landman.trainingWorkbook · Unit 2 Supplement

Courthouse Index & Chain of Title Workbook.

How to take a tract from today's tax roll back to the sovereign patent in the grantee index, bring every owner forward in the grantor index, and post a runsheet without dropping a severed mineral branch.

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Topic: Grantee-back, grantor-forward, and runsheet posting
Statutes cited: Tex. Prop. Code § 13.001; Tex. Est. Code § 203.001
Cost: Free self-study

Workbook checklist

Verify the sovereign patent (GLO file or federal BLM patent).
Chain the grantee index backward to connect every link.
Adverse each owner forward in the grantor index past their out-conveyance date.

MethodGrantee back, grantor forward

Key rules

Never stop searching an owner on the date they signed a deed out.
Track surface and mineral branches separately after the first severance.
Check probate and district court dockets whenever a surname changes without a deed.

When you walk into a county clerk's vault or open a digital index, records are organized either by party name (grantor-grantee indexes) or by land description (tract books). In Texas and many eastern or southern states, official clerk records are indexed by grantor and grantee names, often grouped by decade or surname letter-pair.

Start with a known anchor. Pull the current appraisal district parcel card to get a recent deed reference, or start at the original sovereign patent from the Texas General Land Office (GLO) land grant database or the BLM GLO records portal.
Run the grantee index backward. If Owner D took by Warranty Deed in 1998 from Grantor C, look up C in the grantee index prior to 1998 to find the deed from B to C, and continue backward until you reach the original patentee from the State or Republic.
Adverse the grantor index forward. For each person or company in the chain, search their name as grantor from the day they acquired any interest (or earlier if they inherited it) forward through the date a deed out from them was recorded, plus a safety buffer for late-filed instruments.
Split the chain at every mineral severance. The moment an owner conveys an undivided 1/2 mineral interest or reserves 1/4 of the minerals, your runsheet now has two active mineral branches that must each be traced forward to the present day.

Adversing: Searching an owner's name in the grantor index across the entire window they held title to catch every lease, mineral deed, lien, easement, and release they signed.
Gap in chain: A break where Grantee A takes title in 1924, and the next instrument is signed by Grantor B in 1951 with no recorded deed, will, or heirship affidavit linking A to B.
Wild deed: A recorded instrument signed by a grantor who is a stranger to the record chain of title.
Inquiry notice: Facts visible on the ground or referenced inside a recorded instrument that would lead a prudent purchaser to investigate an unrecorded claim.

Sources. Tex. Prop. Code §§ 11.001 to 13.004; Westland Oil Development Corp. v. Gulf Oil Corp., 637 S.W.2d 903 (Tex. 1982) (duty to read instruments referenced in the chain).

Worked ExampleLate-recorded deed problem

Other workbooks

Worked problem. O conveys 1/2 MI to A by deed dated May 1, 1974, but A puts the deed in a desk drawer and records it on August 12, 1981. Meanwhile, O conveys the entire tract to B by Warranty Deed dated and recorded June 10, 1976. B pays value and has no notice of A's unrecorded deed.

Tex. Prop. Code § 13.001: B = 100% MI (A = 0%)

Why do you still log A's 1981-recorded deed on your runsheet? Because if you stopped adversing O on June 10, 1976 (when O's deed to B was recorded), you would never see A's deed recorded in 1981 or the subsequent leases signed by A's heirs. An examining attorney needs both instruments on the runsheet so the opinion can address whether B had actual or inquiry notice.

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