deltabbean,
I would start by calling the local GAME WARDEN & giving him/her the registration number off the bow. - The State will usually know, unless (as happened here in TX when they started titling everything) it's listed as a "home-built" or "as something else".
Fwiw, the early boat title records of TEXAS are a REAL MESS & often make NO sense. = For example:
1. I have a friend who owns an early 1960s OUACHITA tin Johnboat that, according to TP&WD documents, is a : "1969 Wa-oo-a-cheater", as "fiberglas" & only 5 numbers of the 9-digit serial number are correct.
(NO, I'm not kidding.)
2. A 16ft CRESTLINER outboard runabout, that's titled as a 18ft TEMCRAFT I/O - The only correct thing on the title is the serial number.
(Inasmuch as the hull says CRESTLINER in 8" letters on both sides, whoever applied for the title had "a head full of rocks".)
and
3. A 1965 GLASTRON ski-boat that's titled as a 1952 model.
(GLASTRON was founded in 1956 & built their first boats in March 1957.)
Note: I've "wrestled with" the TP&WD for months about 2 tin-boats (that have been on our family's farm ponds for decades), that were NEVER titled/registered (They never had motors, but I'd like to put a small outboard on each boat & fish out of them OFF the farm.) from the 1950s. - Issuing a new title on an old/untitled boat is a major hassle.
MAYBE this MESS means little to "most users" but it is "a problem" for those of us who rescue/renovate/restore classic, vintage & antique boats and/or are interested in "boating history".
(Especially when the "untitled boat" is "one of a kind" & "historically significant", like the 1953-4 PROTOTYPE called "Texas Fast 1", that is the sole surviving boat built by Pleasant Boatcrafters, Inc. - That boat, serial numbered "1-X", was never sold & has been stored indoors since 1955.)
yours, satx