some questions. I have seen there are dry holes scattered all over the county. Has there been any interest in revisiting them? I plan on sending a registered letter to the County Clerk to get a legal description on my rights and ensure they have my present mailing address.
You do not need to send a certified letter. Hopkins County is online back to 1973 through TexasFile.com. The clerk is not required to do research for you. If you send a request with the book/page or recording information, then they can send a copy of the document for you. Most offices will not perform the research for you.
1 Like
worob40 – when a person inherits an interest in real property, it can mean it was carried out in one of several ways. Let me go through them:
-
Intestate passing of a party with real property interests. In this case no will was left or presented for probate and the interest passed to the heirs of the deceased according to the laws of descent and distribution as set out in Texas statutes. A document such as an affidavit of heirship is usually secured and recorded in the record to set out heirs. In some cases, the heirs choose to open a County Court at Law proceeding to set out heirship by an order of the court after several steps have been accomplished.
-
Testate passing of a party with real property interests, which means the deceased party left a will naming certain beneficiaries. A will must be admitted to probate by an order of the County Court at Law. The will and all probate proceedings are placed in the probate records of the county. This is sufficient to pass title without any further documents. In some cases, the executor makes deeds to the beneficiaries to the real property, but this is rare in my experience.
So, your interest may have come to you without a will but as an heir of the deceased by affidavit of heirship, or your interest may have come to you as a beneficiary in a will, or your interest was deeded to you by the executor of the estate of the deceased.
For you to know what document you need, you’d have to know what you’re looking for. Affidavits are recorded in the deed records. You need to know how to index for an affidavit. Wills are recorded in the probate records and these records are not available online. There is an exception to that, however, that in the event the probate was held outside of Hopkins County, in that case, the will then could have been recorded in the deed records. Again, you’d have to know how to index that. Or, in the off chance that you were actually deeded the interest by an executor, that would be in the deed records and you would find it by indexing your name in the reverse (grantee) index.
Mr. Garner is correct, the county clerk and staff will not search documents for you. If you know the recording data, you can call or write to request copies in that case. If you need a document, and it is available online, Texas File is a good way to get copies instantly.
All my best to you.
Phil
1 Like