Can you please tell me , if I have researched our property and find no records of minerals being reserved doesn't that mean we have them? If they had been reserved on our property wouldn't a mineral deed have to be on file when the property sold and minerals were held ? Thanks in advance
This is in Texas
You researched and found no records of minerals being reserved.
What does your deed say? Did the minerals transfer with the land or not?
Good luck,
Pat
Hi, DT -
The State (actually, the State School Land Board) can own your minerals. That could very likely only show up in the Patent or the State's Land Files and maybe nowhere else.
Call Walter Talley (512-475-1859) at the Land Classification Office at the Texas General Land Office (GLO) in Austin. He will check the original Land File and let you know if the State owns your minerals or not.
Otherwise, mineral and royalty interests can only be severed from the surface by a reservation or sale of them. Perhaps a Court Order or something like that.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, if you found and reviewed every conveyance of the land from Sovereignty (Land Grant or Patent) to today and did not see anything mentioned about minerals or royalties in them, then I would say yes, you own your minerals.
Hope this helps -
Charles Emery Tooke III
Certified Professional Landman
Fort Worth, Texas