How to follow your minerals through the deed records

1. Start from a name and a date

Begin with the person you inherited from or bought from, and the year they acquired the land if you know it. Search that name in the grantee column to find how they got it, then in the grantor column to see what they conveyed away.

2. Try every spelling

Indexes are typed by hand. Search initials and full first names, with and without middle initials, maiden and married names, "Estate of", and common misspellings. A search that finds nothing usually means the spelling differs, not that no deed exists.

3. Read what kind of instrument it is

Warranty deed or deed

Conveys the land. Read it for any reservation of minerals or royalty; if none, the minerals went with the land.

Mineral deed

Conveys minerals, often a fraction of them, separately from the surface.

Royalty deed

Conveys a share of royalty rather than the minerals themselves.

Oil and gas lease, or memorandum of lease

Gives a company the right to drill for a term. A memorandum is a short notice that a lease exists; the full lease may not be recorded.

Ratification, or designation of pooled unit

Ties a lease to a pooled unit. The unit designation often lists the leases and the unit's acres.

Affidavit of heirship

A sworn statement of who inherited when there was no probate. It is evidence, not a court order.

Probate records

Wills and court orders are kept by the county clerk too, often in a separate probate index.

Release

Ends a lease or a lien. A lease with no release may still be in force, or may have ended on its own terms.

4. Follow the chain both ways

Each deed names the deed before it, often by volume and page. Write down each one: date, grantor, grantee, what was conveyed, and any fraction reserved. When a fraction is reserved, it stays with that person and their heirs.

5. Place it on the ground

Note the survey name and abstract number from the description and find them on the Mineral Tools abstract map. The Texas General Land Office land grant search has the original grant for each abstract.

6. Keep a list as you go

A simple list of every instrument with its recording date and volume and page saves repeating the search later. Mineral Locker is built for keeping an owner's records in one place.

When to stop and get help

Get help when the chain has a gap you cannot close, when an owner died without probate and the heirs are unclear, when a lease or unit designation conflicts with what you were paid, or when a buyer or operator asks for a title opinion. An attorney writes a title opinion; Landman Help reads the records with you, and can pull together the deeds and documents an attorney will ask for.