I found an assignment of royalty in my mom’s old paperwork. It is from 1937 and purchased by my great grandfather. My mom said they’ve always been told it was worth nothing. I followed the advice of many here on other posts and called XTO who has a current permit in the area. They indeed had an account in suspense in my great grandfather’s name. The agent gave me the procedure to get this transferred to my mom and uncles names. The agent also told me the wells that were generating the money were in 2 different counties in ND—Wells and McKenzie—and they accessed my portion horizontally. Is this normal to be in 2 counties or should I be hunting for another royalty assignment? Should I also be checking with other companies other than XTO to see if someone else has funds in suspense?
I have a large folder with a lot of old documents but only one appears to be a true royalty document. The others are mining stock certificates. Thank you for any help. This is all foreign to me! We don’t have oil in Georgia 
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Be sure to check unclaimed property fund in ND and the state where your grandfather lived. Be sure to check his name and the names of his heirs.
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After 40 years of of locating “lost mineral owners”, I will tell you to keep investigating your grandfather’s holdings. Purchasers in 1937, the depression era, is a common theme for many of the royalty promoters. Your grandfather may have purchased in other counties in ND as well as other States. There are many strategies in locating these types of lost properties. Start with the basics and find out if your grandfather’s estate was probated. If so, get a complete copy of the probate not just the final order. None of this is quick and easy, so picture yourself as Sam Slade. Good luck.
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Since I do have confirmation that he has money in suspense with XTO, should I be checking with other operators, too, or does only one operator have rights there? Williams county 154N 96W if that helps.
You can also search with www.missingmoney.com in all the states to see if there are funds under your great grandfather or your mom’s names. Delaware may also end up with money since many companies are domiciled there.
Thank you! There were a ton of entries in Delaware so I’m on the right track now!
You are a good sleuth to find him in DE. Little know fact, UCP rules used to be State of last residence, State of the property, State of Purchaser corporate domicile. For the longest period, companies held the UCP/suspense funds until States started to develop UCP statutes. Many of the old royalty promoters did not record an address for their grantees so as to not expose the Buyer list (Actually called something not so nice). With no address, then that leaves the State of the Property or the Corporate Domicile. For many years DE was the domicile to a large number of corporations; therefore, UCP was always worth checking but generally unsuccessful.
DE had a nuance in their UCP law, they only posted the names of DE residents. Any non-DE parties had to be checked by call or mail which was painfully slow in response. They reason for this is vague, but some would say the purposeful lack of transparency might have been for the purpose of keeping the funds in the DE coffers to earn income for the State. NJ followed a similar practice. Being the domicile of Standard of NJ (otherwise known as Exxon) they had a large UCP. Other States have tried similar actions such as not providing access to UCP lists even though they lists were published in newspapers. OK used a different technique to discourage UCP finders.
OK made finders disclose the location of the funds related to mineral interests and whether there were wells on the property. Most would say that is only fair, but it also pushed most finders from the State since their ability to close was severely inhibited. The result was those OK UCP funds sat with the State much longer. Interestingly, attorneys were exempt from these statutes and free to roll recoveries of UCP and property into fee agreements.
MissingMoney.com helps many locate the State for UCP funds. They do a pretty good job with the information they are able to gather. Keep after your detective work. No telling what you may uncover.
That was very informative! I really think there will be more uncovered. My great grandfather only used his first initial in all of his purchases…this will be fun. I’m trying my luck with Canada, too, and that is very difficult. But up until 4 weeks ago, I didn’t know any of this mineral royalty world existed. I found one random sheet of paper cleaning out my mom’s file cabinet. She has Alzheimer’s and on this particular day she could tell me all about the deed but they never could get anywhere. So that started my journey that feels like I’m in the goonies! I’m learning so much and can’t wait to have my mom be a mineral owner legally!
During that time period, it was very common to have people only using their initials on deeds. I have never done any title work in Canada, so I cannot be of any help to you there. Possibly other members of this forum can provide some insights for you. Keep pulling on any thread you can find. Good luck.