My Grandmother passed at the end of 2020 and left my brother and I mineral rights in Pottowatomie County, Ok.
I have sent in the will & death certificate as instructed to the Pottawatomie County Clerks Office, and they were filed and returned to me. But now I don’t know what to do.
I know nothing of this lease. I have what I assume is the location (Section 9, Township 9, etc) as it is listed in the will, there is no lease name or anything else. I don’t know what to do with the little information I have. I have tried to wade through the various websites, but I don’t know what I don’t know. LOL
As you can imagine, this has been a very slow, frustrating process. I am trying to get this straightened out for myself and my brother. I tend to be a worry wart, and want everthing squared away and tidy. We both live out of state, that adds another layer to this challenge.
So, my quesiton is what next? How do I go about getting the lease name or if someone is working it?
We will be glad to get you information on production and show you where you can find more. If you know the section, township and range (such as sec 1, Township 9N Range 12E, etc., then we can get you started.
Production: Gross Production
You might want to start with the well activity website. The wells are listed by surface location, so if you don’t find anything to start with, look in nearby sections. Pollawatomie has a very long history, so some wells may have finished their production cycle and the lease is no longer active.
We all started at zero, so your frustration is common! and you will overcome!
Trying to identify a producing well can be daunting. If you provide the rest of the legal description, someone on this site will likely do the leg-work for you. We need at least the Range, assuming Section 9 and Township 9N and Range __ E. If there is a producing well, you will notify the oil company and ask to be put in pay. The oil company will request death certificate and other proof of ownership.
You will also need to research the county records to locate any deed in your grandmother or grandfather’s name.
Filing of the Will and the Death Certificate will not establish your rights to the property. In Oklahoma you would need a probate in before most companies will pay royalties to heirs. You will often hear of an affidavit of heirship, however that requires to be on file 10 years before it creates “marketable title” in the heirs. Therefore, most companies will not accept an AOH for Oklahoma.
If you have access to your grandmother’s tax records, the company paying royalties probably sent a 1099. Or, if you have pay stubs that accompanied royalty checks the information regarding the well and location can be found there as well. Finally, you can search Pottawatomie County Land Records Here
Living out of state is seldom a problem as most issues, including probate, can be handled through the mail.
Once the probate is completed you would contact the company and inform them. The will send tax paperwork to you if they have no issues.
Some of these websites came up via google when I was trying to search, but I think perhaps some of the information is missing in the description found in the will. Or I’m not reading it correctly. I can’t seem to figure out how to change this to the type of legal lcoation abreviations like I see on the various sites.
It reads like this:
Pottawatomie County Oklahoma, located in Section 9, Tonwship 9, Range 3E, west of Tecumseh, Ok.
When I try to look it up, it appears I am missing some information?
Thank you for all your links! I hope I can figure out what to plug in.
WelI, I guess you can’t find what isn’t there! Thank you, PeteR.
When speaking with the executor of the estate, she called it a well. I guess she didn’t know too much about it either.
Would it still be worthwhile to call Schonwald Land? The Oil & Gas Lease Paid-up is apparently form 2012. So I guess there is a possiblity that my grandmother’s rights have lapsed?
Depending on the terms of the lease, that particular lease may have expired.
The mineral rights, however, are still probably good. (Again, it depends on the
actual details of the mineral deed). With those rights, you could possibly
lease again in the future.
