Hi again, I am still struggling to figure out what I inherited from my mother in 2018. I receive payments from Silver Hill Energy, a statement from Burk Royalty, and a payment from BPX every month or so. When I first inherited BPX drilled a new well. From what I know these are related to rights in Caddo Parish LA and Panola County TX. I don’t have a great description of what I own, and am especially confused about two things-- the property records in Texas look like my mother’s name is still on some of the interests, and Panola is in LA, so I’m concerned that the ownership rights may not have transferred.
I just started getting a much larger check from BPX (Caddo).
How do I definitively figure out my ownership? I am a teacher and have spent money on a lawyer (no help) and tried to find a sandman last time I was on this forum but no one responded. I also tried the well data site but have no idea how to use it and am not finding anything.
I am trying to now write my own will and need to find this information in service to my son, but seemingly can’t! Please help.
@miss, are you keeping copies of your check stubs and payment details? This is often a good starting point. Also, online county land and deed records for your counties are available, and these are often free to search for your own name or your ancestors names. The state well maps are also good if you can locate your wells by name or api number. There is a lot to put together, but those are the starting places. Be patient and you will likely be able to piece it together, but keep asking questions as needed.
Thank you-- I am. But what I now am seeing is that 3 properties never got transferred to heirs while 5 did, and then there is a total confusion with two deeds that I have which are only mete and bound descriptions and no one can tell whether they were ever properly recorded- I can’t use metes and bounds to compare those deeds to what is recorded in the Panola County data. So I have at least two complications. I am going to call Panola County Monday with the deed page number where there was a mineral lease recorded to Union Producing Company in 1948. Hopefully that will help some, but I’m still stumped about translating metes and bounds to lots.
I answered in your separate post. Metes and bounds is the legal description of your tract within a specified section. The lease will use the same metes and description. The tract likely has an irregular shape as it followed a curve or canal etc when originally granted. It is not a lot like a house lot with an address.