Received a letter that I am a mineral rights heir, need some help

West Virginia Mineral Rights Doddridge County, WV
1

I made my first post in the general discussion here:
http://www.mineralrightsforum.com/forum/topics/received-first-mineral-rights-lease-offer-need-help

I plan to drive to Doddrige County tomorrow and do as much work as possible to get information on my claim. Is there anyone local that you guys would reccomend that might be able to assist me with my research ?

I hope to get everything I need to transfer the title to me and get information on previous leases.

I would also like to see the area that my claim holds, any proper etticute for inspecting the property where you own the mineral rights ?

I could only iimagine if somone came knocking on my door or I saw someone walking through my property unannounced.

Thank You !

2

I just replied to your other discussion , that I’ll be able to help a little later this evening. Meanwhile there is a whole lot of good suggestions about things on this forum, just have to read through it. Later, Nancy

3

Hi Shaun, You can start with this website Doddridge deeds and other documents

And search the names you know about.

If you see a deed or lease referred to but you can't find it in that database, write it down and get it when you are at the courthouse.

Many times there is information in the deed about the prior owner, and often an earlier deed mention. Always a good idea to go to that deed, see what it says, and keep going back as far as you can. When stuck, you can go to the index and look for the name. The Courthouse employees should be able to help steer you in the right direction. Things may or may not be really crowded there.

If your letter contained a tax map and parcel number, I suggest going to the Assessor's office and purchasing a copy of the tax map.

From the other discussion you mentioned this came from your grandmother. If you know that she had a will, you will need a copy of it (I think, most WV counties require it) and her death certificate. There should be a clerk in the County Court office who handles probates, and ask for her (probably a her) and ask what their procedure is. Anyone else (your father) in the chain of title from Grand mother, you'll need some documentation on. The Clerk can tell you.

About going to visit the property, good question. I am not sure how much rights for being on a property there are for a mineral owner. Maybe someone here knows? You could of course drive near by and look.

Good luck, take pictures! Should be a good visit.

If you have more questions please ask. There are people on this forum who have at least some of the answers.

4

My grandmother had a revokable trust and no will but this mineral claim was not mentioned in it. I do not have her death certificate but I do have a copy of the tax return filed with our local court for her trust and it shows the day she died and names my brother and I as grandsons.

I do have my fathers death certificate and an obituary of his only other sibling.

Do you think these documents will be enough for the probate ?

I did use that link to find her lease agreement with this same landman company from 2011.

In the offer I got it has the land deed numbers and the tax numbers so that should help me with the accessor I hope.

One thing I really want to figure out is her lease says 50 acres and our legal lease offer mentions 50 gross acres but on the small informal piece of paper included in the letter with the offer it says my brother and I have .3226. I assume that means we have .3226 each, but I am curious how they came up with these numbers as me and him should split it all.

5

You might need some different documents but what you mention sound like they should get you started anyway. The Probate Clerk (if they have one who handles that) can tell you the procedure. You might be asked to file an affidavit of heirship and they might have a sample form.

Yes the tax numbers should help at the assessor's office.

I think you somehow will find that you share interest in this 50 acres with a lot of other descendants of the one from whom your grandmother inherited.

You should ask the Landman if they have you and your brother each listed with that amount or together.

Sometimes the information the landman has is not correct so the more research you can do, the better.

If you have any more family information, look at it before you go and take notes of names of people, specifically your grandmother's parents, siblings, etc. She might have had 10 siblings or more, big families were sometimes common in those days.

I am going to send you a friend request and if you want to have me see what else I might find, I'll be glad to look for you. Sometimes people don't want their information out there.

Have fun!

6

Yes I would like that very much, I am very private and like to keep it that way.

I know that’ might be silly discussing on a public forum but it’s a great venue to meet people with similar situations.

Thank you

7

If the mineral rights were unmentioned, you'll probably need an affidavit of Heirship in order to change the rights over into your name. My mother failed to include hers in her will, which made it a giant pain! Doddridge County is one of the few who accept the affidavit of heirship.

8

Shaun, Nancy is the best thing since sliced bread! I couldn't have gotten as far as I have with my mineral rights without her assistance.

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Shaun learned very quickly. I'll let him report when he is ready but he found out a lot.

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=)

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Now he is the expert on the Doddridge courthouse.

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He is probably the only one! God Bless him! He needs to share!!!!

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I hope he does soon. Very busy trip.

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Thank you both, yes I have learned a lot over the weekend and I am still writing. The more I write the more questions I have and it continues to go on and on.

I will remember this experience for a long time but also considering how much work I have still to do, I would be overwhelmed if it wasn’t for Nancy. It was really comforting having her on my side when nobody else in Doddridge cared about helping me. When I called the clerks office I was told to write them and ask specifically what document I wanted and include a blank check for the copies. Well considering I had no idea that just wasn’t going to work for me, so I hopped in my truck.

I have most of my experience and findings written down and will be posting soon.

15

What a story.

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Awesome to see you helping others Nancy, like you did for me..much appreciated!!

Darin

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Just another note from my experience, to me it fealt that their was a lot of animosity towards me when I mention what business I had in Doddridge and what I was doing there. After spending a couple days in town I could see this area has struggled financially and I am afraid they pass blame to mineral rights owners. Now I only spent a couple of days there but nobody was happy for me to be finding out my family history was deeply rooted in WV. I tried to relate to them meeting many people like my self that came in to town to claim their mineral rights but I had nothing to compare it to.

Anyways I just wanted to share that small part that I did not feel welcomed in a place that I really hoped I would. Our claim goes back to the first deed book in the county, something I am proud of. Mind you I stand to gain very little financially from this but gained more values by learning my family history.

18

From what i have picked up from talking with people, including my cousin, in neighboring Ritchie county, and reading here and in the local Ritchie paper, there is indeed a lot of poverty in Doddridge county, including West Union the county seat. There has been a huge influx of abstractors and landmen to the county courthouse, which was not as well prepared as Ritchie (for example), in having the records from pre- computer times (for Ritchie, this is mid 1985) scanned. They were working on this scanning process since maybe 2008 or 2009, I think. Doddridge didn't, I think, so has an even harder time with the people wanting copies, or just wanting to come in and look.

Also the roads and other infrastructure are busy, maybe a little less busy now but will be even busier again before too long. This makes life more difficult for residents.

One thing if you are benefiting from it with royalties, another if not.

Not quite a moral dilemma, but a situation that needs to be seen from all viewpoints.

Another thing, many abstractors / landmen come to the courthouse for the day, then drive to another county for the evening, not spending much money in the local businesses. At least that is how it is in Harrisville where the landmen go to Parkersburg to their homes, or to hotels, or so I have been told. May be the same in West Union.

I have spent a fair amount of money in copy fees in Ritchie county, much of it getting things in the mail. I have read in their paper how this copy money has helped the county budget. I encourage people to get copies from the county of pertinent documents for their mineral interests. From what I have read, it is in your best interest to have your paperwork just like if you buy a house and keep the deed. Anyway I have felt some obligation to put some of my (fairly small so far haha, no new horizontal wells yet but 2 with division orders sent out!!) revenue back to the county where the gas and oil comes from.

In addition, let me put in a plug for getting a subscription for the local newspaper. Arnold Stuart has written about this, not sure the name of the paper, but it gives a connection to the place of your ancestors, and current oil and gas news and notices of intent to drill, so you can keep up with things even before the Weekly Reports. Also, if you happen to be a missing heir of somebody, sometimes there are notices in the paper about trying to locate so and so, giving the particulars of so and so's connection with the oil and gas. Just because one company found you for one ancestor or relative, doesn't mean a different company can find you for a different branch of your family.

OK enough! Very interesting observations Shaun.

19

I would have loved to spend all my expenses from the trip in West Union but the nearest hotel was Clarksberg and their wasn’t one restaurant I could find in town. It was very depressing and sad seeing homes put together with plywood and sidewalks literally crumbled under your feet.

Hopefully us non residents taxes will go to the county.

20

Excellent points, and fits in with some things my cousin says about many people in Doddridge and Ritchie. Not a lot of accommodations anyway but especially on Sunday.