Contradictory Oil and Mineral Rights?

Oil and Gas Leasing Help
1

Thanks for your help trying to figure out these contradictory records concerning the O&M rights to a property in Anderson County, Texas (under A-73, Lot 19).

Please find three files attached. The first is the deed from J.E. Copeland which conveys 3/4 interest in the O&M rights for the subject property to my father, L.S. Copeland. The deed references Vol 121, Pg 105 as the prior deed from S.N. Ricks to J.E. Copeland in the chain of title.

The next two files attached are copies of Vol 121, Pg. 105 I traced back. Everything matches, i.e., the grantor S.N. Ricks, the property description, the date of transference EXCEPT for the grantee. Instead of J.E. Copeland, it shows J.J. Strickland to be the recipient of the O&M rights!

I am currently under lease with a company which is drilling and producing on the subject property. On the lease, it does show a Strickland ancestor listed as having common interest in the O&M rights for the property along with several other people.

Can you give me any idea how title for the same interest could be deeded to two or more different people like this? I am hoping someone with experience in researching O&M interest might have some clue. Also, it may give me some idea how I might do further research to determine whether the interest on the property has been correctly distributed or not.

Thanks for your time and assistance. All comments, suggestions welcome, I am just an owner with no landman or title research experience.

1058-3388_001.pdf (156 KB) 1059-Deed1.jpg (176 KB) 1060-Deed2.jpg (172 KB)
2

Raymond:

It appears to me that your title flows through Strickland. J.E. Copeland may have bought through Strickland (not Ricks) and conveyed to L.S. Copeland. Strickland may not have conveyed all he took from Ricks.

While it’s entirely possible that the operator’s title attorney or their landmen made an error, it’s more likely that you might have missed some links in your chain of title.

Ask your operator for more information.

3

4

Thank you for that, Jeff. How do I trace the title up from Strickland? Tracing back is easy, because the deeds usually reference back to vol,pg number, but no clue how to trace up. Anyway, it definitely would make sense if there was a subsequent transfer of interest from Strickland to J.E. Copeland.