My mother has just recently gotten a call from someone that was contracted through Antero to search ownership of mineral rights for a parcel in Tyler Co. WV. Long story short, apparently my paternal grandfather who died in 1932 owned these rights that no one in the family knew about and through an Affidavit of Heirship and tracking down bunches of Wills, now belong to my mother. (Lots of age differences in husbands and wives so yes, my mother is still living and my father died a while ago and his father died when he was a child.) Anyway, I can see online that the Affidavit is now recorded in Tyler County court records and we have not heard anything else from anyone. What do we do now? After doing a little snooping online and looking through old deeds, I THINK I know where the parcel is and who owns it, but I don't know what to do as far as should we contact someone about getting the rights in Mom's name? We have no documentation they exist other than I kept all emails and copies of documents from the contractor working for Antero. Help!
You could call Tyler county with the information you have from the Affidavit and ask to speak with the clerk who handles probate and see if there is something that the office there says. Otherwise research around here and look in the Tyler and Doddridge and Ritchie county groups (go to top under Groups, pull down and find West Virginia then those counties). You might want to repost this on the Tyler County group. I suggested the other two counties since there is a lot of good information there. Very likely Antero will call you about a lease. There is a lot of information about lease terms on those discussions. You probably will want to contact an attorney. There are some recommendations on those discussions as well. I have recommended Kyle Nuttall of Buckhannon several times. Very good attorney. There are others recommended as well.
Please feel free to keep asking questions.