My family has had land/mineral rights in Payne County, OK since my Great-grandfather’s brother Homsteaded there in the 1890’s. Long story short, my father just passed away in January and my family has asked me to figure out what needs to happen. I can find online where my great-granmother filed paperwork (in the 1970’s) for her shares of the mineral rights to go to my grandfather. I did find online a court document (in the 1990’s) saying that all of my grandfather’s interests go to his wife and two children. The last actual mineral deed I can find online is my great-grandmother. My aunt and father have received sporatic checks from “The Oil Wells” as long as I can remember. I’ve also looked online and there are many Oklahoma unclaimed properties for multiple of my ancestors to include ones where there portions were given/sold to another unrelated family. I’ve called the Payne county clerk and Payne County property assessor’s office, but since I live in Tennessee, this is a process that we are all completely lost on. I need details. I know we will eventually need a lawyer; however, money is a concern. How do we legally get the mineral deeds to process through the generations? How do we work the unclaimed property? How do we get the royalty checks out of my father’s name and into mine and my brother’s? Any help appreciated.
A, let me hit some of the questions and things you’ve raised.
- You may not find mineral deeds all the way down to your father. As an example (which may not apply in your case), if there is a court case, which is typically a probate or an estate proceeding, there will be an order distributing the ownership from the decedent to their heirs. In that situation, no mineral deed is issued, because the court order is the transfer document.
- You may need to have probate proceedings done for all the missing heirships. For example, if your grandmother’s estate didn’t have a probate, then you would need one for your grandmother and your father. That can be done in one court case. A court case of multiple deceased estates can be done in one case.
- Make a claim to the unclaimed property. They will require information, but that can be done from Tennessee or Mars. That is all online.
- If you know the operators (oil companies), contact them. They may transfer the payments by an affidavit of heirship. Sometimes, they will even email you a form. They might require a probate, but while the affidavits of heirship don’t clean up all the title, they are cheaper than probates.
- Lawyers bill for their time. The above is not insurmountable. But, all of that is to say, the more you can do on your own and the more you are organized, it makes it easy on the lawyer.
Condolences on the passing of your father.
Listen to Tim! He is an expert.
You can search for unclaimed funds at www.missingmoney.com. Look in every state where the ancestors have lived and also Delaware. You can identify if there is any. Then you will need the title info to claim it.
Payne is not in the hot spot of drilling now, but you may find older wells that have produced. You can look up the section, township and range for wells on the OK well records site.
First off, thank you! This has been helpful in getting me in a direction.
- I did find online, the court case giving my grandfather’s interests to his wife and 2 children equally. So that means I will not have to deal with probate prior to that because his mother had already given his portions to her son at that point.
- Because all of us (g-grandmother, grandfather, grandmother, and father) have always lived in Tennessee, would the probate proceedings need to be done in Tennessee or Oklahoma?
- Thank you. We have started this process.
- We know two of the companies because I found them on Shale XP site; however, the company listed isn’t the company issuing checks. For example, the site states Skycap Energy but the check comes in the name of a different company BRG Energy. Which company do we contact?
- Yes. This is why I was volunteered to do the work. I am a school teacher and genealogist which means that I have the time and skills to do the research prior to turning it all over to a lawyer.
Thank you so much for this information. I didn’t yet have this site and it lead me to loads of information.
I do now have another question. If my family originally had the land and sold the land but not the mineral rights (the papers state that specifically) and a new land owner had a well drilled, wouldn’t my family be entitled to the profits? I don’t quite understand this part.
It depends upon if the mineral acres are in the spacing unit of the well. For example, if you have mineral rights in the SW4 of a section, but the well is drilled in the NE4 at 80 acre spacing, then you may not have royalty rights because you were not in the spacing unit. If the well is horizontal and covers the entire 640 acres, (or a gas well at 640 acres), then you will probably be included if there was a valid lease or forced pooling. They are supposed to cover all of the mineral acres in the spacing unit with either a lease or a pool.
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I will Tim answer the probate question for sure since he is the attorney. My understanding would be Tennessee first and then a foreign probate in OK which demands the second one.
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Contact the check company first. BRG.
Mineral interests are considered to be an interest in land. From a jurisdiction standpoint the Tennessee Court would be powerless to enter an effective order transferring the minerals. You can probate in Oklahoma even without filing a case in Tennessee, assuming that there is no need for a TN probate.
049-036084-0-0000
Doesn’t hurt to reach out to each.
Notice: Informational only. No attorney-client relationship is formed by this post. I am an Oklahoma-licensed attorney, but this is not legal advice. Do not share confidential facts in this public space.
What Rick said.
The helpful attorneys have spoken!