Hello everyone,
I recently found out that I inherited land from my grandfather in Grimes County Texas. Could someone please inform me on the easiest way to confirm that I indeed have mineral rights on the land?
Thanks
You may want to contact the local title company in Anderson, Texas, Guaranty Title Company, at 936-873-2250 or Grimes County Title in Navasota, Texas, at 936-825-8228, to conduct a title search and tell them you want to know if you own the minerals. (The cost will more than likely depend upon the time involved.) Do you know who your grandfather acquired the land from and when? Your other option is to go to the Anderson County Clerk’s Office and research the deed records yourself, which can be a laborious process depending upon how many times the land has changed ownership. Are you familiar with deed records? I can give you some suggestions for searching in Anderson, if you choose to do it yourself first.
Thank you for the reply!
I am waiting for a copy of the deed to be mailed to my house from the County Records Department as this is all new to me.
I know that my grandfather outright bought the land but can not confirm how many times it changed hands prior to that. Im up for a little research but I may have to pay someone to do this because I am up North and the land is down south. I may have to take a trip in the coming months to confirm the situation as everything will be transferred to my name shortly.
Again, thanks for your reply.
Thanks for the reply Keri but unfortunately he did not leave a will so I am stuck at this time trying to piece together the entire estate through record searches which is incredibly frustrating. Although, the more I find, the happier I am becoming.
I can't say this would be the easiest, but it could be the least expensive, and you'd learn a lot in the process. Going to the courthouse yourself as Keri suggested is what I'm getting at. It's not always easy to research mineral title, but as long as you have the family names and are familiar with the property's history it might be doable. In addition, the county clerk's office (where the records are) is often very helpful in getting you started in the right direction.
Most counties also have an abstractor office close to the courthouse. An abstractor is a private company, and have their own records of who owns what. They will charge you to search their index books, but it might be faster than the county clerk's office since they are arranged by legal description rather than by name. If you don't have a legal description (i.e. survey name, section etc.) then you will need to search by name, which can be a lot more time consuming.The reason the abstract office is often faster is because all the records pertaining to your specific property will be listed in one place. This saves you from searching through numerous index books at the county clerk's office.
In states that use the rectangular survey system of land records (i.e. section, township, and range) the county clerk's office will have things arranged by legal description as well, In most parts of Texas however, only an abstractor has tract indexes. Note that I am not an "expert" on Texas so may be mistaken on this, but every time I've run title in Texas I've ended up at the abstract office to confirm and cross-reference what I found in the county clerk's "name" indexes.
If you'd like some more info on "running title" you can check out a blog entry I posted on my web site on the subject. You can find it here: http://www.mineralhub.com/2010/04/how-can-i-locate-who-owns-the-mineral-rights-under-my-land/
Hope this helps you out.
Frederick M. Scott CMM RPL
Timbercreek Mineral Company, LLC
http://www.mineralhub.com
Frederick, Thanks for the information that you have posted regarding another way for me to find the information that I am seeking. The major problem is that I am far from Texas and it has been somewhat costly in getting any documents that I need however, that is the only option I have until I make my trip down South. However, contacting another agency that has the information I need will help me out tremedously.