Our Process
Our Mineral Rights Search Process
No database lookup returns a reliable mineral rights report. The work is reading the county land records against the right parcel, following the references backward through the chain, and coming back with the recorded instruments in hand.
Initial Consultation
We start by understanding what you are actually trying to establish. Verifying whether the minerals under your own land were severed is a different search from preparing for a lease negotiation or clearing a tract before a sale, and the scope follows from the question.
- Discuss your goals and concerns
- Identify property details (parcel number, address, or legal description)
- Outline the research timeline and deliverables
Detailed Property Research
A certified abstractor reviews the current and historical ownership records for the parcel. The vesting deed is the anchor: it establishes who holds the surface today and is the starting point for reading backward through the chain.
- Reviewing deeds and transfer documents
- Analyzing fee simple ownership and surface rights
- Investigating any severances of mineral, oil, or gas rights
Historical Title Chain Analysis
We trace the chain back through the term you selected, looking for the transfers and reservations that separated the minerals from the surface. A severance written into the granting clause of an otherwise ordinary warranty deed is easy to miss and entirely controlling, and it will not appear on the current deed at all.
- Examining prior ownership records
- Identifying separate transfers of mineral rights
- Verifying indexing under historical property owners
Record Verification in County & Municipal Offices
Mineral instruments are frequently filed separately and indexed under individual grantor names rather than against the parcel, so they do not surface in a lookup keyed to an address. Our abstractors work in the offices where the records are kept and cross-reference across the indexes the county actually maintains.
- County land records
- Municipal property files
- Other relevant databases for mineral rights ownership
Reporting & Documentation
The completed report lists what was found of record with the recording date, book, and page for each instrument, and the recorded documents themselves are attached. You receive the reserving or granting language rather than a one-line summary of it.
- Ownership of mineral rights and surface rights as shown of record
- Identified severances, reservations, leases, and transfers
- Supporting documents, including copies of deeds, leases, and agreements
Client Review
The report is emailed to the address on the order, typically in 2 to 3 business days. If something in it raises a question, you can reach the team that produced it. Where the next step is a legal conclusion about present ownership, we will say so plainly rather than offering one.
- Deliver detailed reports tailored to your needs
- Answer any questions about the results
- Point you to the right next step, including when counsel is the right call
What we need from you
The street address, city, county, and state are usually enough to start. An APN removes any ambiguity about which parcel to search, and a prior deed or legal description helps most on rural tracts described by metes and bounds rather than by lot number.
Order TodayDelivery performance
- Researching property records nationwide since 1995
- 1995Researching property records nationwide since 1995
- States covered, with abstractors searching records on the ground
- 50States covered, with abstractors searching records on the ground
- Business days for a standard mineral rights search, rush service available
- 2–3Business days for a standard mineral rights search, rush service available
- Year search terms, so the report reaches as far back as the matter needs
- 20–50Year search terms, so the report reaches as far back as the matter needs
Why It Matters
Searched where the records live
County land records are not one system. They are thousands of them, each with its own indexing conventions, its own digitization cutoff, and its own quirks about how a mineral reservation is captured. A certified abstractor who works in that county knows where a severance from 1954 would be filed and how it would be indexed.
That is the difference between a record you can hand to an attorney drafting a title opinion and a list scraped from an aggregated dataset.
- Recording and indexing practice differs county to county, so the person searching needs to know the local system.
- Mineral instruments are often indexed under grantor names, not against the parcel, so an address lookup misses them.
- Older severances sit in grantor/grantee books that are frequently not fully digitized.
- A reference inside one instrument regularly points at another that has to be pulled to make sense of it.
What you receive
A report listing each mineral conveyance, reservation, and lease found of record with its recording date, book, and page, and a copy of every recorded instrument behind those entries. Full customer support is included, so if something in the report raises a question you can reach the team that produced it.
Where the search stops
The report covers what was recorded in the term searched. It is not a mineral title opinion and does not decide who owns the minerals today. It does not report well permits or production, which state oil and gas regulators hold rather than the county recorder. And it cannot show an interest that was never filed here: inherited fractions pass at death whether or not anything is recorded in the county where the land sits.
Which mineral interests are usually recordedTurnaround
2 to 3 business days, with rush service available
That is the standard for a residential mineral rights search. Some counties are faster and a few are slower, so if you are working to a closing or a leasing deadline, call 877-848-5337 ext. 138 before ordering and we will confirm the timeline for that county.
Start Your Mineral Rights Search Today
Certified abstractors search the county land records against your parcel and report the mineral conveyances, reservations, and leases found of record, with a copy of every recorded instrument attached. Order online in minutes, or tell us about the parcel and we will help you pick the search term.
Questions? Call 877-848-5337 ext. 138 or email info@afxllc.com