INASMUCH AS THEY STARTED DRILLING BEFORE THEY LOCATED YOU, I WONDER WHAT ARRANGEMENTS WERE WORKED OUT?
Under par said:
Hi JW,
I understand you. Unfortunately, no one in the family knows where the mineral rights are. Sounds like it would take a county by county search. Very difficult since we live out of state and have full time jobs. The two counties that we currently have rights are Terry County and Knox County.
Thanks for your reply
JW Anderson said:
Records are stored on a county basis. When talking to your extended family, you need to translate “several parts of Texas” into the counties in which they may have owned land as best you can. Personally, I would start with the two known properties, and search the books in the county clerk’s office for the particular known legal descriptions. You are looking for documents that are listed under your great grandparents’ names (as well as grandparents and parents). Typically, you would be looking for warranty deeds, mineral deeds, oil and gas leases, estate distributions, etc. Sometimes these documents give clues as to OTHER property that is owned, even in other counties.
You can do this work yourself if you have a mind to and are persistent. This will be time consuming, and require lots of patience. Some county records are available online, but many do not go back far enough in time to help you, since you are dealing with great-grandparents. Here is a link:
http://texasfile.com/texas-land-records-coverage/#county_coverage
To re-state the obvious, there is no magical registry where all this is kept. Your search will need to be done on a county by county basis, and in most cases you need to actually travel to the county seat of each county and go through the records mentioned. You need to become a good detective. I’ve done quite a bit of this kind of thing, but perhaps others can add to my comments.