I own some mineral rights in Anderson County, TX, and I need to document the ownership in order to gift the rights to my son.
What I have is a PDF of the original deed, dated June 1937, to my grandparents (retrieved from the Anderson County courthouse). I also have a PDF of the long-since-expired ten-year lease that I granted to Enron in 1997.
What I don’t have is the steps in between: how the deed got from my grandparents to my mother (and possibly her brother - I imagine the rights got split in half) to my father to me.
Obviously somebody traced the ownership. Before getting the lease and signing it, I got a call from a landman - no idea who he was at this point - who, as a genealogists by necessity, figured it out the ownership chain and contacted me.
So how do I show that I’m the owner? The 1937 deed I have won’t do me much good. The lease shows that Enron thought I was the owner, I guess.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
A Texas attorney can advise you whether a probate or an affidavit of heirship will be required. If there was no Will or Wills then you are looking at the intestacy laws of Texas regardless of the residence of the decedents.
It sounds like Enron possibly had you sign the lease back in 1997 as a potential owner/heir and planned to go back to “fill in the blanks” with curative title if/when a well was ever drilled.
I like to think of title research in terms of piecing together a family tree. If someone were to go through the county records, they need to have some sort of documentation (probate/affidavit of heirship) that shows how this mineral interest was passed down through law of succession.
From what you described - there are gaps to fill in for your grandparents and mother/uncle. Once that is corrected and filed of record in Anderson County, TX then you can properly convey any minerals you own to your son.
Also, visit with an attorney before gifting to your son. Negative consequences could include:
-denial of Medicaid, SSI disability or Veteran’s Pension for yourself and/or your son
-loss of opportunity for stepped up basis in the property if your son sells
-potential need to file a gift tax return
There are ways to avoid probate and avoid the aforementioned consequences.
Dan: you really will need an attorney to review the title history (or lack thereof) and determine what will be required. Generally, a deed from the owner, or their estate, to the subsequent owner is required, and then a deed from that owner to the next owner, and so on. If there was no will or no probate for prior owners, sometimes an affidavit of heirship can be used to show current ownership. And, as Richard has suggested, always explore the consequences of a gift deed to your child with your CPA or a tax attorney so you will be aware of, and plan for, the tax consequences.
Thank you Richard, Aimee and Warmheartsland, for your advice and counsel.
I don’t think I’m a potential heir - I’m
definitely an owner. My father gave the rights to me after my mother died, and when he was contacted by the landsman, he directed the guy to me as the owner, who subsequently followed up and gave me a document - long since lost - that showed dozens of fractional owners, me included, for this tract.
Now, whether my father followed through and formally transferred the deed, that’s an open question. He certainly didn’t file it with Anderson County, since there’s no record there.
I’m going to contact my cousins, who should also be heirs, and see if they know anything about this.
I guess this will require consulting (and paying) a lawyer. Sigh. The rights are worthless, I’m pretty sure, more a novelty than anything else, so I’m not sure how much it’s worth following up on them.
I just thought it would be a nice birthday present for my son, who is 26, lives in lower Manhattan, and is about as unconnected to east Texas as anyone could be.