My family has just received a royalty check for our mineral rights in Dimmit county. I know that other deceased family members owned adjoining land, and they have no heirs except for my family. How should I go about determining if they kept the mineral rights/royalties (as did my grandfather)?
IMO you are going to have to get into the county courthouse to run title on the tracts in question (or hire a broker to do this). This should help you determine if they retained the minerals or divested them over the years.
If they retained the minerals, you then will then probably have to get with an O&G laywer to figure out best way to determine where the minerals now reside.
Expect a time consuming (and possibly expensive) process.
Is it a royalty check or are they offering to buy the minerals? If you were getting a royalty check then you should have signed a division order.
Call Dimmit County and the counties where your family may have lived. Ancestry.com has all census in Texas going back many years. That will tell you where they lived. There are extensive cemetery records in that area also. I was amazed. Talk to the clerks in each court house, then follow up with email telling them what you are looking for. Someone usually gets back to you. I had the same "problem' 3 years ago and that is how I was able to find 3 wells.
Be careful what you sign even if you are just signing a check. There are clever devils out there trying to get your minerals. Dimmit County and surrounding areas are some of the best in the Eagle Ford.
Good luck!
What happens to the mineral rights if someone dies and has no children or siblings?
If there is no will, there are intestancy laws that describe how it goes back up the genealogy chain and then down to cousins.
Would that include cousins by marriage or does it have to be a blood relative?
Check with your county clerk or perhaps with the lawyer that probated their wills. Good Luck !
Kit