Our family has undivided mineral rights in Carter County and I don’t think some of the cousins made the proper legal transfer of their parents rights to them. How can I find that out? Also is there documentation they can to provide to( who?) to legally transfer without an attorney getting involved.
You can often check www.okcountyrecords.com to see if the probate documents or deeds have been filed in counties with minerals. Some counties are not there and have their own websites. Not all counties go all the way back to patent, so have to go to the courthouse for those, but most go back to the 1990’s.
Great information. Thanks
James: You can search for cousins or other relative’s names here: Carter County | OKCountyRecords.com | County Clerk Public Land Records for Oklahoma
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.
In my recent experience regarding a Trust, the mineral rights need to go back to the Trust to make the heirs legal holders. Then they were registered with the Registrar of Deeds in that county, they will stamp and return to show legal heirship. You will each have a Mineral Deed.
Try asking them first?
If you’re not speaking, what type of ownership do you have with your cousins? Joint Tenancy or Tenancy in Common? If you are tenants in common, you have no fiduciary responsibility to each other. You can do what you want with your percent of the undivided interest. If you’re joint tenants and you’re not speaking, then you should seek legal advice. If someone is approaching you to lease your minerals, they’ll do a title search and they’ll be contacting your cousins. Some people never change inherited minerals into their own name after the they inherit. It’s not ideal, but it does happen — more than you know. But if they want to lease their minerals, that’s when they’ll do the owner transfer.