Someone died owning minerals. Who owns them now?
That is the question an oil company asks before it pays anyone. We are landmen. We research the record and the family, draw the descent chart from what we find, and prepare the affidavits of heirship for the people who knew the family to review and sign.
For families with an inherited mineral or royalty interest, and for landmen with an heirship gap in a title.
Nothing here is about selling. The point is getting the interest into the right names, so the heirs can lease it, get paid on it, or pass it on.
Where it usually starts
- The royalty checks stopped after a death, and the operator sent a letter asking for paperwork.
- A lease offer came addressed to a grandparent who died years ago.
- The county records still show someone long gone as the owner.
- A landman working a title found a gap: an owner died, and nothing of record says who inherited.
- Nobody probated the estate because there did not seem to be anything worth probating.
Draw the descent
A few facts about the person who died. The chart shows who inherits under Texas or Oklahoma law when there was no will, and the share each heir takes of the whole interest.
Not sure who counts as a child, or how a half brother or sister shares? Who counts as an heir in Texas has the statute sections.
Facts of the death
Result so far: See the chart
For land and minerals, the state where they lie decides who inherits them.
Enter 1 to 12. Count a child who died first as one line if they left children of their own.
Not more than the number of children above.
Enter 0 to 12. Count one who died first as a line if they left children.
From a deed, lease or division order. The chart spreads them across the heirs.
Descent chart
| Heir | Share | Decimal | NMA | Note |
|---|
Worth knowing about this result
This is the arithmetic of the statute, not a legal determination of heirship. It assumes no will and facts you have not checked yet. A title examiner, an operator’s division order analyst, or a court decides who the heirs are.
How we sort it out
Heirship work is research first and paperwork second, and it usually runs in this order. Each step hangs off the one before it.
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The record
We start at the courthouse where the minerals are: the last deed or probate into the person who died, the leases since, and who the operator is paying now. That pins down exactly which interest we are chasing and how big it is.
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The family
Death certificates (the family may have to order the copies where the state limits who can), obituaries, probate and marriage and divorce records, census and cemetery records, and a lot of phone calls. We build the tree back to the record owner and forward to every living heir we can find, with the source for each fact we can document and a plain note where we could not.
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The paper
An affidavit of heirship for each death in the chain, prepared from the tree for people who knew the family to review and sign. If a court proceeding is the better route, the family’s attorney gets the research and the chart to work from.
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The operator
We record the affidavits in the county where the minerals are and send each operator what its division order analyst asks for: the recorded instruments, death certificates, and the heirs’ addresses for new division orders.
What the family ends up with: a descent chart with the source behind each name we can document, the recorded affidavits, and a packet for each operator. You get the chart and the documents behind it. We quote the work after we have looked at the record and talked with you.
Affidavit, court, or probate
Three ways to put an inherited interest in the heirs’ names. Which fits depends on the family, the size of the interest, and what the operator or title examiner will accept.
| Route | What it is | Court | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affidavit of heirship | A sworn statement of the family facts (deaths, marriages, children), recorded in the county where the minerals are. | None. Signed before a notary by someone who knew the family, ideally someone who inherits nothing. | The facts are clear, there was no will, and nobody disputes who the heirs are. |
| Court determination of heirship | A judge declares who the heirs are and their shares. In Texas, a proceeding to declare heirship (Tex. Est. Code ch. 202). | Yes, through an attorney. | The facts are unclear or disputed, the interest is large, or a title examiner asks for it. |
| Probate | Administration of the estate, or probate of a will. | Yes, through an attorney. | There is a will, debts to pay, or other property to handle. In Texas a will generally has to be offered for probate within four years of the death (Tex. Est. Code § 256.003). |
Texas. An affidavit of heirship that has been of record five years or more is prima facie evidence of the facts in it in a later court case, but it does not bind an heir the affidavit left out (Tex. Est. Code § 203.001). Section 203.002 gives a form. Operators set their own paperwork rules; ask yours what it will accept. The affidavit guide reads all of chapter 203.
Oklahoma. Affidavits of heirship are recorded there too, but whether one is enough is up to the title examiner or the operator. Ask which they want: an affidavit, a probate, or a court determination of heirship.
Guides
Seven Texas explainers. Each cites the statute sections it relies on and lists its sources.
Words you will run into
The shorthand on the chart, and the terms operators and examiners use in their letters.
- Intestate
- Died without a will. The state’s descent statute decides who inherits.
- Heir
- Someone who inherits under that statute. Not the same as a beneficiary named in a will.
- Record owner
- The person the county records show as owning the interest. Often someone who died years ago.
- Affidavit of heirship
- A sworn statement of a person’s family history (marriages, children, deaths), recorded in the deed records so the chain of title shows who inherited. What the Texas statute says about it.
- Undivided interest
- Each heir owns a fraction of the whole tract, not a piece of it. Each heir signs their own lease and division order, unless someone signs for them under a power of attorney or a court appointment.
- Life estate (LE)
- The use of a property, and its income, for the rest of someone’s life. The remainder belongs to others and becomes theirs outright when the life estate ends.
- Community property, joint industry
- Property a couple acquired during the marriage. Texas calls it community property; Oklahoma speaks of property acquired by joint industry. Each state treats it differently when a spouse dies.
- Separate property
- Owned before the marriage, or received by gift or inheritance. Inherited minerals usually are.
- Net mineral acres (NMA)
- The acres of minerals someone owns: gross acres times their fraction. A 1/4 interest under 160 acres is 40 NMA.
- Decimal interest
- A share written as a decimal, usually to eight places, the way it appears on a division order and a check stub.
- Division order
- The operator’s statement of who gets paid and at what decimal. Each heir signs their own.
- Suspense
- Money an operator holds back until it knows who owns an interest.
- By representation
- A child who died first still counts, and that child’s share goes to their own children. Texas divides equally among heirs of the same degree, and by representation when the degrees differ.
- d.s.p.
- Old abstract shorthand for died without issue: no children.
Questions families ask
Why did the royalty checks stop?
When the owner on the division order dies, the operator stops paying that interest and holds the money in suspense until someone shows it who owns the interest now. Texas lets an operator withhold payment while there is reasonable doubt about title (Tex. Nat. Res. Code § 91.402(b)). The money keeps accruing while the well produces. If it sits long enough it can be turned over to the state as unclaimed property, and then it is claimed from the state instead.
Do we have to go to court?
Not always. In Texas a recorded affidavit of heirship can be enough for an operator to pay the heirs, but operators set their own rules, so ask yours. A court proceeding makes sense when the facts are disputed, the interest is large, or a title examiner asks for one. That part is an attorney’s job; we do the research that goes into it.
Who signs the affidavit?
Someone who knew the person who died, and the family, well enough to swear to the marriages, children and deaths. Operators and examiners prefer a witness who inherits nothing, and often want a second one. Heirs often sign as well, alongside the disinterested witness.
Does every heir have to agree?
An heir cannot sign for another unless holding a power of attorney or appointed by a court. Each owns an undivided share and signs their own lease and their own division order. A holdout does not always stop the others; ask the operator what it will pay on.
What if there was a will?
Then the will controls, not the descent statute, and the chart above does not apply. A will has to be probated to pass title, and in Texas that generally has to happen within four years of the death. Talk to a probate attorney; we can run the record and family research alongside.
Do we have to sell?
No. Getting the interest into the heirs’ names is the whole job here, and what you do with it afterward is your business.
Are you lawyers?
No. We are landmen. We research records and families and prepare the affidavit forms and packets operators use, for the family and their witnesses to review and sign. We do not give legal opinions or represent anyone in court. When a court proceeding is the right route, your attorney runs it.
Tell us about the interest
Who died, about when, and where the minerals are is enough to start. If an operator has written to the family, include its name and the owner number from the letter or a check stub.
Your note comes to us, the landmen who run this site.
Minerals somewhere other than Texas or Oklahoma? Put the county and state in the form. The descent chart covers those two states only.
We are independent landmen, not attorneys, and we do not give legal opinions.
Or call (307) 263-8515, or write to hello@heir.land.