I recently discovered that our family has about 6,000 acres of mineral rights and oil & gas leases but am uncertain as to how to make sure we still “own” them and how to go about leasing them:
577 acres in Stephens County, Texas
80 acres in Caddo County, Oklahoma
5,223 in Torrance County, Texas
and numerous acres in Murray County, Oklahoma and Nowata County, Oklahoma.
How do we find how to move forward with making sure these haven’t been turned over to the state and how to go about leasing them?
Thank you for the help.
The first thing is to make a list of what you think you own. Excel or some spreadsheet is helpful for that. You would need to make sure your title is clear. If you just inherited by a will, that is fairly simple and has been discussed on the forum. (Scroll around in this topic). At least in OK and probably other states, you must give you name and address and a description of the minerals in each country where you own. It is a small fee. Operators cannot lease you if they cannot find you.
You might want to use a website called www.okcountyrecords.com and hunt down your ancestor. See if there are any sales under that name. Not all counties are there, but most. Get familiar with the Oklahoma Corporation website. They have a missing money area. You can see if money is being held in suspense at the state Treasurer’s office. Also check the state where the ancestor lived. Sometimes Delaware as well.
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In Oklahoma you will probably eventually need a probate or quiet title to get these into your name. Caddo County Oklahoma does not have any record searching availability.
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