I am new to ALL of this so please forgive me if I ask questions that may have been answered in another discussion. Our family has had a trust that was established in Oklahoma with several mineral rights listed (8 counties total) since the late 70's that no one really knew much about. The trust has gone through a few different heirs that are all deceased. About two months ago we were contacted by a company wanting to lease mineral rights in Logan County as well as another man for mineral rights in Blaine County. We have been getting all of the legal documents to show the line of succession and prove that we are the heirs but we are not really sure where to go from here. So here are a few of my questions:
Do we need to hire an attorney to transfer the Trust into a current name? Or will an Affadavit of Heirship be sufficient? I know that we will have to file the AOH with the county clerks with the appropriate death certificates but is that it?
Also, I read on one of the forums that if there is an order number that means there are wells that are producing. Is this accurate? How can I get the API numbers or anything else that I can use to check the well search databases? Some of the orders I found with our family names listed date back to 1999. IF this ends up being a producing well, will we receive money all of the way back to 1999?
How do we find out if there is money in suspense with each oil company listed? We have already checked unclaimed property but are there any other resources to find suspended funds and how long do companies hold funds before they go to the Unclaimed Property?
Thank you so much for all of your help and guidance as we begin this journey! Any help is appreciated