Legal owership of property
My Dad and two Uncles bought a small piece of land in northern Minnesota back in the late 1960’s and built a small cabin on it. It turns out, that my Dad and two Uncles did not file the quit claim and/or register the sale to the state. Since then, all three have passed away. My Dad paid all the property taxes from the early 1970’s until his death in 1997. Since then my brother and I have been paying the property taxes. My Dad did have the quit claim at one time, but since his death, the document has been either lost or destroyed, nobody really knows. My brother and I want like to obtain legal possession of the property.
Who legally owns the property?
What steps or actions are required to obtain ownership?
Is this something the average person can do or is a Real Estate lawyer required to straighten this mess out?