Government seized my farmland

Here’s the deal. Back in the early 2000s, some surveyors rolled through my county doing their thing, mapping out who owned what. When they were out there, they were supposed to call in the landowners to verify the property lines and make sure everything lined up. My late grandfather was pretty sick and struggling with his memory back then, so he didn't bother responding to them, and my dad was completely out of the loop, so neither of them showed up. Because nobody stepped up to claim it, those officials just logged that plot of land as federal property. We had no clue this happened until just a few months ago. I'm looking for some advice—who am I even supposed to talk to if I want to get this land back into our family's name? What's the move here, and where do I even start looking?
thanks in advance.

It’s honestly kind of wild how nobody seems to have a clue what’s actually going on here. But hey, whatever, I guess it doesn't really matter. Thanks for even bothering to give this a read, though. It means something to me.

Honestly, they aren't giving you much to work with here, so it’s pretty tough to make any kind of solid call... In any case, the smartest move you can make is just to grab every single piece of paperwork you have and go sit down with a lawyer to get some actual advice.

Look, I’m going to explain this in pretty layman's terms—and hey, maybe some of you already know this, but bear with me: lately, all I hear is people venting their frustrations at the government because they find out the state has somehow staked a claim on their property without them ever being notified.
From what I've gathered firsthand, it usually goes down like this: the person listed as the deed holder passes away. But since, let's be honest, it’s often been the son, the son-in-law, or the grandson actually working the land for years while the "owner" just holds the title, the family just keeps farming it like nothing changed.
Then, eventually, someone decides to apply for an SBA loan, go after a USDA grant, or maybe just try to sell the place—only to look at the county records and see this absolute mess.

And what do they tell you? "Don't worry about it, the state just filed some paperwork unnecessarily; just keep farming the land and maybe in 30 years—or some other absurdly long timeframe—you can re-register it."

The real kicker is that nobody ever called them, sent a notice, or even issued a warning. After the original owner dies, the heir is technically supposed to remember to settle the estate and get the title transferred. But when everyone is living under one roof and things are just "fine," almost nobody thinks to deal with the legalities.

...and honestly, who is actually going to remember to fix this in exactly 30 years?

Now, full disclosure: I’m not a lawyer, and I don't know the nuances of the legal code. I'm mostly wondering when the government is finally going to stop claiming a fractional interest in our land. Ever since my great-grandmother passed, we never formally went through the probate process to transfer everything. Then again, who knows what the laws will look like by then...

Does anyone here have the expertise to weigh in on this?