My parents passed away and there are unclaimed property funds that my surviving siblings and I are trying to collect. We’ve spoken to the Texas Comptroller in the unclaimed property division, verified that it was our parents, and have the certified copy of the Agreed Final Judgement determining heirship, etc. for distribution of fund. However, we need to obtain the legal descriptions, wells, counties, and survey names for 5 different energy companies. How would I go about doing that?
Is the information you are needing required by the State to get the funds released? I’m assuming those five energy company names you have are the companies that sent royalties in your parent’s names to the State, and that you have tried contacting their Owner Relations Departments.
If they couldn’t provide you any information on the wells those royalties relate to, and you don’t have any old royalty statements showing well names or basic location information, you may have to start by guessing the counties where your parents (or someone they may have inherited from) could have owned mineral interest.
It could be a very slow process but if you have nothing else to go by, you’d need to search the deed indexes in those potential counties for your family names. Some Counties have deed records online. Check their County Clerk’s website to see what’s available. Otherwise, at commercial sites like TexasFile or CourthouseDirect you can set up an account and search their deed indexes at no cost with a small per page charge if you find documents you want to view or print. If the recorded documents available online don’t go back as far as you need then you, or someone you hire to do the research, will have to make a trip to the county courthouses.
If you find information on the Counties involed, and the abstract numbers, or Block and Sections, where your parents owned mineral interest, post it here and someone will help you look for additional details in Texas Railroad Commission’s online records of the wells and operators involved in those locations.
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Once you determine your counties, you should also check the county appraisal districts/ tax collector for taxes that may be due under your parents name.
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