Most people who ask this question have one of three things in hand: an old deed from a parent or grandparent, a letter from a landman or a mineral buyer, or a royalty check that arrived out of nowhere. Whichever it is, the path is the same, and in Wyoming it has one extra step that trips up owners who learned the ropes in Texas or Oklahoma.
Every Wyoming tract is described by section, township and range under the Public Land Survey System — for example NE¼ of Section 12, Township 40 North, Range 74 West. Almost the whole state is measured from the 6th Principal Meridian; the Wind River Reservation uses its own Wind River Meridian. The description is on the deed, on any division order you signed, and usually printed in the "property" column of a check stub. Write down every tract, including any government lots (small irregular parcels along rivers and section edges — "Lot 3" instead of a quarter-quarter).
Mineral deeds, reservations and leases are recorded with the county clerk of the county the land sits in — not with the state. Wyoming's 23 clerks each keep their own grantor/grantee index; several publish it online, and all of them will run a search over the counter or by mail for a small copy fee. You are looking for the instrument that gave your family the minerals (a mineral deed, or a warranty deed that reserved the minerals when the surface was sold) and for anything that later conveyed them away.
If the trail runs through a death, look for a probate, a decree of distribution or an affidavit of heirship in the same index. Minerals that were never formally passed on are the most common reason a check stops or never starts.
Roughly two-thirds of Wyoming's mineral estate belongs to the United States, and much of it sits under privately owned surface. A surface deed from 1920 that "includes all minerals" is worth nothing if the federal government reserved them in the original patent. The BLM's mineral-ownership records settle it; our map shades federal minerals so you can see at a glance whether the section you own surface on has private minerals at all.
Once you have a tract, look at it. WOGCC's records will tell you which wells have been permitted, drilled and produced on that section and, through spacing orders, which horizontal wells a mile away are draining it. If there is production and you are not being paid, the operator's division-order department is the next call; if there is a rig on the way, a landman will find you before long.
Put the tracts, the recorded instruments and the fractions in one place. Owners who can answer "what do I own and where" in one sentence get paid faster, negotiate better leases and hand their heirs something other than a shoebox.
No. Ownership is proven by documents recorded with each county clerk. The state's WOGCC records show wells and production, not who owns the minerals under them. Federal mineral ownership is a BLM record.
Probably — operators pay the owner of record, often found through a title search after a well is drilled. Ask the payor for the division order and the legal description it is based on, then confirm the chain of title at the county clerk.
It depends on whether they are producing, what the wells are making, how much undrilled acreage is inside an active spacing unit, and current prices. Look at the section's production history and nearby spuds before you answer a buyer's letter.