My family was recently contacted by someone claiming to be a genealogist looking for heirs to one of our relatives. A few day later I believe a landman called and said he represented an oil company. One of our relatives had purchased a very small amount of mineral rights in Texas in the early 1900's. Because no other heirs could be located the mineral rights were specially leased by the state to another party in the early 1960's. This oil company was now interested in buying or leasing the mineral rights (after their effort trying to locate an heir). After providing info. on our family the landman called back a few days later and said they wouldn't be proceeding. I'm not exactly sure why maybe because of probate or will costs. Anyway, how should we go about handling this situation? I believe it is only a 1 acre increment of mineral rights or at least that is what we were told. I know this person is our relative because I had done my own genealogy work a few years back and we are the only heirs. Do you think it's odd to be contacted for such a small amount of land/mineral rights? Confused??? Please help. Do you think there is any real value here?
No, it is not odd to be contacted on a small amount. If the company is not interested in leasing the property there is nothing to handle. Companies evaluate the cost of obtaining leases and if it is too high, they simply back off.
If you are sure it is your relative, you can place documents on record proving that if you have any.
Was there ever production from the minerals?
I believe there was because there are small amounts of money in Texas unclaimed funds for my relative spanning 2008 - 2014. I’m assuming these are royalty payments.