Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Texas

I assume you want to divide the 1/8 mineral estate under the large amount into smaller tracts with larger ownership. I would never recommend doing this. The reason is simple. You do not know which portion of the large tract is going to be valuable. Hence if you divide the mineral, the owners of the tracts that might turn out to have oil under them will do much much better than the owners of the tracts with no valuable minerals under them.

If you want to make sure that everyone gets the same share, you would sell the minerals and divide the proceeds. However, while everyone gets the same share, no one would get a share of any future development.

Another option might be to create a trust or corporation and have everyone in the family convey their interest in the minerals to the trust. Leasing would then be handled by the trustee or the president of the corporation as would distribution of any income.