Title search off the county index, tract by tract.

Send a county and a legal description. We search the grantor and grantee index, run the chain, and send back a runsheet with the title issues marked. We are also building self-serve search; tell us your county and we'll write when it's ready.

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Sample runsheet off the grantor and grantee index, with examiner's notes
Filed	Grantor	Grantee	Instr.	Vol/Pg
03/14/1911	State of Texas	Doe, John	Pat.	4/112
06/02/1938	Doe, John et ux	Roe, Richard	WD	88/301
	Res. 1/2 MI. Was 1/2 already out? Duhig.
09/19/1952	Roe, Richard	Blackacre Bank	DT	131/57
	No release of record.
04/11/1977	Roe, Richard, dec'd	Roe, Mary et al	AOH	402/88
	No probate. AOH only.
08/30/1981	Roe, Mary et al	Blackacre Oil Co.	OGL	455/210
	3-yr term, no prod., no release.
05/06/1996	Stiles, John	Stiles, Jane	MD	1102/45
	Grantor not in chain. Wild deed?

Sample runsheet. Blackacre, Doe, Roe and Stiles are placeholders, not a real tract. The red notes link to the cure for each issue.

What a search sends back

Runsheet. Every instrument in the chain, oldest to newest: filed date, grantor, grantee, instrument, Vol/Pg or Inst. No., and a comment wherever one is needed.
Instrument copies. Copies of the instruments where we can get them.
Title issues. Each defect we find, with the cure it usually takes, keyed to the curative index below.
Scope note. Which indexes we searched, how far back, and what we couldn't reach: missing books, unindexed years, estates never probated.

Running the chain

Every search works the same two books: the grantee index back to the patent, then the grantor index forward, one owner at a time. Why that index is by name and where it stops is in the guide to the grantor-grantee index and the tract index.

Start from the owner of record. The appraisal district's owner and legal description, or the vesting deed you send.
Run the grantee index back. Look the owner up as grantee to find who they took from, then look that grantor up the same way, back to the patent.
Run the grantor index forward. Search each owner as grantor from the day they took title to the day they conveyed, and a few years past for late recordings. That's where leases, deeds of trust, mineral deeds, easements and releases turn up.
Fill in from other records. Probate and district clerk files for deaths and suits, abstracts of judgment, tax liens, and state production records (RRC, SONRIS) for lease status. Where each of these is kept.
Put it on the runsheet. Date order, one line per instrument, a comment on anything that needs curative.

The sample tract above, run both ways. The windows run a few years past each conveyance to catch late recordings.

Request a search

Send the county and the legal. One of our landmen reads the request and replies by email with what the county's records support, how far back we'd run it, and the terms for the work. Nothing starts until you say so.

Want to search a county yourself? Choose the last option in the form and we'll write once, when self-serve search opens in your county.

We work as independent landmen, not attorneys. A runsheet is not an attorney's opinion on title; we work alongside your examiner. Which instrument clears a title requirement is a call for your examiner or attorney.

Rather call? (307) 263-8515 or hello@title.wiki.

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What you need

Legal description

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The wiki

Texas and Louisiana title reference: the defects that turn up on a runsheet, the cure each one usually takes, and the cases and statutes behind them. It is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.

Guides

Longer reading on how Texas records work, with the statutes, rules and official pages cited and the date each was opened.

Grantor-grantee index vs tract index in Texas

Loc. Gov't Code ch. 193, Prop. Code ch. 13, Ins. Code § 2501.004

What the county clerk's index is under the statutes, what a name search can miss, and how an abstract plant differs.

Where Texas land and mineral records are kept

Local Schedule CC, GLO, RRC, Tax Code § 25.02

Which office holds which record, the book or database to ask for, and what each one cannot tell you.

What is a Mineral Ownership Report (MOR)?

Prop. Code ch. 13, Altman v. Blake, Occ. Code § 954.001

How an MOR builds on a courthouse runsheet to tabulate surface, mineral, NPRI, and leasehold decimals, and how it differs from an attorney's opinion on title.

Texas abstract and survey legal descriptions

GLO Abstracts, Nat. Res. Code § 52.171, Prop. Code § 5.028

How to read a Texas abstract number, railroad block, odd/even section, or Spanish league and labor, and what description errors draw curative requirements.

Duhig rule and overconveyance of minerals in Texas

Duhig v. Peavy-Moore, McMahon v. Christmann, Trial v. Dragon

How an unexcepted prior mineral reservation collides with a warranty deed reservation, how Trial v. Dragon affects independent heirs, and how overconveyances are cured.

Non-participating royalty interest (NPRI) vs. mineral interest

Altman v. Blake, Hysaw v. Dawkins, Van Dyke v. Navigator

The five attributes of a Texas mineral estate, fixed vs. floating NPRIs, the double-fraction presumption, and why NPRI pooling requires ratification.

Curative index

Look up a defect by what it is, the instrument that cures it, or the case or statute behind it.

Look up

Curative index: title defects, the governing rule, the usual cure and the authority
No.	Defect	Rule	Usual cure	Authority
01	Record owner dec'd, no probate	A recorded AOH is prima facie evidence of the heirship facts in it once it has been of record five years.	AOH by disinterested witnesses who knew the family, recorded where the land lies. Heirship proceeding if the examiner won't take the AOH.	Tex. Est. Code §§ 203.001, 203.002
02	Intestate, children from a prior marriage	If the dec'd spouse leaves a child who is not also the survivor's, the dec'd's half of the community passes to the dec'd's children, not to the surviving spouse.	AOH showing each marriage and every child; joinder of all heirs in leases and division orders.	Tex. Est. Code § 201.003(c)
03	Out-of-state will, not probated in Texas	A will probated in another state can be recorded in the Texas deed records to pass title, or proved up in ancillary probate.	Authenticated copy of the will and the foreign probate order, recorded in each county where the land lies.	Tex. Est. Code ch. 503
04	Overconveyance: the reservation collides with the warranty	Duhig. The grantor warrants the whole and reserves an interest, but part is already outstanding. The reservation fails to the extent needed to make the grantee whole.	Stipulation of interest, or a mineral quitclaim from the grantor's heirs or successors.	Duhig v. Peavy-Moore Lumber Co., 144 S.W.2d 878 (Tex. 1940)
05	NPRI: fixed or floating?	"1/2 of the royalty" floats with the lease royalty; "1/16 of production" is fixed. Read the whole instrument; older "1/8" language may stand for the landowner's royalty.	Stipulation of interest between the mineral and NPRI owners, recorded.	Hysaw v. Dawkins, 483 S.W.3d 1 (Tex. 2016); U.S. Shale Energy II, LLC v. Laborde Props., L.P., 551 S.W.3d 148 (Tex. 2018)
06	Strip or gore left out of a description	A deed to land along a narrow strip (road, railroad, fence line) is presumed to carry the strip and its minerals unless the grantor reserves it in so many words.	Boundary agreement and quitclaim from the adjoining owner or the grantor's successors.	Strayhorn v. Jones, 300 S.W.2d 623 (Tex. 1957)
07	Clerical error: misspelled name, wrong recording reference	A nonmaterial error can be fixed by a correction instrument from a person with personal knowledge of the facts, with notice to the other parties.	Nonmaterial correction instrument (the old scrivener's affidavit), recorded.	Tex. Prop. Code § 5.028
08	Material error: wrong tract, omitted land, changed fraction	A material correction must be signed by every party to the original instrument, or their heirs or successors.	Material correction instrument signed by all original grantors and grantees.	Tex. Prop. Code § 5.029
09	Gap in the chain	A mesne conveyance is missing between two owners of record. Limitation title can close a surface gap, but possession of the surface after severance does not reach the minerals.	Quitclaims from the heirs or successors of the last record owner, or affidavits of use and possession supporting limitation title.	Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 16.024 to 16.028
10	Stranger to title (wild deed)	A deed from someone with no recorded interest sits outside the chain and gives no constructive notice to later purchasers.	Affidavit of identity if the grantor is a record owner under another name; otherwise a quitclaim from the record owner's successors.	Tex. Prop. Code § 13.001 (recording act). The wild-deed rule is case law.
11	Executive leased on terms that favor itself	The executive owes non-executive owners utmost good faith and fair dealing. It can't unfairly favor itself at their expense. Whether it did is a fact question.	Ratification of the lease by the non-executive owners, with the terms disclosed.	Manges v. Guerra, 673 S.W.2d 180 (Tex. 1984); KCM Fin. LLC v. Bradshaw, 457 S.W.3d 70 (Tex. 2015)
12	DT matured more than four years ago, no release	The lien and power of sale are void four years after the last installment matures, unless a recorded extension keeps them alive. If the maturity date isn't of record, limitations can't be shown from the record.	Release from the lender or its successor, or proof of the maturity date. Look for a recorded extension first.	Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 16.035, 16.036
13	Abstract of judgment against a mineral owner	A recorded and indexed abstract is a lien on the debtor's nonexempt real property in the county, minerals included, for ten years, ending sooner if the judgment goes dormant.	Release of the judgment lien, or a partial release as to the tract.	Tex. Prop. Code §§ 52.001 to 52.006
14	OGL (oil and gas lease) past its primary term, no release	A Texas OGL is a fee simple determinable. With no production or savings-clause operations at the end of the term, it ends on its own.	Release from the lessee, or an affidavit of non-production backed by state production records.	W.T. Waggoner Estate v. Sigler Oil Co., 19 S.W.2d 27 (Tex. 1929)
15	Lease partly in a unit: is the outside acreage held?	Without a Pugh clause, unit production holds the whole lease, inside the unit and out. With one, acreage outside the unit drops as the clause provides.	Read the pooling and Pugh clauses. If outside acreage dropped, a partial release from the lessee.	Hunter Co. v. Shell Oil Co., 31 So. 2d 10 (La. 1947). A Texas lease turns on its own words.
16	Mineral servitude, ten years without use	A servitude prescribes after ten years of nonuse. Good-faith operations for the discovery and production of minerals interrupt it. After a dry hole, a new ten years runs from the last day of actual drilling operations.	Affidavit of nonuse. On written demand, the former servitude owner owes a recordable act showing the servitude is extinguished.	La. R.S. 31:27, 31:29, 31:30, 31:206

16 entries

Case cards

Four cases that decide a lot of runsheet comments.

The reservation gives way to the warranty

Duhig v. Peavy-Moore Lumber Co., 144 S.W.2d 878 (Tex. 1940)

A grantor conveys by warranty deed and reserves 1/2 of the minerals, but 1/2 is already outstanding in someone else. He can't keep the reservation and honor the warranty, so the reservation fails as far as needed to make the grantee whole.

Cure: stipulation of interest, or a mineral quitclaim from the grantor's successors. Index No. 04

Five attributes of the mineral estate

Altman v. Blake, 712 S.W.2d 117 (Tex. 1986)

The right to develop, the executive right to lease, and the rights to bonus, delay rentals and royalty. Convey only the royalty and you have an NPRI: it shares in production, with no say in leasing and no bonus or rentals.

Cure: read the grant and the reservation together; where owners disagree, a stipulation of interest signed by all of them. Index No. 05

Mother Hubbard clauses cover strips, not tracts

Smith v. Allison, 301 S.W.2d 608 (Tex. 1956)

A cover-all clause is read to pick up small strips and gores left out of the description, not to carry a substantial tract the parties never described. A good-sized tract that hangs on a cover-all clause will draw a title requirement.

Cure: a deed or quitclaim that describes the tract. Index No. 06

The executive owes utmost good faith

Manges v. Guerra, 673 S.W.2d 180 (Tex. 1984)

Whoever holds the executive right owes the non-executive owners utmost good faith when leasing (KCM Fin. LLC v. Bradshaw, 457 S.W.3d 70 (Tex. 2015)). The executive right is an interest of its own and can be conveyed separately (Day & Co. v. Texland Petroleum, 786 S.W.2d 667 (Tex. 1990)).

Cure: ratification by the non-executive owners, with the terms disclosed. Index No. 11

Index of terms

Shorthand you will see on our runsheets.

Abstract of judgment: Recorded summary of a money judgment. A lien on the debtor's nonexempt real property in the county, minerals included. See No. 13
AOH (affidavit of heirship): Sworn family history by someone who knew the decedent, recorded in the county. After five years of record it is prima facie evidence of the facts in it. See No. 01
Bring-down: A search from a set date or instrument forward to today, to update an earlier runsheet or opinion.
Chain of title: The recorded transfers from the sovereign to today's owner, each grantee becoming the next grantor.
Correction instrument: Fixes a clerical error on a person's own knowledge (§ 5.028), or a material one when every party signs (§ 5.029). The first kind is still called a scrivener's affidavit. See Nos. 07, 08
dec'd: Deceased. Marks a grantor who had died by the date of the instrument. See No. 01
DT (deed of trust): The lien instrument behind a real estate loan. Stays of record until released. See No. 12
et ux, et al: "And wife" and "and others" after a name. Each person is still an owner to run.
Executive right: The power to sign oil and gas leases for a mineral interest. See No. 11
Grantor/grantee index: The clerk's alphabetical index of recorded instruments, one by the party giving and one by the party taking. Every search starts here.
MD (mineral deed): A deed that conveys minerals, or a share of them, apart from the surface.
Mesne conveyance: Any transfer in the middle of the chain, between the patent and the present owner. See No. 09
MI (mineral interest): Ownership share in the minerals under a tract. "Res. 1/2 MI" means the grantor kept one half.
Mother Hubbard clause: A cover-all clause that picks up small strips and gores left out of a description.
NPRI: Non-participating royalty interest: a share of royalty with no executive right, bonus or rentals. Fixed or floating. See No. 05
OGL (oil and gas lease): Lets an operator explore and produce for a primary term and as long after as there is production. See No. 14
Pat.: Patent: the original grant from the sovereign, the first link in the chain.
Pugh clause: A lease clause that releases acreage outside a pooled unit at the end of the primary term or another stated time. See No. 15
RRC: Railroad Commission of Texas. Its production records show whether a lease produced.
Runsheet: The chain as a table: every instrument in date order, with filed date, parties, instrument, recording reference and comments.
SONRIS: Louisiana's online oil and gas records system, used to check well and lease status.
Vol/Pg, Inst. No.: The recording reference. Older records go by volume and page; most counties now go by instrument number.
WD (warranty deed): A deed in which the grantor warrants title to what it conveys. See No. 04
Wild deed: A recorded deed from someone outside the chain. It gives no constructive notice. See No. 10

Questions

Searches first, then a few title questions that come up often.

Which counties can you search?

We haven't published a coverage list, and self-serve search isn't open yet. Send the county and we'll tell you whether we can run it and on what terms.

Is a runsheet an attorney's opinion on title?

No. A runsheet is the record chain with a landman's comments. A legal opinion on title is an attorney's work. We're independent landmen, not attorneys, and we work alongside your examiner.

How far back do you run it?

As far as the job needs. Back to patent for a full mineral chain; a bring-down from a date or instrument you name for a lease check or an update. The scope note says where we started and where we stopped.

When does a correction instrument do, and when do I need every party to sign?

Under Tex. Prop. Code § 5.028, a nonmaterial error (a misspelled name, a wrong recording reference, an obvious typo) can be fixed by a correction instrument from a person with personal knowledge of the facts. A material change, like a different fraction, an added party or a moved boundary, needs a correction instrument signed by every original party or their heirs (§ 5.029).

How does an old unreleased deed of trust get cured in Texas?

Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.035 the lien is void four years after the last installment matures, unless a recorded extension keeps it alive (§ 16.036). The examiner has to see that date and look for an extension. If the DT doesn't state a maturity and nothing else of record shows it, expect a requirement for a release.

What counts as use to interrupt prescription on a Louisiana servitude?

Good-faith operations for the discovery and production of minerals interrupt prescription (La. R.S. 31:29). Under La. R.S. 31:30, the interruption takes effect the day actual drilling begins, and a new ten years runs from the last day actual drilling operations were conducted.

What's the difference between a fixed and a floating NPRI?

A fixed NPRI is a set share of production, like 1/16 of all oil and gas, whatever the lease royalty. A floating NPRI is a share of whatever royalty a future lease sets, like 1/2 of the royalty. The words of the reservation decide which, read as a whole (Hysaw v. Dawkins).