0:00:03 > 0:00:07Today, the heir hunters are struggling to find a family...
0:00:07 > 0:00:09The Rixons seem to be quite difficult to find.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12They're keeping themselves well-hidden.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14..but the clock is ticking.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18With the competitive nature, I need some information from somebody.
0:00:18 > 0:00:19It's one of these ones here.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21KNOCK ON DOOR
0:00:22 > 0:00:23Hello. Mr England?
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Another team discover a sailor stopped at nothing
0:00:27 > 0:00:29to fight for his country.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34From what we know, a lot of young men lied about their age back then
0:00:34 > 0:00:36just to get into the Army or the Navy.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Could long-lost family have been living round the corner all along?
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Up and down the country, heir hunters search
0:00:54 > 0:00:58for long-lost family members who may be about to receive
0:00:58 > 0:00:59a surprise windfall.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01Hello?
0:01:02 > 0:01:04One of these searches involved Patricia Hall,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08who died in January 2015 aged 84.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13She lived alone in the leafy London suburb of Golders Green.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17I've known Pat ever since I was a baby.
0:01:17 > 0:01:18She and her family
0:01:18 > 0:01:20lived next door to my grandmother.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23She was very pleasant, very nice, but she was very quiet
0:01:23 > 0:01:25and quite reserved.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Living across the road from Patricia,
0:01:27 > 0:01:32I found her to be a very nice, elegant lady.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34In her younger years she was always about
0:01:34 > 0:01:37and she always knew a lot of what was happening in the area
0:01:37 > 0:01:40and stuff like that and very, very good to the elderly people
0:01:40 > 0:01:41in the area.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46Pat was very close to her parents and she looked after them,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49she was very good to them and she worked hard
0:01:49 > 0:01:52and kept them when they were older.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54When her mother died, sort of lived in the house,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56continued living in the house.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59Was a bit of a recluse, kept herself to herself.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02I think she worked at John Lewis, then retired.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06I never saw any friends or family visiting her over a period of
0:02:06 > 0:02:07the time I was here.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10She kept mainly to herself.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13She did have a friend for a while she used to go out with
0:02:13 > 0:02:17but he died, I think, quite suddenly,
0:02:17 > 0:02:22so from that time on I didn't really know her
0:02:22 > 0:02:25to have any other, sort of, partner.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29With no known family and without leaving a will,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32it's up to case manager Ben Cornish and his team
0:02:32 > 0:02:35at London-based heir hunting firm Fraser and Fraser
0:02:35 > 0:02:37to track down heirs to her estate.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42Just draw a little tree up of that, will you?
0:02:42 > 0:02:46The first thing on this case, what we do is search for a birth
0:02:46 > 0:02:49for our deceased, so Patricia Louise Rose Hall.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55Having a look at that, I've found one which is a Patricia RL Hall,
0:02:55 > 0:02:57mother's maiden name, Kerridge.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01She's born in the correct quarter, in the December quarter, in 1930,
0:03:01 > 0:03:02in Hendon.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07As there's always the potential for a rival firm to be on the trail,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09the heir hunters need to work quickly...
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Right, let me take some notes of these.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14..especially as the estate is valuable.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17After doing some digging, we found that this estate was worth
0:03:17 > 0:03:18just under half a million.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20It's quite a big estate,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22which meant there was going to be competition on it,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24so we have to work fast.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Although we know that Patricia never married
0:03:26 > 0:03:28we weren't sure if she ever had any children.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31That's something we had to verify straightaway.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34Obviously, they would have a prior claim than any brothers and sisters
0:03:34 > 0:03:36or nieces and nephews.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39So, we had to make some enquiries and we soon discovered quite quickly
0:03:39 > 0:03:41that she had no children.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45The team then need to look for any brothers and sisters,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48but finding records proves a challenge
0:03:48 > 0:03:51because of her father's name, Alfred William Hall.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Her mother was Edith Rose Kerridge.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57The name Hall is quite a common surname,
0:03:57 > 0:04:02it's not just set in one area, like you get area names.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04Hall can be across the country,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06so it can be quite difficult to research.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09So, when we come across a surname, a common surname,
0:04:09 > 0:04:11it means the research is a lot harder.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14But not just harder for us, harder for the competition,
0:04:14 > 0:04:16so we don't mind, it just means a bit more research.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20Their research tracks down Patricia's parents
0:04:20 > 0:04:23who were born at the turn of the century.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26So, I've got the marriage certificate for the parents
0:04:26 > 0:04:29for an Alfred William Hall, aged 22, he was a bachelor,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32he was a general labourer, marrying an Edith Rose Kerridge,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35who's 21, she's a spinster and she's a laundress.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38They're both living on the same road.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43Alfred, it looks like he lives at 142
0:04:43 > 0:04:46and Edith lives at 148.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50So, it's quite sweet that they sort of met on the same road
0:04:50 > 0:04:51and fell in love.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Records establish that early in Patricia's father's life,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57he had a military career.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Alfred William Hall joined the Navy in 1916,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06two years after the outbreak of World War I,
0:05:06 > 0:05:08when the age of conscription was 18.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13And the heir hunter's research found he'd gone to quite some lengths
0:05:13 > 0:05:15to ensure he served his country.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19I've found a naval record for an Alfred William Hall.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24He's born in 1898, he's born on 16th of April
0:05:24 > 0:05:29and our Alfred William Hall is born 16th of October in Hendon
0:05:29 > 0:05:31and this gentleman is also born in Hendon.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36From what we know, a lot of young men lied about their age back then
0:05:36 > 0:05:38just to get into the army or the navy,
0:05:38 > 0:05:42so he could have put his birth back a few months
0:05:42 > 0:05:44to make himself seem older than what he was.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49But it gives us a description of Alfred at this time.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53We know that he's 5'1", he has a 32-inch chest,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57he's got brown hair, hazel eyes and has a fresh complexion
0:05:57 > 0:06:00and a scar on his foot.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03With Patricia's parents dying in the '70s,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07the team continued their search for any brothers and sisters
0:06:07 > 0:06:08who could be potential heirs.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13I would rely more on the maternal side now.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16We're just going to look in the area of Hendon first
0:06:16 > 0:06:18because that is where she's born.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20I can see that she's got two brothers -
0:06:20 > 0:06:23one called Leonard and one called Alfred.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27So, when we looked into the deceased's two brothers,
0:06:27 > 0:06:31we found out that Alfred, the elder of the two brothers,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35was born in 1922 and he died in 2007 without any children.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38I did a basic general search for a death for Leonard
0:06:38 > 0:06:41from 1916 to 2007.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46Nothing came up, so my next search was the Commonwealth War Graves.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51I have come across a Leonard John Albert Hall,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54who died on 6 June 1944,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57which obviously coincides with the D-Day landings
0:06:57 > 0:07:02and he is in fact a Royal Marine at this point
0:07:02 > 0:07:04and he is buried in France.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08So, it would be safe to assume that he probably was one of those killed
0:07:08 > 0:07:09on the beaches that day.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12They would now have their work cut out
0:07:12 > 0:07:14investigating Patricia's wider family,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18so the search moved back a generation to her father's parents.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24Patricia's grandfather on her father's side was George Alfred Hall
0:07:24 > 0:07:28and grandmother Mary Ann Parker.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31They married in 1896 in Hendon, north London
0:07:31 > 0:07:34and between them had four children
0:07:34 > 0:07:38including Patricia's aunts Alice and Emily and uncle John.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41So, when we were looking into the aunts and uncles
0:07:41 > 0:07:43on the paternal side of the family,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46we discovered that the youngest aunt, Emily, had one son, Graham,
0:07:46 > 0:07:48but sadly he passed away in infancy.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53We soon discovered that Alice and John both had families.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56So, when we completed research on the paternal side,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59in total we had five beneficiaries descending from two stems.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03So, when we had established that there were five heirs
0:08:03 > 0:08:07on the paternal side, we then had to look into the maternal family.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Edith Rose Kerridge was the name that we had to look into.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14The deceased mother was born in 1900 in Kensington.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16We found her on the 1901 census
0:08:16 > 0:08:18but couldn't find any records for her parents.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22We knew who they were, they were George Isaac John Kerridge
0:08:22 > 0:08:24and Elizabeth Louisa Kerridge.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Patricia's grandparents, George Kerridge and Elizabeth Morrill
0:08:28 > 0:08:30were married in 1893
0:08:30 > 0:08:35and nine months later, a wedding baby was born, George Jr.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37They went on to have seven further children,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40including Patricia's mother, Edith.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44With so many children, there were potentially even more heirs to find
0:08:44 > 0:08:46on this side of the family.
0:08:46 > 0:08:53Next was William Francis Kerridge, born in 1896 in Kensington.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56He later married a Violet Elsie Fisher in 1921.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59They went on to have two children.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04The youngest son, George Kerridge, actually passed away in 1949.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08Their other son was William Kerridge Jr,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11who was 16 when World War II broke out.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15William Arthur Kerridge married Catherine Fitzgerald
0:09:15 > 0:09:18in September 1949, in Hendon.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22From his marriage certificate, we know that he was an aircraft fitter.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30William worked during the war for an aircraft manufacturer
0:09:30 > 0:09:32that pioneered the making of bombers.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38I suspect that when war broke out, William was already an apprentice.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40He'd probably have left school at 14,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43so probably three years into his apprenticeship at Handley Page
0:09:43 > 0:09:45and that's probably the reason why,
0:09:45 > 0:09:47with all those skills already acquired,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49they weren't going to have him go to war.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51He might have preferred to fight
0:09:51 > 0:09:53but that wouldn't actually have been an option for him.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56His skills would have been seen as far too important
0:09:56 > 0:09:57to lose in wartime.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01William would have done skilled supervisory work
0:10:01 > 0:10:04with accelerated responsibilities due to the pressing needs
0:10:04 > 0:10:06of the war.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Due to the demand for planes, he would've worked 12 hours a day
0:10:10 > 0:10:13often on one of the most notable bombers of the war effort.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Handley Page are particularly known for producing the Halifax,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21which is both a bomber and a transport plane and, at times,
0:10:21 > 0:10:22an ambulance plane.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25There were over 6,000 of them produced and in operation
0:10:25 > 0:10:26during the war.
0:10:26 > 0:10:31Nearly 300,000 tonnes of bombs were delivered onto Germany
0:10:31 > 0:10:34by the Halifax and very much part of the British war effort.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38The loss from planes in the air was absolutely huge.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41When they were bombing, for instance, over Germany,
0:10:41 > 0:10:43about a third of the planes would be lost.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46So, production was absolutely huge in that.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48Because the government was keen to prevent the enemy
0:10:48 > 0:10:51knowing the location of production sites,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55William may have worked even longer shifts guarding the site.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57There was always the danger that the factory itself
0:10:57 > 0:11:00would be a target for bombing and that was a worry for people
0:11:00 > 0:11:02and there was such a need for people at night,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05maybe after he had done his ten or 12 hours work in the factory,
0:11:05 > 0:11:07he would have been expected to be a night firefighter
0:11:07 > 0:11:10looking out to see if there were bombers coming over
0:11:10 > 0:11:12and prevent the factory actually being bombed
0:11:12 > 0:11:14and stopping its production.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23The heir hunters' search showed that after the war,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25William and his wife went on to have three children,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28two of whom are living heirs.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30One of their grandchildren, also an heir,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34is Sasha Kerriage, who lives in Daventry.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36At first I thought it was a little bit,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38"Oh, is this a genuine phone call
0:11:38 > 0:11:40"or is it somebody trying to catch me out?"
0:11:40 > 0:11:44But we had a good chat on the phone and it was actually quite a surprise
0:11:44 > 0:11:50to think that I'd had a relative that I'd never even heard of before
0:11:50 > 0:11:53and I was actually quite excited to find out more.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58My father never told me much about his side of the family
0:11:58 > 0:12:02and I think that might be due to my father and my mother being separated
0:12:02 > 0:12:04and us not seeing him very often.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09The chance to inherit unexpectedly is welcome news.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14Knowing that we've got a sum of money coming
0:12:14 > 0:12:16certainly will help us out.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21There's a few things that we'd like to do with it.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25We don't get to go on fancy holidays very much, they can be quite pricey,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29so we're perhaps looking at going on a family holiday.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32So, yeah, just sort of spoiling my little family.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35The heir hunters went on to complete the search
0:12:35 > 0:12:39with Patricia's other aunts and uncles and their descendants.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41We have 19 heirs on the maternal side...
0:12:42 > 0:12:47..which compared to the paternal side of only five, is a lot bigger.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52In total, 24 of Patricia's living heirs were found.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54The case of Patricia Hall was fascinating
0:12:54 > 0:12:57and the estate in the end was worth 480,000.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01I do miss Pat and she was one of the few people around
0:13:01 > 0:13:05that remembered my family, she was a link with my past.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09You cannot not think of Patricia and maybe what she's been through,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11what her life entailed.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14I definitely will be raising a glass of the fizz to Patricia.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24It's Tuesday morning in the London office of heir hunters Finders.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26Both those certificates have been ordered,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29they'll phone with the rest of the information.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Yeah, I might need those. Thank you very much.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Case managers Amy Moyes and Ryan Gregory
0:13:34 > 0:13:36are working on new cases that have appeared
0:13:36 > 0:13:40on the Treasury Solicitor's unclaimed estates list.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45Today, I'm looking at the estate of David Arthur John Rixon.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48It appears that David had been living
0:13:48 > 0:13:53with his only brother, Gordon, until Gordon passed away in 2012.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55Neither of them appear to have married or had children,
0:13:55 > 0:13:57so there's no close kin involved.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00What I'm trying to do now is to take a look
0:14:00 > 0:14:05at who David's parents were and go straight into
0:14:05 > 0:14:07maternal and paternal families.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10They need to build a family tree and, hopefully,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12find living relatives.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17Amy has located David's parents from his birth certificate.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20He was the son of Leonard Rixon
0:14:20 > 0:14:23and Claudine Lillian Kevan,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25or 'Kevin'.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27They're quite good names to work with.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30David's father, Leonard Rixon,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33died when he was just 40 years old
0:14:33 > 0:14:35and when David was only 13.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38His mother, Claudine Kevan, didn't marry again,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42so would have brought up David and his younger brother, Gordon,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45as a single mother - a rarity in the '50s.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Amy has been using a genealogist's most valuable tool
0:14:50 > 0:14:54to research David Rixon's father's side of the family tree -
0:14:54 > 0:14:55the census.
0:14:56 > 0:15:02And I've located the paternal grandparents on the 1911 census
0:15:02 > 0:15:07and I've established that there are probably five paternal stems
0:15:07 > 0:15:08to look into.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12The census revealed that William Charles Rixon
0:15:12 > 0:15:15and Emily Sarah Harris had five children,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17including David's father, Leonard.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Amy's challenge is to see which of these aunts and uncles
0:15:20 > 0:15:24and their children may be alive and could be beneficiaries.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28- I'll give you the rest of the tree when....- Sure.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31So far I've looked at the stem of Albert Rixon.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35He married a lady called Katherine and had two children -
0:15:35 > 0:15:38June, who would be a paternal cousin.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41I'm having trouble finding either an address or a death for her.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44She had a brother, Brian, but he passed away in infancy.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48So far, I haven't located any actual heirs
0:15:48 > 0:15:53and the research is a little bit trickier than I thought it would be.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57The names involved are still good, the family itself aren't...
0:15:58 > 0:16:00..particularly easy to find.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05The 1911 census shows that David Rixon's maternal grandparents
0:16:05 > 0:16:08were Donald Thomas Kevan and Florence Mabel Bunney.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13They married in 1900 and lived in Stoke Newington, London...
0:16:14 > 0:16:16..where Florence was employed as a dressmaker.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21At the start of the 20th century,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23dressmaking was an incredibly popular profession
0:16:23 > 0:16:26for women, it was predominantly a women's profession.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30As young girls, sewing formed part of the school curriculum
0:16:30 > 0:16:33and so it was a skill that many women had
0:16:33 > 0:16:35and then when they went to work in the industry
0:16:35 > 0:16:39they tended to start at the bottom, serving a three-year apprenticeship
0:16:39 > 0:16:41and then working their way up through the industry,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43some going on to becoming proprietresses
0:16:43 > 0:16:44of their own business.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46Whereas men's clothes were mass-produced,
0:16:46 > 0:16:47certainly from the 19th century,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51because of the complexity of fit of women's fashionable clothing,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53it tended to be made on a much smaller scale
0:16:53 > 0:16:55and often it was bespoke for the individual woman,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59so it required a perfect body-moulding fit.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02It's not known how long Florence was a dressmaker for,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05but by the time of the next census in 1911,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08she's no longer listed as working.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10A lot of women stopped working
0:17:10 > 0:17:13when they got married, or certainly when they had children.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16There was a social expectation that if your husband could afford
0:17:16 > 0:17:19to keep the family, you didn't work.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24Florence had four children
0:17:24 > 0:17:26and the team now turn their attention to them.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30- SHE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY - OK.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32- You've got one, two, three.- OK.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34- You can pick.- I'm picking that one.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Marcelle, and maiden name Bunney. Yeah, looks good, I'll take that.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Oh, could you actually double-check that I checked
0:17:42 > 0:17:44because she adds an E to Bunney sometimes.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48- Yeah, shall I just check the variations?- Yeah, please.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Another researcher joins the team -
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Suzanne, who takes on one of David Rixon's uncles.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59So, I'm looking at a maternal stem of Archibald Edward Kevan,
0:17:59 > 0:18:00or "Keevan."
0:18:00 > 0:18:04The key question - are any of his children alive?
0:18:04 > 0:18:07It looks as though there's quite a few births in the London area
0:18:07 > 0:18:09where he was born and where he married.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11So I'm just having a look at that now.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15Ryan next tackles David's maternal aunt, Marcelle Kevan...
0:18:15 > 0:18:16Bye-bye.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21..but can't find any children after her marriage.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25That was easy, no-one dies out for Marcelle.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29I didn't see any other issue as well with the variations of Bunney.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Amy is still plugging away at the paternal side,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35but it doesn't look hopeful.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37Is there any other lines to do?
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Why, have you... Has it all died down?
0:18:40 > 0:18:42I'm leaving that one with Suzanne.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46You can try and find June, I can't find her.
0:18:46 > 0:18:52Her parents end up in Norwich, but they're originally from Essex.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55- I would start again. - Start afresh? OK.- Yeah.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58So far, the research has not turned up any good leads
0:18:58 > 0:19:00to living relatives.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02It looks as though most of that side of the family
0:19:02 > 0:19:04has completely died out now.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Suzanne is just checking one final stem.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12So Ryan has now come back to help me finish up with the paternal tree.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20The paternal cousin, June, that I was looking for and couldn't find,
0:19:20 > 0:19:22Ryan's actually found a spinster death for her.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24- OK.- Rosalie, that's them.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26Why did I miss that?
0:19:26 > 0:19:28I don't know, but I didn't want to say anything.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30SHE LAUGHS
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Amy has a breakthrough and discovers another uncle,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Harry Rixon, had a rather large family.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40I have a potential paternal cousin.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45There was a telephone number for him but the number just rings,
0:19:45 > 0:19:47there's no machine, I can't leave a message.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49So, I'm going to try and send a rep
0:19:49 > 0:19:51just to make sure he is who I think he is
0:19:51 > 0:19:54and hopefully ask some questions about the rest of the family tree.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Ideally, I'd like to speak to him first over the phone.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02With the competitive nature, I need some information from somebody.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06One of the firm's travelling researchers is on standby.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Phil James used to work as a policeman.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11It's only ever a positive experience
0:20:11 > 0:20:13unless you get that very odd occasion
0:20:13 > 0:20:16when you are actually telling someone
0:20:16 > 0:20:18that someone they are very close to has died,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20but generally with this type of work
0:20:20 > 0:20:23and people appearing on a Bona Vacantia list,
0:20:23 > 0:20:24that doesn't often happen.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30In the office, Amy puts in a call to one of David's uncle Harry Rixon's
0:20:30 > 0:20:32grandchildren to see what she can find out.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Often, it's not just records that provide missing clues -
0:20:37 > 0:20:40it's information given from family members.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42Hello, am I speaking with a relative?
0:20:44 > 0:20:47Oh, it's her partner? We're working on a Rixon family tree
0:20:47 > 0:20:49and it looks as though his brothers and sisters,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52and I believe he still has two uncles that are living,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56would be entitled to part of this estate.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Thank you for your help, bye-bye.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02She doesn't know too much about the family
0:21:02 > 0:21:05and it sounds as though she's probably not in touch
0:21:05 > 0:21:07with all of the brothers and sisters that we're looking for.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10I do have some numbers for a couple of the other siblings
0:21:10 > 0:21:13of this beneficiary, so I'll see if I can catch any of them.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16The problem we've got is that they're prime working age,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20so it's probably going to be hard to actually speak to many of them.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23But another one of the grandchildren, who is one of six,
0:21:23 > 0:21:25then calls Amy.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27Oh, thank you for calling back.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Would you like me to return your call to save your phone bill?
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Yeah, OK, I'll call you straight back. Bye-bye.
0:21:34 > 0:21:35Hello.
0:21:35 > 0:21:36David hasn't left a will.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40His estate's now going to be split up amongst relatives.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44So amongst those it will be any Rixon relatives that we can find.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50This side of the family still haven't been contacted
0:21:50 > 0:21:54by anybody else, so we're ahead of the competition, which is good.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56On David's mother's side of the family,
0:21:56 > 0:21:58there are three aunts and uncles -
0:21:58 > 0:22:01Archibald, Frederick and Marcelle Kevan.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Ryan discovers that Frederick has no children
0:22:04 > 0:22:08and Archibald has three, two still alive.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11But what's puzzling him is whether David's aunt, Marcelle,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14has any children who could be beneficiaries.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16He calls one of the cousins.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18Hello, is that Patricia England?
0:22:18 > 0:22:20So, we're researching the Kevan family tree
0:22:20 > 0:22:24in relation to a relative of yours who's passed away.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27Right, OK. Who had a son called Clifford?
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Yeah. Marcelle? Oh, OK.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Oh, really? OK. Well, I might have to go back to that then
0:22:36 > 0:22:37having said I've looked at it.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40So, if you have any questions, otherwise we'll probably be with you
0:22:40 > 0:22:42within a couple of hours anyway. OK, thanks very much.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48Good phone call with one of the maternal cousins.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51She's definitely entitled, she's confirmed some details
0:22:51 > 0:22:54on the family tree, which her sister was unable to.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58We're going to see her later on this afternoon.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02She mentioned her father had a sister called Marcelle
0:23:02 > 0:23:04and I was quite proud that I'd looked into that line
0:23:04 > 0:23:07but she said that Marcelle had a son called Clifford
0:23:07 > 0:23:10who I don't think I did find, so I'm going to have a look at that again.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Clifford Williams is the missing and only child of Marcelle Kevan.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Clifford took the surname of his mother's partner,
0:23:17 > 0:23:19who Marcelle didn't marry.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22The reason that we couldn't find Clifford Williams in the searches
0:23:22 > 0:23:26we were undertaking on the Rixon case was simply because -
0:23:26 > 0:23:28one, he was born illegitimately
0:23:28 > 0:23:32but he wasn't even born using the mother's maiden name.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36She'd actually changed her name via deed poll from Kevan to Williams
0:23:36 > 0:23:39and there was actually no way we would have found that birth
0:23:39 > 0:23:42unless someone else in the family had told us about it
0:23:42 > 0:23:48or unless we'd received her death certificate back into the office.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54Clifford Williams lives in Herne Bay, Kent.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58He's married with two children and is one of David Rixon's heirs.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03I would say David was a very good-looking man...
0:24:04 > 0:24:08..and I was very surprised that he never married,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12because he was that good-looking, but he never seemed to.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Clifford has fond memories of time spent with David
0:24:15 > 0:24:17when he was younger.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22We grew up more or less together. Even though they lived in London
0:24:22 > 0:24:26they used to spend their holidays with us in the summer
0:24:26 > 0:24:30because we lived by the seaside and they used to love the seaside,
0:24:30 > 0:24:31they came down every year.
0:24:31 > 0:24:36Clifford wants to now find out more about his family tree.
0:24:36 > 0:24:42What I had hoped to achieve with this would be a history of my family
0:24:42 > 0:24:46because I know very little about the family,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50because when you're young, you just don't seem to ask the questions,
0:24:50 > 0:24:54and then in later life when everyone's gone, you know,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56it's too late to ask.
0:24:56 > 0:24:57Across the country,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Phil James is hotfooting it to Chesham, Buckinghamshire,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03to meet Patricia England.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07Ryan has learnt another heir hunting firm had spoken to her,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09so time is of the essence.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11The staff in the office have identified this lady
0:25:11 > 0:25:14as a potential beneficiary, so if all goes well,
0:25:14 > 0:25:19we should have a new client within the next half an hour.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23Phil is close to Chesham but has somehow got lost.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27This is a big problem with this job is driving on sat nav
0:25:27 > 0:25:31cos you don't know where you are. It is an absolute pain in the neck.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Hemel Hempstead, it looks like we're going to.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36Oh, it's through here.
0:25:36 > 0:25:37No, I've lost it now.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40I've lost where I was supposed to be going there.
0:25:40 > 0:25:41We're on the wrong road.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43It should be here somewhere.
0:25:45 > 0:25:46It's one of these ones here.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Phil finally makes his 3pm appointment,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52arriving at the home of David's cousin Patricia England
0:25:52 > 0:25:54and her husband.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57KNOCK ON DOOR
0:25:57 > 0:26:00- Hello. Mr England?- Yes. - Hi, Phil James.- Come in.
0:26:00 > 0:26:01Thanks very much indeed, thank you.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03- OK, Patricia...- Yeah.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06- ..I know you were contacted by lovely Amy.- Mm-hm.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10I need to just confirm a few things with you before we move on.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12The person who died -
0:26:12 > 0:26:16- that person is David Arthur John Rixon...- Mm-hm.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18..and he was your cousin.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22- Do you remember him at all? - No, I don't remember him at all.
0:26:22 > 0:26:23- Do you think you ever met him? - No.- No?
0:26:23 > 0:26:27- And his mother was a lady called Claudine.- Claudine, yeah...
0:26:27 > 0:26:30- Do you remember her?- ..which was my dad's sister.- That's it.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Well, I was quite shocked, actually, yeah.
0:26:35 > 0:26:41I didn't know I had a cousin, what's the name...?
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Er...what his name was, David Rixon.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47The couple find it strange to be receiving a windfall
0:26:47 > 0:26:52from someone they didn't know, but any money could come in useful.
0:26:52 > 0:26:53- Have a nice holiday, I think.- Yeah.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56A nice holiday, we haven't had one for a few years.
0:26:56 > 0:26:57SHE LAUGHS
0:26:57 > 0:26:59That would be nice.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Where will we go?
0:27:01 > 0:27:03- Er...- Madeira was nice, wasn't it? - Yeah, Madeira or...
0:27:03 > 0:27:07We went to Madeira a few years back. Yeah, that would be nice.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10- Or Cyprus, or Malta. - Or Cyprus, Malta, hm.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13- Lovely to have met you.- Thank you very much. OK, bye.- Cheerio now.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19At the end of the research into David Rixon,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21the heir hunters are pleased they found several heirs
0:27:21 > 0:27:25and can pass on what is entitled to them.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30It looks likely that the estate may be in the region of around £400,000.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Now, given that there's only 11 beneficiaries to the estate,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37then it's a nice feeling to think that hopefully
0:27:37 > 0:27:39there's some life-changing sums of money due to the people
0:27:39 > 0:27:41that we've been dealing with.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44There was an inheritance.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46We're not one for going on holidays.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50We don't want for anything.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54We'd just probably put it aside for our children
0:27:54 > 0:27:57and hopefully do some good that way.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00I can't believe this is happening, you know?
0:28:00 > 0:28:01Amazing.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05But there you go, there you are.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07Life's full of surprises, isn't it?