I have a friend who lives in New York and knows nothing about how much mineral rights her father left her and her sister when he died. She has received letters from companies wanting to buy the mineral rights but she does not know how much it is. The land in question is located in Kingfisher county. sections 6-16N-7W and 7-16N-7W. the name of her father is Joseph Surry.
Is it just minerals or the surface land as well? It sounds like you need to conduct an extensive back title search, which may not be cheap and can be a lengthy process. Was there nothing in a will?
I would also imagine that if companies have been contacting her regarding leasing, they are aware of how much is there!
Sorry I could not be of anymore help!
I can give you what we have been through - my parents are still alive and came to me about two plus years ago and asked for help.
The first thing we did was do a 'mineral interest search' - aka 'an abstract' of the properties in question.
I took over six months to complete and cost just under $2000 which I paid for myself - I got the name of the company who did the search from the Lea County Clerks office. As I said, it was two plus years ago when that occurred.
It has been an interesting path to go down. After six months, we had three large pieces of land that my parents own the mineral right on. There were four other names on those pieces of property as owners of mineral rights.
Further research on my own and by talking to my parents several times, we determined that the rest of the names on the mineral rights were ALL my relatives. THEY ARE ALL DEAD. THEY HAD NO WILLS that we can find and they have no children or other progeny that we can find.
Then with the help of the probate judge in Lea County, New Mexico, we filed probated wills for my great grandfather and his wife (no will for her) and then probated my grandfathers will and his wife (no will). This showed the chain of ownership from purchase to current day.
After all that paperwork was found and filed, the judge had me fill out several other forms to show that the mineral rights now resided with my parents. We then filled out a Join Tenant Mineral Deed with my sister and I added to the mineral rights - REMEMBER, my parents are still alive.
I did all the 'leg work' for all of this. One visit to Lea County, NM. Several phone calls and emails back and forth with the probate judge and then numerous forms FOR Lea County, NM so they COULD probate my relatives two wills.
I got both wills from the Tulsa, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma county clerks. Just takes time and filing fees, which were less than $20 per filing - it should be noted that most counties charge by the page, with the first page being the most expensive page and then other pages are less expensive to file for. You send them a personal check or (as I did) a USPS Postal Money Order.
When they get the letter you send them with the appropriate fees, they will eventually send you back what you requested. I ALWAYS prefaced the letter requesting the paperwork with a introductory phone call, explaining my situation and always being polite, ask them for what they felt I should do next and then do what they suggested. Always helps to have them on your side, rather than considering them an adversary.
The funny part of this story, after jumping through all these hoops and filing the last forms for Lea County, New Mexico, I thought I was done. Then my mom tells me 'we may have property in two other states. Could you check Oklahoma and Kansas for other mineral rights'.
DOH! But it's just a redo of the first one I've done. Though we are now aware that all of my relatives are dead and my parents are the last surviving members of the family. Maybe I should say my sister and I are the last of the line.
By now, I'm kind of a self taught researcher. So I did as she ask. Sure enough, in two counties in Oklahoma and two counties in Kansas we do own mineral rights. So... now more than two plus years later, I have finally filed the last paper work (Joint Tenant Mineral Deeds) for my sister and myself with Kansas and Oklahoma. Hopefully this will be the end of this chapter of my families ownership of mineral rights and hopefully we have filed all the paperwork with each county clerks office.
You know the old saying, right? No jobs done until the paperwork is completed...
John, Google the Okla. County Recorders, select the county and search by her fathers name. Itll pull up anything that has been recorded i e leases, deeds, memorandums, etc., anytime from 1992 to the present. All recordings filed prior to 1992 you might want to give the clerk a call to see if they’lll do a quick search for you - if you can give them a range. Otherwise, you’ll have to find someone to do it for you i e landman, atty., etc. I’m on my iPad so I dont have the exact address to give to you but its real simple to find! Keep in mind, Kingfisher, Okla. is flush now with oil companies drilling everywhere so, let your friend know there’s a lot to learn, take her time to check things out before letting anyone push her into anything! Good Luck!