My mom passed away on September of this year and was a heir to mineral rights passed down from her grandfather to her and her siblings. I need help in what steps to take. 1) Her wishes were that her share would be divided between myself, my sister and my brother. The kicker is she had told us verbally and she had not gotten a will made. I have temporarily started the probate process and hit a road block. Fiduciary supervisor states we need tax ticket for the land in question. I know no one will talk to me without the appointment papers and I have no legalities to stand on right now. The reason I am asking now is because paperwork was mailed in her name recently about these mineral rights. The paperwork has to be completed in a timely manner. I have original lease agreements. Any and all help would be appreciated! I have tried looking online for tax ticket but have been unsuccessful. Thanks!
Have you found the Tyler county tax website? and the Tyler County online documents site? I know these website links have been posted here before, fairly recently. Do you know if she would have received a tax bill (comes out about mid July every year)? Are you in touch with any of your mother’s siblings or their children?
THANK YOU NANCY for recent links to County records (e.g. Doddridge). I came across family info such as wedding dates etc that I would have never found anywhere else.
There is a new book titled ‘The Great Flood of 1950’ by the Doddridge County Historcial Society that is excellent fyi.
@Nancy_Mosley I haven’t found the websites to be able to check on this. I have ask a few of her siblings how to go about it but they weren’t much help. She comes from a family of 11 lol. I may have to ask again and let them know we have the recent paperwork. Thanks
Of someone could send links it would be very much appreciated!!
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx
State website for birth, marriage & death records from all counties
Great for viewing cemetery photos and linked relationships.
You will need to give the state that you are in for the forum folks to be able to help. If she died without a will, each state has their own rules about who can inherit. The fiduciary supervisor should give you some help with how to find the tax ticket. For TX, I think you are not taxed if the land is not producing, but you are taxed if they are producing. For OK, there is no yearly tax. Other states have different rules.
For the county documents, go to this site CSSI site for WV documents and select Tyler. For the more recent documents, maybe around 2000 to today, select "Index Search’ and enter a name, last name first. For the older records, select “Archive Browser”. This gets a lot harder, but is much easier than driving to the courthouse in Tyler County for most people. If you know the deed book number and page number (or other document such as a will book) you can select one of those searches from the Book Set dropdown list, then the Book and Page lists. However, if you need to look up a name, Tyler county has several indexes to search. There is a Grantor Index to Deeds (for example, the one selling a property to another, the Grantor) (this says Deeds but it also includes Leases, people leasing their land to someone, etc); Grantee index to Deeds (the one receiving something); Grantor Index to Deeds of Trust; Index to Wills. When you have the Index selected, for example Grantor Index to Deeds, the Middle Dropdown list changes to the Book selection becoming “A-A”. Here you need to select the first letter of the last name of the person being searched, or the first letter of the first word in a corporate body name, such as a Company. The Page dropdown list is 0. Select this to see how the names starting with A are listed. For example, on the A book, the 0 page, look around to see “AD,AE, AF” listed as 5 and “Adams” listed as 29. If you are looking for a name starting with AD that is not Adams, you start on page 5. If you are looking for Adams, you start on page 29. The Business names starting with A are on page 0:0001. If you look on page 5, you see a number of names starting with AD, AE, or AF. They are arranged by the date the deed (or other document) was recorded, which might be later than the date of the deed. There are the given names listed in the column after the last names, then the Grantees (who the deed etc was to), then the book and page where the document was recorded. Notice that the first entry has NS typed above the number 11 in the book column. For the very old deeds, there somehow were duplications on the book numbers, so NS is the newer numbers. The next column shows the Kind of Instrument (Deed, O&G L [Oil and Gas Lease], etc). Then a brief description. There is a lot more there but it can get complicated explaining it. One good thing about Tyler county is that their land books, essentially the tax records, go back into the late 1800s, with some gaps. The bad thing is that they are awkward to use. If you want to know how to use them, please ask. I have been able to get good information there. For the more recent tax information, there is an online source Tyler county WV tax database You should search this with your mother’s name, any of her siblings that you know, and your grandfather’s name. It is possible that the taxes are still in his name, and that one of his children or that child’s child, is currently paying them. Good luck and please ask again. Re the fact that she died without a will, in WV the laws governing inheritance of real property, including mineral rights, apply, regardless of where she died. In general, I believe if she had a surviving spouse, the rights would go to him. If not, they would go to her children. If no children, there is another list but you said she has surviving children. Here is a link to the West Virginia Code for inheritance.. Scroll down to the section on Intestate Estate (Intestate = no will) See if that helps.
Most states have probate rules that are baffling to anybody who is not an attorney who practices in that area. A good local attorney should be able to assist you. Many attorneys charge a flat fee for simple probate cases. Richard Winblad
@ Nancy_Mosley thanks again for the links. I have still been unable to find what I am needing for tax ticket in mineral rights. Although to my knowledge and the family members I have talk to they have not received any tax tickets. I have talked to the Tyler co court house and have given them the name of her great grandpa, grandpa, dad and mom. I have given the the map and parcel still no success. It’s frustrating because this is what fiduciary is asking for to probate her estate. Then I leave a message for the company and they tell me it will take 7 days to return my call. Ugh
Did you say that you have the tax map and parcel number, and District? There are ways to proceed with that information. It may be complicated but that can be fun!