Sherry, I made your comment a discussion topic to make it easier to have all replies and comments related to your question in one place.

Texas Mineral Rights..A landman contacted us in La about purchasing each of our parts of 12 acres. Actually they were wanting us to give up our mineral rights. No one agreed to all this because we did not know the land even existed or that it was a part of 124 acres that the owner???? leased out. He pd back taxes and says he owns the surface and all of us own the mineral rights on the 12 acres which is part of the 124. There was a lot of research to be done being we were mislead through the landmans letter to all of us. The land was not the issue the MIN RIGHTS were the issue. After a trip to Center Tex there was a well in the middle of our 12 acres. According to the RRc the horizontal well is on our 12 and 2 more wells further down. We contacted the landman, the owner and the well company. We were told no one wanted to sell. And no one told us anything about the wells. The drilling co said the well had been producing since Oct 2010 but no Royalties had been paid because they cannot get  a clear title. The owner told us we own the Mr and he owns the surface??? Yet we all have warranty deeds they wanted us to sign buying the surface from us. When finally they admitted we all own the Min Rights on that 12 acres. The land owners lawyer told us if we did not want to accept their offer to contact the drilling co. And we did. The drill co said they were so far behind. They would contact eventually with their own landman and we could provide proof of heirship. Now we do not know the Laws on MR in Texas. The landman said he would assure us there was money going in an acct for us somewhere. We would like to know what we should do next without having to hire an attorney. How do we know what this well is producing? How do we know all of this was leased legally, being the land owner turned in he was total owner of this acreage to lease it out yet they tried to buy it from us. Would we get paid on the royalties just on the 12 or for what ever is producing in that section leased? Should we do anything before or just wait on the Co. We have called the Royalty dept several times and they tell us the same thing. Working on a clear title. We need to know what this well is pumping?And where the money is what we have to do. Is there a time limit.