Just spoke with Antero who said that our interest in our great-grandmothers property was sold by the Harrison County tax office in 1993. Summary of background information:
Great-grandmother, Florence May Townsend died many years ago. Her daughter, Jessie May Townsend, my grandmother, died in the late 70's. My grandmothers will left interest in this and other property in her will, in trust, for me and my two brothers. My mother was named Trustee.
None of us, including my mother, Trustee, were ever notified of any tax owed or of the "sale" that took place in 1993. This is a crock! What can we do? Thanks!
There is a 21 page document on file in Harrison County (much to read) bottom line is the mineral interests you owned was sold for unpaid taxes in 1993 to Waco Oil & Gas for a sum of $658.57 located in Glenville, WV. It seems notifications of the sale were mailed to Lois Ann Watt, 427 Windor Drive, Mt Vernon, WA 98273. Others mentioned are Lois B Watt, Mary J Nichols, Richard Watt and Gregory Watt. Also seems they did not have an address for Richard and Gregory at that time. Those Mineral Rights listed would be worth a lot of money today. Looks like everything was legal, but you can believe there was not much of an effort to find the right heirs. My advise would by a copy of this document and take it to a legal expert. Find someone in West Virginia. The Oil & Gas companies have a tight network, so it looks like you have lost a great deal and Waco Oil and Gas has either drilled, and may be using Antero.
Thank you Nancy and Andy! I really appreciate your help. There is a ton to learn, and we are trying to gather as much info as we can. I did receive a deed today that I think will be helpful. I don't know if you would be interested in looking at it or not. I could probably attach it here somehow. Thanks again!
It's a deed from 1929 after a suit in chancery. The deed lists 21 parcels that my great-grandmother, F. May Townsend, had interest in, from her father Jesse Randolph. I received a copy today from Deed Book 402, pg 472.
This deed is very interesting. Thanks for posting it.
Do you live near enough to Harrison county to go visit the courthouse and see the Assessor's land books? Probably they are not online. Different from the deed books and those other county clerk documents. The land books are where the ownership is recorded for real property, including mineral interests. It would be very interesting to see if these interests conveyed to your greatgrandmother were all recorded properly in 1929 (probably not changed until 1930 or 1931 land books) and then when she died if they were changed to the trust name.
Another thing of interest, sometimes the oil interest was listed separately from the gas interest. In the olden days they considered the oil (mineral) interest to be 1/8 of the oil, the other 7/8 being what is conveyed to the lessee when the property is leased. So half of the oil (mineral) interest could be described as being 1/16 of the oil etc. This could be misinterpreted as being 1/16 of 1/8 etc.
Have you compared all the tracts on this with the tracts listed on the various tax deeds in the Harrison County deed books?
You're very welcome. I live in Alabama, and I've been trying to view deeds online via the Harrison County website. I donloaded the Silver Light program and put in deed book and page, clicking on the box for deeds. All I get is wills, etc., and no deeds. Do you know of an other site where I can pull the deeds up to view? The deed I attached earlier I had the records office email it to me. They will send a bill. They said I could pull them up to view online, but, it has not worked so far.
It looks to me like you have a lot of information and in my opinion it is decision time for you. Living in FL and I found it can be hard to do business long distance. You are going to need a legal opinion. The question is if you think it worth it to get legal advise on the ownership of these mineral rights. Good legal help is not cheap and it comes down to if you are willing to spend the money. Certainly getting back these mineral rights would be well worth the money, while you could out money for the legal cost if the decision was not in your favor. I went through a situation and thought I had a valid issue on being the owner of some mineral rights. Bottom line I spent the money and it came down to the Will of my Great Grandfather. The answer I received was not in my favor. You have done a lot of research to this point and I believe it would be time to determine if you think it worth getting legal assistance. Bottom line like me you want an answer. You can spend many hours and much time and effort researching this. I think you have enough to present it and ask for legal assistance
It looks to me like you have a lot of information and in my opinion it is decision time for you. Living in FL and I found it can be hard to do business long distance. You are going to need a legal opinion. The question is if you think it worth it to get legal advise on the ownership of these mineral rights. Good legal help is not cheap and it comes down to if you are willing to spend the money. Certainly getting back these mineral rights would be well worth the money, while you could out money for the legal cost if the decision was not in your favor. I went through a situation and thought I had a valid issue on being the owner of some mineral rights. Bottom line I spent the money and it came down to the Will of my Great Grandfather. The answer I received was not in my favor. You have done a lot of research to this point and I believe it would be time to determine if you think it worth getting legal assistance. Bottom line like me you want an answer. You can spend many hours and much time and effort researching this. I think you have enough to present it and ask for legal assistance
I am going to keep trying to find new information. Hopefully, we won't have to spend too much money on this. I will share what I find out. Nancy, my mom does get a tax ticket on some property in West Va that she has paid for many years.`I'm not sure which county it is in. Either harrison or Doddridge more than likely. I'll check with her to see where it's from.
Greg, I went to the link I posted above, put in the book and page of the deed you shared (402 - 472) and found wills, just like you did. I think I understand that part. The deed you shared is old, and is evidently not in their online system. Many of the counties around there have that situation. Many of them started using the computer for their deeds etc in the 1980s and later, so those documents are in their computers and those are easy to get online. The older records need to be scanned and verified and put into a database. Maybe if you were in Harrison County you could use their on site computers and see these deeds, and of course look at the old books. But these are not in their online system. I know that Tyler county has a similar website, and there is a way to download software to access their old system. Somebody on this forum told me about that, and I have used it. I don't know if Harrison has this, but if you have a chance you could call them next week and ask. If you find out, please post the information for others.
choose Individual and put in your greatgrandmother's name. You'll find several documents. That is what I was referring to; if you look at the tracts there, and compare them with the tracts listed in the deed you posted, you can see if there are any tracts not sold in those tax sales.
A lot of hunting around.
You probably could order those deeds from the county.
Just found another one listed as quit claim deed signed by Clerk of Harrison County to Mike Ross, Inc. on 4-1-2000, deed book 1319, pg. 122. This one is also interesting because we are NOT listed as even being notified on this at all. They never tried to contact us before, but, on this one we are not even listed. It's interest on 118 acres.
Might be worth searching the West Virginia code about tax sales etc. And as I understand a quitclaim deed, all that is being conveyed is any interest the grantor might have in what is granted. If no interest, nothing is actually granted.
Was your grandmother's will ever probated in Harrison County? Who was receiving the tax tickets when they went unpaid? The purchaser at tax sale can only notify those heirs that can be found in the records. Notifications were most likely sent to whoever was receiving the tax tickets.