My grandmother’s grandfather, Otto Buchel, owned a lot of land in Karnes City and surrounding area upon his death in 1909. From looking at a title history on some of the parcels, it looks like the land was sold during the 1920s and 30s without retaining the minerals. I’ve looked at state escheat records and have a note into Marathon to see if they have anything sitting in suspense. I talked to a Landman who said a full search would be too expensive to be worth it. That’s probably true but there are so many wells on the property, it seems something worth confirming. Are there other places I should look short of hiring a Landman? I found similar land in Lavaca and DeWitt Counties recently that had been lost and did have minerals so I figured it was worth checking.
You may have some success searching family names yourself. Karnes county has scans from 1906 forward on texasfile. Link. Good luck!