0:00:02 > 0:00:03- Today... - Do you want to find parents?
0:00:03 > 0:00:05I'll try and find marriage information.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07..heir hunters race to find family
0:00:07 > 0:00:10on one of their most valuable cases ever.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12It's going to be a highly competitive case,
0:00:12 > 0:00:15with a large family tree to be looking into.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17It's going to be a lot of work.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21Heirs receive potentially life-changing sums of cash.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25To find that you're part of an inheritance is quite a shock.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30And the bravery of unsung heroes in wartime Britain is discovered.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32The men up in the front line
0:00:32 > 0:00:34were doing a dangerous job in a dangerous place.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49In London, heir-hunting firm Finders have been working
0:00:49 > 0:00:52on a new case worth hundreds of thousands of pounds
0:00:52 > 0:00:54from the government's Bona Vacantia list.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57There was quite a high value to the estate.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Could you just give them a call just to confirm?
0:00:59 > 0:01:04A property in London, sort of the Holy Grail of cases,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07you've always got a lot of competition on these ones.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11We've got to make sure that we work really quickly, really accurately.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14- Could you just give us one and let me know?- Yeah, sure.- Thanks.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16When we picked up on the case, we didn't look at the surname
0:01:16 > 0:01:18and think it would pose us many problems.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22But Ryan soon learnt he was being overconfident.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24We were left scratching our heads
0:01:24 > 0:01:26because we couldn't find any record of them.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31The estate was that of Barbara Lillian Irene Kirk,
0:01:31 > 0:01:37who was born in 1929 and passed away in London in June 2015.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41She lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb, an area she loved,
0:01:41 > 0:01:43having lived there for over two decades.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48I understand Barbara Kirk was here for over 20 years.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51To live in Hampstead Garden Suburb is regarded by most of the people
0:01:51 > 0:01:54who live here as something special.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57People do tend to stop and have a chat.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00It is a friendlier area
0:02:00 > 0:02:02than most, I think, in London.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05So, from that point of view, it's a good place to live.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08Barbara also worked as a pathologist
0:02:08 > 0:02:11at a Central London hospital for over 40 years.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13She would have had a wide range of roles,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16helping in the diagnosis and maintenance of the patient.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21Barbara is likely to have started her job at the very foundation
0:02:21 > 0:02:23of the NHS in 1948,
0:02:23 > 0:02:28where openings for women in the workplace were expanding rapidly.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31This was not somebody who just went in as a young girl
0:02:31 > 0:02:33and sort of stayed doing the same job.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36MLSOs - medical laboratory scientific officers -
0:02:36 > 0:02:38began to have a career progression.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41There would have been training courses.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Barbara appears to have taken hold of these new opportunities
0:02:44 > 0:02:46with both hands,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48but it would have taken a certain type of character
0:02:48 > 0:02:50to perform her crucial work.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Well, I think you have to be methodical
0:02:52 > 0:02:53because it's really important.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56People's lives depend on getting the right blood, for example,
0:02:56 > 0:02:57in a blood transfusion.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Barbara played a vital role in patient care in the NHS,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05but she appeared to have passed away without a will
0:03:05 > 0:03:06or any close relatives.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09Do you mind just pulling this up?
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Case manager Holly Jones was tasked with finding her heirs.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16It appears that she wasn't married,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19so we'll probably be looking for a wider family.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21It's not going to be a close kin tree.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23A large family tree to be looking into.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25It's going to be a lot of work.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Cheers. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33The area Barbara lived in meant her case was a priority.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38So we valued Barbara's estate at roughly £800,000.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Quite a large estate.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43This is definitely up with some of the larger ones that we work on.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45With such a large amount of money at stake,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48the team sent a travelling representative out.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Peter doesn't seem to have much luck.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Often, people are very suspicious of cold callers.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13But people are right to be suspicious
0:04:13 > 0:04:16cos there are a lot of people out there to...to con people.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20Obviously, that's not what we're about.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23We are genuine and we're merely trying to trace relatives
0:04:23 > 0:04:26that can inherit from the estate.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29Having gleaned no helpful information about Barbara's family,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33the pressure is on the office team to unlock the case themselves.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Having established she never married or had children,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39the first step is to find Barbara's parents
0:04:39 > 0:04:41to see if she had any brothers and sisters.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45And to do this, they need Barbara's birth record.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47From Barbara's birth certificate,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51we can also see her mother's name - Helen Kirk.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55It has her profession as a housemaid, or a nursemaid.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57Thanks so much, Jean. Cheers. Bye-bye.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01But there's something missing.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Barbara's birth certificate didn't have any father entered on it,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07and she was illegitimate.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10It changes the way that we would do our research
0:05:10 > 0:05:13compared to if she were born within a marriage.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Typically, when a person is born out of wedlock,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19there'd be no father's name on the birth certificate.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23So you then have to consider that the mother,
0:05:23 > 0:05:24single at the time of birth,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28may then have married and had further children.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31With only one side of the family able to be researched,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34the office team face an uphill struggle.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37They concentrate their efforts to see if Barbara's mother, Helen,
0:05:37 > 0:05:39had any more children.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41We knew from research of the marriage indexes
0:05:41 > 0:05:43that Helen never married,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47therefore there wouldn't be any half-blood siblings to Barbara,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49who were born in wedlock.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Once we'd established that Barbara was an only child,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56we then needed to go back a generation and focus on
0:05:56 > 0:06:01any brothers and sisters that her mother might have had.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Once located, Barbara's family's listing contained a surprise.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08It appeared her family were from Beverley in Yorkshire.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Here we have Helen's parents as well as her brothers and sister,
0:06:13 > 0:06:15so we have an instant family tree.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18The records showed Barbara's grandparents -
0:06:18 > 0:06:19Robert Kirk and Mary Smith -
0:06:19 > 0:06:22had four children other than Barbara's mother, Helen.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25So there were aunts and uncles whose children,
0:06:25 > 0:06:27if found, could be heirs.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30But when the team received Robert and Mary's death certificates,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33they could see that fate had taken a terrible toll on the family.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37We actually found out that tragedy struck the family in 1903
0:06:37 > 0:06:39with Robert passing away,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42followed by his wife the year afterwards,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45due to complications with tuberculosis,
0:06:45 > 0:06:49and that left Helen and her brothers and sisters as orphans.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52Annie was only 13,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54her brother Robert was ten,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56Leonard was five.
0:06:56 > 0:06:57And then Helen, Barbara's mother,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00was actually only aged two when she lost her parents.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03In reality, the only option available
0:07:03 > 0:07:04was for them to be fostered.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09But without an effective welfare state to re-home them,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12the children could have been abandoned on the streets.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15If you were homeless and a young child,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18your ability to feed yourself would have been,
0:07:18 > 0:07:20you know, almost impossible.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22You would've had to beg on the streets.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24Life would've been terrible
0:07:24 > 0:07:26for a child out on the streets at that time.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30But help was at hand,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32and records show that the four youngest Kirk children
0:07:32 > 0:07:36appeared to have been helped by the Barnardo's charity.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39For the Kirk family, coming into Barnardo's would have been,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42you know, that would've been the best thing for them,
0:07:42 > 0:07:44especially after their parents had died.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46They would've been looked after, they would've been well fed,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49they would've been educated, they would've had a warm bed
0:07:49 > 0:07:51and they were safe.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58Dr Thomas Barnardo had set up the charity in 1866.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02Barnardo wanted to make sure that children were kept safe
0:08:02 > 0:08:04and that they were away from harm.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07So by bringing them in, offering them employment,
0:08:07 > 0:08:08offering them training,
0:08:08 > 0:08:10providing them with a skill so that they could go out,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14earn money and support themselves, that was his main goal.
0:08:19 > 0:08:20Back in the office,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23the team need to find exactly what happened to the Kirk children
0:08:23 > 0:08:25after they were taken in by Barnardo's
0:08:25 > 0:08:27in order to track down any heirs.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Holly uses the census records to trace their movements
0:08:32 > 0:08:36and discovers why Barbara ended up living in the south of England.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40From the 1911 census, we can find Barbara's mother, Helen,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43living down in Hertfordshire.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46It appears that she'd been moved from Yorkshire,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49in a foster home, in a Barnardo's children's home.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52Previously, if we thought they stayed in Yorkshire,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55we might have restricted our searches to that area.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57So being able to track their movements
0:08:57 > 0:09:00through these later censuses is really important.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03But despite working out what became of Barbara's mother, Helen,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06the whereabouts of Barbara's uncles,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09the two boys - Robert and Leonard - remained a mystery.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10We were left scratching our heads
0:09:10 > 0:09:14because we couldn't find any record of Robert and Leonard.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17We couldn't find them on the 1911 census. But beyond that,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21we couldn't locate a marriage which looked likely for either of them.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23The death search was proving negative as well.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28It could be that they've ended up in another part of the country.
0:09:28 > 0:09:29If their surname has changed,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32then they would've been almost impossible to find.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35But we needed to go through the processes in order to ascertain
0:09:35 > 0:09:37whether got married and whether they had children
0:09:37 > 0:09:40because, potentially, any children they did have
0:09:40 > 0:09:42would be entitled to inherit from Barbara's estate.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46With two sources of potential heirs mysteriously disappearing,
0:09:46 > 0:09:48the team were stumped,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52until they discovered Robert Kirk on shipping records from 1904.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55We found out that the reason why he wasn't tuning up
0:09:55 > 0:10:00on the 1911 census records here was because he actually went to Canada
0:10:00 > 0:10:03with Dr Barnardo's, the children's home,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06along with around 200 other children.
0:10:11 > 0:10:17In 1907, Robert's brother Leonard also went to Canada with Barnardo's,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20but it wasn't a holiday they were being treated to.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23The child migration scheme was actually a government initiative
0:10:23 > 0:10:26set up by both the British and Canadian government
0:10:26 > 0:10:28to basically populate Canada,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32which before then was very much a dying society
0:10:32 > 0:10:34of old men and railroad workers.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38So it was an opportunity for the governments to, one,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41provide somewhere for the vast, growing number of children
0:10:41 > 0:10:43who were homeless in the UK,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47but also give them an opportunity to have a different life.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50For Robert and Leonard, it would have been
0:10:50 > 0:10:53quite an adventure going to Canada.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56They probably would have put their hand up and volunteered to go,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58been told a little bit about life in Canada,
0:10:58 > 0:11:00about the snow and about the summers
0:11:00 > 0:11:02and, you know, life working on a farm.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08The migration scheme in Canada ran till 1939,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11and 100,000 children were actually sent to Canada,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14the vast majority of which went prior to the First World War.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21And by the time Britain declared war on Germany in 1914,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Robert and Leonard were 21 and 16.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28They both responded to the call to arms from their motherland
0:11:28 > 0:11:29and joined Canadian forces
0:11:29 > 0:11:32who were sent to the Western Front in France.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34But Ryan uncovered a tragic end
0:11:34 > 0:11:37to Robert and Leonard's great adventure.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41Robert Kirk was actually killed in action in France in 1916,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45and his brother Leonard sadly passed away a year later,
0:11:45 > 0:11:47but back in Canada, in a military hospital.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Both never married and therefore our research was focused
0:11:50 > 0:11:52onto the other lines of the family.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56So have you got his address?
0:11:56 > 0:11:58With no heirs from Robert and Leonard,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01the team were running out of options,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03so they focused on their two surviving sisters -
0:12:03 > 0:12:05Barbara's aunties, Annie and Ethel.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Helen's sister, Annie Kirk,
0:12:08 > 0:12:10actually died in 1910,
0:12:10 > 0:12:12unmarried and without children,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14and from tuberculosis.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Again, it's quite sad that she didn't have any children of her own
0:12:18 > 0:12:20after she came out of Barnardo's.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24We were running out of options
0:12:24 > 0:12:26if we were going to find any beneficiaries,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29so all our hopes were really pinned on the line of Ethel Kirk.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33Oh, perfect.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36That is... That's great.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38And the team were in luck this time.
0:12:38 > 0:12:39OK, bye.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43Ethel Kirk, Helen's sister,
0:12:43 > 0:12:48married in 1904 to a George William Gillyon.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53Because they married in 1904, it meant we could look for them
0:12:53 > 0:12:56on the 1911 census, and we found them.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58They were living together
0:12:58 > 0:13:00and they'd already had several children.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Ethel Kirk and George Gillyon had six children,
0:13:03 > 0:13:06four of whom survived to adulthood.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10And the team were able to track down all of their descendants,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13finding a total of 17 heirs to Barbara's estate.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17John Maw is the great grandson of Ethel Kirk
0:13:17 > 0:13:19and is Barbara's cousin twice removed.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22He still lives in the same town of Beverley in Yorkshire,
0:13:22 > 0:13:26that Barbara's grandparents lived in at the turn of the 20th century.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28It was a knock on the door,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32and there was a chap there...
0:13:32 > 0:13:35John remembers the moment he found out he would be inheriting
0:13:35 > 0:13:39from Barbara Kirk - a name he'd never heard of before.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44Well, to find that you're part of an inheritance is quite a shock.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48The name Barbara Kirk means absolutely nothing to me at all,
0:13:48 > 0:13:52and it doesn't mean anything to the family either.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55I think when you first find that you've got a relative
0:13:55 > 0:13:59who's left something,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01it does make you wonder,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05what's the story behind that particular person?
0:14:05 > 0:14:09But the windfall will also be of some practical use for John.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11If I got a reasonable inheritance,
0:14:11 > 0:14:16I do need a new roof on my bathroom.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19So it will certainly come in handy there
0:14:19 > 0:14:21because roofs are not...cheap.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29But it's also quite sad that this person has obviously
0:14:29 > 0:14:34left...left money and I don't know that person.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39For all concerned, it's been a satisfying and interesting case
0:14:39 > 0:14:41to be a part of.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44As much as there are some things we'll never know about Barbara Kirk,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47looking at her family tree, we can build a picture
0:14:47 > 0:14:50and really see how she rose through adversity.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54She'd lost both her mother and her grandparents at a very young age,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58and she didn't seem to let that dampen her spirits.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01She went on to have a very successful career,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04and this was something that we could see as we developed
0:15:04 > 0:15:07the story of the family tree but also on our journey
0:15:07 > 0:15:09to find the heirs to Barbara's estate.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11And for heir John,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14his newly enlarged family tree is a welcome surprise.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19We've got a story there that I didn't know existed.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22That, to me, is probably as important,
0:15:22 > 0:15:24more so, than money.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Sometimes the cases the heir hunters work can reveal
0:15:32 > 0:15:35unsung heroes hidden in family trees,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38with stories that cross continents and decades.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45One such case was that of Philip Charles Horseman.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48He was born on the 25th January, 1940
0:15:48 > 0:15:50in Islington in North London,
0:15:50 > 0:15:52and spent much of his life living in Kent.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59I would say he was a friendly sort of a person, you know.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05If you happened to be out in the front when he went out,
0:16:05 > 0:16:07you know, he'd say hello.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13When I did have a chat to him, it was mostly about the garden.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18Philip had worked most of his life in the building trade,
0:16:18 > 0:16:22and in retirement, he was famous for his love of routine
0:16:22 > 0:16:25and enjoyed the company in his local community pub every day.
0:16:25 > 0:16:31He used to virtually go to the pub 12 o'clock.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Half-past two to three o'clock, he'd be back.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40But one lunchtime, Philip didn't make it to his local.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42On the day, I look at my watch and think,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45"Hello. Phil's a bit late going round to the pub." You know.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47You know, that was it. He was gone.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52It is sad. Very, very sad, yes.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Yeah, very, very sad.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00Philip passed away at home on 22nd of August, 2014,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03without a will or any obvious close family.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08His case was picked up in London
0:17:08 > 0:17:11by senior assistant case manager Amy Cox.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13- Right.- Thanks.- Good luck.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19The case of Philip Charles Horseman came to us via a referral.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21We receive a number of these throughout the year.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23And so while we didn't have an exact value,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26we knew that it's likely that there were going to be funds there
0:17:26 > 0:17:28to be distributed to beneficiaries.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Amy's team quickly got to work on the case.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Thank you so much for letting me know. Thanks. Bye.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42- Shall we find out parents, first of all?- Yeah.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44And then try and find a marriage for them.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48- Do you want to find parents and I'll try and find marriage information? - Yeah, that's fine.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Having established that Philip definitely had no close family,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Amy needed to expand the search.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58Using his death certificate, we could find a birth entry for him.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01His birth entry gave us his father's surname
0:18:01 > 0:18:03and also his mother's maiden name.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06These are absolutely crucial information that you need
0:18:06 > 0:18:08in order to get the case off the ground.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12Starting with the paternal side of the family,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16the deceased's father was a Thomas Charles Horseman.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19He was born on the 6th of February, 1905.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23His parents are a Frank Horseman and a Ruth Carbis.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25And on Thomas's birth certificate,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28his father, Frank, is listed as a coal miner.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31But when we started doing our research online,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34we came across a photo of Frank and it looks as though,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37at one point, he had quite a different career.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41Records showed that Philip's paternal grandfather, Frank,
0:18:41 > 0:18:43was a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps
0:18:43 > 0:18:45during World War I.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Frank Horseman was a really interesting soldier.
0:18:50 > 0:18:51His original service number
0:18:51 > 0:18:53was number 60. Six, zero.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55That's an incredibly low number.
0:18:55 > 0:18:56And what that says to me
0:18:56 > 0:19:01is that Frank was probably in the volunteer force before 1908,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04so gave up some time in the evenings and at weekends
0:19:04 > 0:19:05to learn those skills.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10The Royal Army Medical Corps weren't armed.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Specifically, they wore the Red Cross armband,
0:19:12 > 0:19:13the Cross of Geneva.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15As part of that, they agree not to bear arms.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18So the job of the infantrymen around them was to protect them
0:19:18 > 0:19:20while they went onto battlefields
0:19:20 > 0:19:22and get the wounded from the battlefield
0:19:22 > 0:19:23and evacuate them as quickly as they could.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27But during World War I,
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Frank wasn't sent to the trenches and mud of Western France.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34He was part of a huge British and Commonwealth army in Egypt
0:19:34 > 0:19:37that invaded Palestine in 1916,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41then held by the Ottoman Turks, allies of Germany.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43The scorching deserts of the Middle East made
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Frank's job of helping the injured even tougher.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49It was very dry, it was very dusty.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Men wounded on the battlefield would very often lie out
0:19:51 > 0:19:53for several days with no water,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57and they were very, very dehydrated when they were finally brought in.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03The campaign to invade Palestine, which Frank was part of,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06was overshadowed by the mass slaughter of the Western Front.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08But it was vitally important to the war effort.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13It was one of the most successful campaigns of the entire war.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15It was fairly long, drawn out.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18They'd been fighting right the way from 1915 onwards.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22But the final year of the war, through 1917 and 1918,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25saw a lot of advances through the desert.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27They were building pipes for water.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29They were building railways, roads
0:20:29 > 0:20:31to transport this massive army forward,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33to take on the Turks.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38In 1919, Frank Horseman's war ended and he returned home to his family.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42Back in the office, Amy had discovered
0:20:42 > 0:20:45how many children Frank and Ruth had had together.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50With the mother's maiden name, we could do a birth search,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and there were five other births.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57After Frank and Ruth had married in August 1902,
0:20:57 > 0:20:58they'd had six children.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02But Amy discovered another child who almost fitted in with the family,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06but who had been born before Frank and Ruth got married.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Ruth Carbis had given birth to a daughter.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12And when we got the birth certificate for that daughter,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14there's no father listed,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16so it would appear that she's illegitimate.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20We later discovered that Edith was using the maiden name Horseman
0:21:20 > 0:21:24when she married David Morgan in 1919.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27She also then uses the Horseman surname
0:21:27 > 0:21:29on the birth of her three children.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32And it also then appears later on her death certificate.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35So, for us, that was enough to prove entitlement
0:21:35 > 0:21:39and her children and grandchildren were the heirs to that stem.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43With Edith's children's entitlement confirmed,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46the team had found their first heirs.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49But with another five aunts and uncles still to investigate,
0:21:49 > 0:21:51the hunt was on to find more.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53Both William Henry Horseman
0:21:53 > 0:21:57and Annie Mary Horseman, they never had any children,
0:21:57 > 0:21:59so with regard to those two stems, they've died out.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02Laura married twice and she had one child,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05but unfortunately, he passed away as an infant.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08It looks like the paternal side of Philip's tree
0:22:08 > 0:22:10was going to have only a handful of heirs,
0:22:10 > 0:22:14despite there being at least six aunts and uncles to look at.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18But the final few branches of the family tree were to bear more fruit.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23Alice Doreen Horseman, she married a John Morris Howard in 1934,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and they had one child who's a beneficiary.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28That left the youngest of Philip's uncles,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Albert Vernon Horseman.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33And when the team looked into Uncle Albert,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35they discovered something interesting.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37On this marriage certificate,
0:22:37 > 0:22:39we can see that Albert Vernon Horseman
0:22:39 > 0:22:43married Ruby May Boakes in 1945.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45It lists that he was in the RAF.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48However, it says that he was not a pilot.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53Records show that Albert was listed as an ambulance driver
0:22:53 > 0:22:55in the RAF in 1945.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00But he'd already performed this role in a civilian capacity
0:23:00 > 0:23:02earlier in the war,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05during one of the most dangerous and destructive periods
0:23:05 > 0:23:09of World War II on mainland UK - the London Blitz.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12He was later drafted into the RAF
0:23:12 > 0:23:14and given a dual role of ambulance driver
0:23:14 > 0:23:17and plane mechanic on an airfield in Kent.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Albert would have been frantically busy -
0:23:20 > 0:23:22repairing aircraft engines,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24maintaining aircraft engines,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27keeping the squadrons operational
0:23:27 > 0:23:30at a time when Britain really was fighting for its life
0:23:30 > 0:23:31against the enemy.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36The way it tended to work, if you were on ambulance duty,
0:23:36 > 0:23:37was that you would continue
0:23:37 > 0:23:40with your normal, day-to-day occupation -
0:23:40 > 0:23:42perhaps maintaining aircraft engines -
0:23:42 > 0:23:45and if the crash alarm went off on the airfield,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47you then dropped everything,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49sprinted to your ambulance, jumped in
0:23:49 > 0:23:51and got to where the problem was.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01Although he was a driver, he would no doubt have had to do
0:24:01 > 0:24:05whatever was required of him in order to recover aircrew
0:24:05 > 0:24:08from wrecked airplanes, get them to hospital,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10look after them on the way.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13Working on an airfield would have been no respite
0:24:13 > 0:24:16from the horrors Albert would have seen in Central London
0:24:16 > 0:24:17during the Blitz.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20He would've witnessed some horrendous sights
0:24:20 > 0:24:24of badly burned aircrew crashing back on airfields.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27It would've been quite a harrowing experience
0:24:27 > 0:24:32for anybody involved in the whole medical emergency services
0:24:32 > 0:24:33at that time.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35Like his father Frank before him,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39Albert served on a lesser known, unconventional battlefield.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41And he also wasn't trying to kill.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43He was trying to help and to heal.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Both as a ground crew and as an ambulance driver,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Albert was one of those unsung heroes of the war effort.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53I think Albert's family can be very proud
0:24:53 > 0:24:55of what he did in World War II.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59He wasn't a fighter pilot or a bomber pilot,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02but his role in the RAF was an important one.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04He made a real contribution.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Back in the office, Amy's team were busy piecing together
0:25:15 > 0:25:19the family Albert Horseman and his wife Ruby Boakes had after the war.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24The team discovered Albert and Ruby had four children after the war.
0:25:24 > 0:25:25Come!
0:25:26 > 0:25:28One of them is Stephanie Ives,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31who remembers meeting Philip several decades ago.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34My one meeting with Philip, I was about 17.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36He was, I think, about 35.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38He wasn't there initially,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and he came back from work, and we met and we spoke.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43He seemed very laid-back,
0:25:43 > 0:25:46very sort of...nothing seemed to bother him a great deal.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51In fact, his mother and stepfather's nickname for him was Unconscious
0:25:51 > 0:25:54because he was just so laid-back and horizontal.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58That was the one and only time I ever met him.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Hearing about Philip after so many years
0:26:01 > 0:26:03came like a bolt from the blue for Stephanie.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05The first contact from the heir hunters
0:26:05 > 0:26:09was a knock on the door on a weekday night, about five o'clock.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12So we took it from there, really.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15It is surreal to find you're, you know, coming into an inheritance
0:26:15 > 0:26:18from someone you didn't have a lot of contact with,
0:26:18 > 0:26:20even though they're part of the family.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24And the experience has reignited her interest in her own close family,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26especially her father Albert,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29and the memories he shared about his wartime experiences
0:26:29 > 0:26:30as an ambulance driver.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34I know he saw lots of awful things during the Blitz.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36He delivered lots of babies during the Blitz.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39And I've still got his scissors that he used
0:26:39 > 0:26:42when he was an ambulance driver during the Blitz.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45Finding Stephanie and her siblings
0:26:45 > 0:26:49had tied up Philip's father's side of the family.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52But heir hunters now needed to try and find any surviving heirs
0:26:52 > 0:26:53on his mother's side.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57The first step was to locate Philip's maternal grandparents
0:26:57 > 0:26:58through his mother Ellen.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02We looked into Ellen's parents,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05who were John Hayes and Catherine Costello.
0:27:06 > 0:27:07The team did find eight births
0:27:07 > 0:27:10which came after John and Catherine's marriage in 1902...
0:27:11 > 0:27:14OK, will do. Thank you. Thanks, bye.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19..and were able to prove they were all correct,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22leading to a further 19 heirs to Philip's estate.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25The team did a fantastic job in identifying the heirs,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29and in total, there were 26 heirs identified
0:27:29 > 0:27:31across the maternal and paternal sides of the family.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36And for Philip's cousin Stephanie,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39it's been an opportunity to think more about her family.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42I think any of the family history, I'd be interested in,
0:27:42 > 0:27:44simply because I think you get to an age
0:27:44 > 0:27:46where you do wonder about other parts of the family
0:27:46 > 0:27:49that you just sort of don't deliberately neglect,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52but you just sort of imperceptibly drift away from.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54And you often wonder what happened to them
0:27:54 > 0:27:56and where they are now and what they're doing.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58That's probably more interesting
0:27:58 > 0:28:01than any small inheritance we might get.