60+ yrs ago my mother's family inherited a 50% interest in mineral rights to property in MT. That 50% was divided equally into 10% shares among my mom and her 4 other siblings at that time. All those original family members have since passed on. My mom had two children, and one of her brothers had 3. The other 3 original members had no offspring and only one was married. At this point in time, there are only myself and two cousins left from that original family. We know that our parent's interests were passed on to us.
However, our question is this: what happens to an interest in mineral rights held by those who have no offspring and designate no heirs? In our case that would be 3 10% interests out of the original 50% held by the family/siblings. Does that 30% simply go away as a dead end? Or does it somehow maintain the original 50%, only redistributed among any surviving heirs? Or does something else happen?
At this point, for the three of us who survive and would like to simply pass on our interests to our children, where do we go to find out how MT law reads on such an issue??? Thanks in advance!!!
To start Google MT statutes to see how it reads regarding mineral rights and heirs, then see if the Recorders is online and you can search all of the different names and the specific property to see if the decedent(s) deeded the minerals to anybody else! Oftentimes, when the minerals go dormant many people forget about the minerals and forget to include them in their estates. Good luck!