Wootton/Watson Heir Hunters


Wootton/Watson

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Wootton/Watson. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Today, our heir hunters cross the water and travel to foreign shores.

0:00:020:00:05

So this is what I've got so far.

0:00:050:00:07

This is from the information that we've been given.

0:00:070:00:10

The first case is riddled with unanswered questions.

0:00:100:00:14

Has anything in your searches so far indicated the name Shearer?

0:00:140:00:17

-I didn't find one.

-OK.

0:00:170:00:19

And the second sees a transatlantic race to trace heirs.

0:00:190:00:24

Suddenly, this had become an international competition

0:00:240:00:27

that had moved from the west coast of the United States

0:00:270:00:29

to the north-west coast of England.

0:00:290:00:31

It's all about getting to the root of the problem for the heir hunters.

0:00:310:00:35

We'll have to work on this and unravel the whole mystery behind it.

0:00:350:00:39

Sometimes, a case comes in that takes an heir hunt overseas

0:00:510:00:54

in search of crucial records that can only be discovered in person.

0:00:540:00:58

Today, Daniel Curran, MD of London-based heir-hunting firm Finders

0:01:010:01:06

has travelled to Guernsey on the trail of the case

0:01:060:01:09

of retired clerk Joan Mary Wootton.

0:01:090:01:11

Joan was born on the Channel island on the 18th of February, 1927,

0:01:140:01:18

and died aged 88 of lung disease in the spring of 2015 in Norfolk.

0:01:180:01:24

She was a really nice lady, very quiet and she liked company

0:01:250:01:31

and she liked to chat and we always used to stop and speak to her.

0:01:310:01:35

Leaving no will

0:01:350:01:37

and featuring a few weeks previously on the Government's Bona Vacantia,

0:01:370:01:41

or unclaimed estate list,

0:01:410:01:43

Daniel has limited information regarding Joan's life.

0:01:430:01:46

Our first stop is really to try and identify her birth record.

0:01:470:01:51

The records for Guernsey are not online,

0:01:510:01:54

they're only held locally in Guernsey, so we have to get in touch

0:01:540:01:57

with our researcher here and then try and work on the family tree from there.

0:01:570:02:01

Research is still done the old-fashioned way on the island,

0:02:010:02:05

which means thumbing through birth, marriage, and death records.

0:02:050:02:08

Daniel's on his way to meet Susan Illey,

0:02:080:02:11

a local researcher, who's working on Joan's case for him.

0:02:110:02:15

It's not going to be an easy one to crack.

0:02:150:02:17

In London, senior case manager Ryan Gregory has also been

0:02:190:02:23

looking into the case.

0:02:230:02:25

Can you help me with the... Just one stem.

0:02:250:02:27

So I've got the advert from the Bona Vacantia list

0:02:270:02:30

from the day that we opened the case.

0:02:300:02:32

Now, there was quite a bit more information there

0:02:320:02:35

than there usually is in a lot of the cases they advertise.

0:02:350:02:38

She was a widow, so obviously we knew we were looking for

0:02:380:02:41

a different surname other than Wootton

0:02:410:02:43

for any records going further back.

0:02:430:02:45

Ryan hoped that Joan's maiden name might provide clues

0:02:450:02:49

to her life story and lead to her heirs.

0:02:490:02:52

On the advert we were told that the deceased's maiden name was Le Tissier-Shearer.

0:02:520:02:56

Now, when that sort of information comes in to us in the office,

0:02:560:02:59

we're wondering, is this an hyphenated surname?

0:02:590:03:02

Where has the actual surname come from?

0:03:020:03:04

With the heir hunters' search covering so much ground,

0:03:070:03:09

it makes sense to kick things off on the island where Joan was born

0:03:090:03:13

to learn about her early life.

0:03:130:03:15

Daniel's arrived at the Greffe, the central records office

0:03:160:03:20

at the Royal Court of Guernsey, to meet researcher Susan.

0:03:200:03:23

Located here since the early 1800s,

0:03:240:03:27

the Greffe is home to all the island's birth, marriage and death records

0:03:270:03:31

and Susan has found Joan's birth record.

0:03:310:03:34

-So we know she was born in 1927 and here we have her, Joan M...

-Ah, OK.

0:03:340:03:40

..Le Tissier. Which is a good Guernsey name.

0:03:400:03:43

Born on February the 13th, so now we need to look in the register.

0:03:430:03:47

-18.

-Number 18.

-So now we can see her parents were

0:03:500:03:54

Walter Le Tissier and Florence Lydia Quentin

0:03:540:03:58

and they lived at the north side, in the Vale

0:03:580:04:01

and her father's occupation was coal heaver.

0:04:010:04:03

With Joan's parents' names,

0:04:050:04:07

the next step is to find details about their marriage.

0:04:070:04:10

-We'll look for a marriage in the indexes, prior to 1927...

-OK.

0:04:100:04:16

..when Joan was born.

0:04:160:04:17

-Careful as you go.

-A rickety, rickety spiral staircase.

0:04:180:04:22

-So, what do we have here?

-This is the Marriage Index...

-Right.

0:04:250:04:28

..from 1919, when registration, civil registration began.

0:04:280:04:32

This manual searching is like a treasure hunt.

0:04:330:04:36

One clue leads to another, and having found Walter and Florence's

0:04:360:04:40

marriage listing, Susan can quickly find their marriage certificate.

0:04:400:04:44

This will be the key to unlocking her past

0:04:450:04:48

and to starting her family tree in the hope of finding her heirs.

0:04:480:04:52

So we can see they got married on Boxing Day in 1925

0:04:520:04:56

-in the parish church at St Sampson.

-Right.

0:04:560:04:59

Water was 32 and Lydia 24.

0:04:590:05:02

With confirmation that Le Tissier was Joan Wootton's maiden name,

0:05:020:05:07

there's still the question of the other name she had listed, Shearer.

0:05:070:05:11

So, has anything in your search so far indicated the name Shearer?

0:05:110:05:15

I did look for a marriage for Joan, but I didn't find one.

0:05:150:05:20

The trail leading to answers about Joan Wootton's former name

0:05:200:05:24

may have come to a dead end,

0:05:240:05:26

but with Walter and Florence's marriage certificate found,

0:05:260:05:29

Ryan had more fuel to fire his search in the London office.

0:05:290:05:33

Using the names of the parents that our agent was able to provide us,

0:05:330:05:36

we could then go back and look at the census records for Guernsey.

0:05:360:05:40

That is one of the few sections of information

0:05:400:05:43

we have available to us in the office.

0:05:430:05:46

So we were able to identify the fact that Joan's father,

0:05:460:05:50

Walter Le Tissier, was one of four children

0:05:500:05:54

and Joan's mother was actually one of five.

0:05:540:05:57

So we were researching as much as we could

0:05:570:05:59

with the information on the 1911 census

0:05:590:06:01

for both the maternal and paternal families,

0:06:010:06:03

when Susan in Guernsey managed to get

0:06:030:06:05

some very important information over to us.

0:06:050:06:08

Susan had news which would lead them

0:06:090:06:11

one step closer to tracing Joan's heirs.

0:06:110:06:14

-I've found three siblings, all girls.

-Mm-hm.

-Sisters of Joan.

0:06:140:06:19

Here we are.

0:06:190:06:21

-So, Doreen May, born on the 25th of September...

-OK.

-..in 1932.

0:06:210:06:26

-Same parents.

-Yep.

0:06:260:06:28

Daniel and Susan found Joan's second sister

0:06:280:06:31

in another record book upstairs.

0:06:310:06:33

Ruby Rose, she was born on May the 6th, 1936.

0:06:330:06:38

There was one further child, she was born in 1941, Valerie. Valerie M.

0:06:380:06:44

So Walter and Florence Le Tissier had four daughters

0:06:440:06:48

over a 14-year period.

0:06:480:06:50

Joan Mary was the eldest,

0:06:500:06:52

followed by Doreen May,

0:06:520:06:54

Ruby Rose and Valerie Maud.

0:06:540:06:57

With three siblings discovered, this could mean potential heirs

0:06:570:07:01

and Susan has homed in on one of them.

0:07:010:07:04

Well, I picked up on Ruby because Roselle is her married name.

0:07:040:07:08

It's quite a Guernsey name

0:07:080:07:10

and I do know several people with that surname.

0:07:100:07:13

So I spoke to one of my colleagues, who actually knew her.

0:07:130:07:18

-She was his auntie.

-Oh!

0:07:180:07:20

And he told me that she'd died in the UK, in hospital,

0:07:200:07:24

and he was able to share with me her children's names,

0:07:240:07:28

so that then allows you to do the contact.

0:07:280:07:32

-And they would be heirs to this...

-Potential beneficiaries, yes.

-OK.

0:07:320:07:35

But there's still a vital question unanswered.

0:07:350:07:39

Why was Joan Wootton, whose maiden name was Le Tissier,

0:07:390:07:42

also known as Joan Le Tissier Shearer?

0:07:420:07:46

We still had a massive question mark over the surname Shearer.

0:07:460:07:48

If this was due to an adoption or a form of marriage,

0:07:480:07:51

we could be looking at completely the wrong family,

0:07:510:07:54

or there may have even been children from another marriage

0:07:540:07:57

that we weren't picking up on. So, optimistic, but very wary.

0:07:570:08:01

Joan's name certainly became a sticking point in her case.

0:08:010:08:05

But as time moved on, new evidence did come to light.

0:08:050:08:09

It transpired that Joan had to tragically flee her home,

0:08:090:08:13

and her family.

0:08:130:08:14

As World War II engulfed Europe, German forces occupying France

0:08:140:08:19

set their sights on the Channel Islands.

0:08:190:08:22

And in 1940,

0:08:220:08:24

Joan's family made a life-changing decision for their eldest daughter.

0:08:240:08:28

Joan was just 13 years old.

0:08:280:08:30

We understand that Joan was actually evacuated from Guernsey

0:08:300:08:33

on the eve of the Nazi invasion of World War II.

0:08:330:08:36

In June 1940, a year into World War II,

0:08:390:08:44

the Channel Islands became the only British territories

0:08:440:08:46

to be occupied by the Germans.

0:08:460:08:49

Almost half of Guernsey's population of 40,000

0:08:490:08:52

were evacuated to England, Scotland and Wales.

0:08:520:08:55

They were mainly young children, some mothers and teachers.

0:08:550:08:59

Molly Bihet was one of the few to stay on her island home.

0:08:590:09:04

When the Germans came in 1940, I was almost nine.

0:09:040:09:08

I remember that very, very well, of course.

0:09:080:09:11

At the evacuation time, I can remember my mother being

0:09:110:09:14

so worried sick. We were crushed

0:09:140:09:17

with so many people wanting to get away.

0:09:170:09:20

It was a really horrid time.

0:09:200:09:23

Some children stayed here, young children stayed with their parents.

0:09:230:09:28

We were farming, so we stayed as children here,

0:09:280:09:31

here in the occupation.

0:09:310:09:33

But it wasn't an easy decision when the schools were going

0:09:330:09:36

and urging their children to go.

0:09:360:09:39

Not long after the last boat taking evacuees

0:09:400:09:43

to the safety of the mainland set sail, the island was bombed.

0:09:430:09:47

The Germans wrongly believed lorries laden with Guernsey tomatoes

0:09:480:09:52

ready for export were military vehicles,

0:09:520:09:55

and dropped their bombs, which killed 33 islanders

0:09:550:09:59

and injured 67 more.

0:09:590:10:01

It was on Sunday, June 30, two days later,

0:10:010:10:05

that the Germans arrived here at the airport by plane.

0:10:050:10:09

For the next five years, everything changed for the islanders.

0:10:110:10:16

Most of their children were gone, including young Joan Wootton,

0:10:160:10:19

and they were living side-by-side with German soldiers

0:10:190:10:23

under fear, rations and curfews.

0:10:230:10:25

The end of the war finally came in 1945.

0:10:300:10:34

It was a jubilant day for the islanders.

0:10:340:10:37

Since six o'clock in the morning, we could see these boats

0:10:370:10:41

in front of Herm, just by the harbour.

0:10:410:10:44

So my mother, my sister and I, we dashed off

0:10:440:10:49

and we ran as fast as we could.

0:10:490:10:52

And we got down to these 22 soldiers, marching,

0:10:520:10:56

bayonets, tin hats.

0:10:560:10:58

All smart, new rifles, and we just loved them, kissed them,

0:10:580:11:04

cried with them.

0:11:040:11:06

We just had to just love them and cuddle them,

0:11:060:11:10

and they were crying with us.

0:11:100:11:12

Soon after the war, the evacuees began returning to Guernsey,

0:11:140:11:18

and the Queen and King visited the island.

0:11:180:11:21

But there are no records of Joan coming home.

0:11:210:11:24

And if she ever did, she didn't stay.

0:11:240:11:28

And by the time the war finished in 1945, she was then 18

0:11:280:11:33

and she would have perhaps have adopted parents,

0:11:330:11:37

where she was evacuated to, who looked after her,

0:11:370:11:41

and she probably took a job and went on from there.

0:11:410:11:45

So, Joan's life continued away from her family in Guernsey,

0:11:450:11:49

and it was perhaps the family who took her in as a 13-year-old evacuee

0:11:490:11:53

who would provide the answer to the puzzle of her surname, Shearer.

0:11:530:11:58

And in the office in London, Ryan received a document

0:11:580:12:02

which seemed to confirm this.

0:12:020:12:04

One of the few certificates we were actually able

0:12:040:12:06

to order from the office, being an English record,

0:12:060:12:09

was actually Joan's marriage to Roland Leonard Wootton.

0:12:090:12:13

Now, as soon as this came into the office, we were actually able to see

0:12:130:12:17

that Joan had listed her father as Francis Linden Shearer.

0:12:170:12:21

Now, this really went a long way to solving the riddle of where

0:12:210:12:26

the Shearer name came from.

0:12:260:12:28

With this confirmation in place, Daniel is on his way to meet

0:12:300:12:33

Joan Wootton's niece, Kay Leslie,

0:12:330:12:35

daughter of her sister, Ruby Rose.

0:12:350:12:38

Kay was born in 1960...

0:12:400:12:42

-Hi.

-Hello, Kay.

0:12:420:12:43

..20 years after her aunt, Joan, fled her home of Guernsey.

0:12:430:12:47

-So, your mother was a Le Tissier at birth?

-Yes.

-OK.

0:12:470:12:51

I can remember my grandparents vaguely, her parents.

0:12:510:12:54

And if we can... We work, we have an online system...

0:12:540:12:57

Kay may have distant memories of her grandparents,

0:12:570:13:00

her Aunt Joan's parents, and although she wasn't born

0:13:000:13:03

when Guernsey was under German occupation,

0:13:030:13:05

she does have a knowledge of those turbulent years.

0:13:050:13:08

As a writer, she's covered those bleak times.

0:13:080:13:12

Those five years, for children who went away

0:13:120:13:15

as slightly older children, it changed their lives,

0:13:150:13:17

because they came back.

0:13:170:13:19

Either they didn't come back, or they came back and some of them

0:13:190:13:22

didn't even recognise their family after five years.

0:13:220:13:24

You know, growing up without any contact at all.

0:13:240:13:27

And I always thought that was really poignant.

0:13:270:13:30

-And, of course, the big shock was I'd written those pieces...

-Mm.

0:13:300:13:33

..completely unaware that I had an aunt who went through exactly that.

0:13:330:13:38

-Exactly the same thing.

-I wouldn't judge Joan at all.

0:13:380:13:42

She didn't have that tie with Guernsey, through her childhood.

0:13:420:13:45

The family had been through really hard times for those five years and,

0:13:450:13:49

-hopefully, she had found something that was comfortable and secure.

-Mm.

0:13:490:13:53

And to think that somebody who was such a close relative

0:13:530:13:55

had survived for a long period and had died only recently

0:13:550:13:58

and we didn't know about her.

0:13:580:14:00

This might be nice for you, actually, we've got some photographs.

0:14:000:14:03

This is from friends of Joan.

0:14:030:14:06

And, apparently, this is the lady herself, this is your Auntie Joan,

0:14:060:14:10

-as a young lady.

-That's making me go a bit shivery, actually.

0:14:100:14:13

Because it suddenly becomes very real, doesn't it?

0:14:130:14:15

Oh, she looks like Doreen, my mother's older sister.

0:14:150:14:18

-She looks really like her.

-Definitely one of the family, then?

0:14:180:14:21

-Yeah, very much so. Yeah, I can definitely see that.

-Yeah.

0:14:210:14:24

It's fantastic to be able to put a face to the name.

0:14:240:14:28

My personal reaction to hearing that there was an aunt,

0:14:280:14:32

who I'd never known, was a sadness.

0:14:320:14:35

To think that, until fairly recently,

0:14:350:14:38

there was a direct relative, a close relative,

0:14:380:14:41

who I didn't know anything about and who was living in the UK,

0:14:410:14:45

made me feel sad and curious, actually, at the same time,

0:14:450:14:49

because I thought, "Why does this woman not want to have

0:14:490:14:52

"any contact with her family in Guernsey?"

0:14:520:14:54

But, you know, life is complicated sometimes.

0:14:540:14:57

This case has been, certainly,

0:15:000:15:02

one of the more pleasant ones to deal with.

0:15:020:15:05

It's a nice story of a family being reunited, at least in name,

0:15:050:15:08

with the person they never knew about.

0:15:080:15:11

Daniel's firm signed up all seven heirs to Joan Wootton's estate,

0:15:120:15:17

which is estimated at around £150,000.

0:15:170:15:20

Joan may be sadly gone, but she's definitely not forgotten.

0:15:200:15:25

All the neighbours all think of her very fondly.

0:15:250:15:29

She's got loads of friends in the village

0:15:290:15:32

that, you know, will miss her greatly.

0:15:320:15:34

To think that, for 30-odd years, there was someone

0:15:340:15:38

living across the English Channel who was such a close relative,

0:15:380:15:42

we all felt sad that the contact hadn't been made.

0:15:420:15:46

One month later, Joan Wootton's story takes another twist.

0:15:520:15:56

We were notified by our firm's solicitors in Norfolk

0:15:560:15:59

that they held a will.

0:15:590:16:01

If the will is valid, then she's left £180,000

0:16:010:16:05

to be divided between the RNLI and the local youth centre.

0:16:050:16:08

So, it does seem as though the heirs that we contacted

0:16:080:16:11

won't actually stand to benefit, after all.

0:16:110:16:13

Although Jane Wootton's relatives

0:16:130:16:16

may no longer be entitled to her estate,

0:16:160:16:18

they have been given the gift

0:16:180:16:20

of a missing piece of their family history.

0:16:200:16:22

The case of Susan Watson is

0:16:290:16:31

a particularly sad and interesting one.

0:16:310:16:34

Susan was raised in the quiet village of Leasowe

0:16:340:16:37

on the northern coast of the Wirral peninsula in Cheshire.

0:16:370:16:41

After graduating from Edinburgh University in 1973

0:16:410:16:45

with a first-class honours degree in biological sciences,

0:16:450:16:49

Susan emigrated 5,000 miles away

0:16:490:16:52

to Oakland in California,

0:16:520:16:54

where she worked as a biological scientist.

0:16:540:16:57

She had a real sense of fun and adventure,

0:16:570:17:00

was an intrepid traveller and a keen cyclist.

0:17:000:17:04

Tragedy struck when Susan was cycling home from the office

0:17:040:17:08

just before Christmas 2013.

0:17:080:17:10

She was knocked off her bike and killed by a truck.

0:17:100:17:15

Susan was just 62 years old.

0:17:150:17:18

The dreadful accident was covered by a local news station.

0:17:180:17:22

Susan was doing everything right.

0:17:230:17:25

She was obeying all the laws,

0:17:250:17:27

she was riding her bike with her helmet,

0:17:270:17:30

she probably had 14 lights on her bike,

0:17:300:17:32

because she was an amazing person

0:17:320:17:35

and lived brightly.

0:17:350:17:37

A memorial bike and ferry ride was held in Susan's honour

0:17:370:17:41

by her friends in the Oakland cycling community,

0:17:410:17:44

but since she was British,

0:17:440:17:46

her case came back across the pond

0:17:460:17:48

and was taken up by Saul Marks,

0:17:480:17:50

case manager at heir-hunting firm Celtic Research.

0:17:500:17:53

This case came to us from an associate company

0:17:540:17:57

who we work with in the United States.

0:17:570:17:59

They referred it to us in the hope that we could find heirs

0:17:590:18:02

here in the UK.

0:18:020:18:04

The American firm had told us that Susan seemed to be an only child,

0:18:050:18:10

she didn't have any children of her own,

0:18:100:18:12

and they found her parents and grandparents on the maternal side.

0:18:120:18:16

She had been living with a man in the United States

0:18:160:18:18

but they didn't appear to be married

0:18:180:18:20

and, as such, he didn't appear to have a claim to her estate.

0:18:200:18:23

So, it was up to us to go and find cousins who were living in the UK

0:18:230:18:26

or elsewhere who would be the rightful heirs.

0:18:260:18:29

We couldn't find a birth listing for the deceased

0:18:290:18:32

and when we've got information to suggest who the parents are

0:18:320:18:36

but there's no birth listing,

0:18:360:18:37

it usually suggests that the person is adopted

0:18:370:18:40

and we did a search of the adoption register

0:18:400:18:43

and, sure enough, there she was,

0:18:430:18:44

and we obtained a copy of the adoption certificate

0:18:440:18:47

and it proved that she was the adopted daughter

0:18:470:18:50

of Isabel Davie and George William Watson.

0:18:500:18:52

Although Saul discovered that Susan had been adopted,

0:18:520:18:56

the news didn't change the heir-hunter's job

0:18:560:18:59

when searching for her beneficiaries.

0:18:590:19:02

Records revealed that Susan's father George passed away

0:19:020:19:05

in 1966, when Susan was in her mid-teens,

0:19:050:19:08

leaving her mother Isabel to raise her on her own.

0:19:080:19:12

Isabel never remarried

0:19:120:19:14

and passed away in 1998.

0:19:140:19:17

So, with no siblings or children for Susan,

0:19:170:19:20

Saul knew he had to search for aunts, uncles and cousins,

0:19:200:19:24

all potentially her heirs.

0:19:240:19:26

The next step for me was to go to Liverpool Register Office

0:19:260:19:29

and get a copy of the marriage certificate of Susan's parents.

0:19:290:19:34

This gave us their ages at marriage,

0:19:340:19:36

which allowed us to find them both in the 1911 Census.

0:19:360:19:42

The census is invaluable for genealogists,

0:19:430:19:46

as it records each person living in a UK household,

0:19:460:19:49

including their ages, jobs and relationships to one another.

0:19:490:19:53

The 1911 Census showed us that Isabel had an older brother

0:19:550:19:59

named Gordon Davie, who was Susan's adoptive uncle.

0:19:590:20:02

So, if he had any children,

0:20:020:20:04

they would be heirs to the estate.

0:20:040:20:06

Sure enough, he had two children, they were both alive,

0:20:060:20:09

so we were really happy that things were starting nicely.

0:20:090:20:12

Things may have been off to a good start for the first two heirs traced

0:20:140:20:17

but, unfortunately, they weren't in the bag for Saul.

0:20:170:20:20

It transpired that Gordon's two children,

0:20:200:20:23

who were Susan's first cousins,

0:20:230:20:25

had actually been approached by a rival firm of ours here in the UK,

0:20:250:20:29

which meant that our American associates

0:20:290:20:32

had obviously got rivals there who had referred it to our rivals here,

0:20:320:20:37

so, suddenly, this had become an international competition

0:20:370:20:41

that had moved from the west coast of the United States

0:20:410:20:44

to the north-west coast of England.

0:20:440:20:46

Susan's two cousins were the only heirs on her mother's side of

0:20:460:20:49

the family, so the race was now on for Saul to track down

0:20:490:20:53

and secure any heirs on her father's side

0:20:530:20:56

before his competitors got there first.

0:20:560:20:59

In order to start our work on the paternal side of Susan's family,

0:20:590:21:02

we went back to her parents' marriage certificate.

0:21:020:21:05

We were able then to use the 1911 Census to establish that

0:21:050:21:09

George William Watson actually had two younger sisters,

0:21:090:21:12

and the parents of those people were Jane Watson and George Watson,

0:21:120:21:17

a stonemason.

0:21:170:21:19

Records also showed that Susan's great-great-grandfather,

0:21:190:21:23

John Watson, was also a stonemason,

0:21:230:21:26

and further research into census records between 1841 and 1871

0:21:260:21:30

uncovered that her father's two brothers

0:21:300:21:33

were also in the trade.

0:21:330:21:35

In the 19th century, stonemasonry often ran in families.

0:21:370:21:41

Stonemasons at that time would have been probably working as families,

0:21:410:21:46

like father and son would more than likely work together,

0:21:460:21:50

possibly even grandfather, father and son

0:21:500:21:53

could have been a combination.

0:21:530:21:55

The Watson family would have done jobs such as

0:21:560:21:59

work on buildings, works on churches, memorials...

0:21:590:22:03

A master stonemason would have also done carving work as well,

0:22:050:22:09

and would have been very well respected in his time.

0:22:090:22:13

The craft was a very skilled one

0:22:130:22:15

and would have taken many years to master.

0:22:150:22:18

He would have left school as early as 14

0:22:180:22:20

and gone straight into the family business

0:22:200:22:23

and you would do the very menial jobs,

0:22:230:22:26

then they'd let you on the tools to do very basic sort of jobs

0:22:260:22:30

to do with masonry, and over the years,

0:22:300:22:33

you'd get more familiar and your skills would develop over time.

0:22:330:22:37

So the Watsons appeared to be a close-knit

0:22:370:22:40

and hard-working family, and the next step for Saul

0:22:400:22:44

was to work his way up Susan's father's family tree.

0:22:440:22:48

A search of the marriage register showed that John Watson's

0:22:480:22:51

son George, Susan's grandfather,

0:22:510:22:54

married Jane Parsons in Chester in 1898.

0:22:540:22:57

They had three children - Susan's father, George William,

0:22:570:23:01

and his sisters Olive Jean and Queenie Elizabeth,

0:23:010:23:05

all born in Peckforton in Cheshire.

0:23:050:23:09

If Susan's aunts had had children,

0:23:090:23:11

this would potentially lead Saul to her heirs.

0:23:110:23:15

The first line we looked at was that of Olive Jean Watson.

0:23:150:23:18

She married Arthur Green in 1922 in Nantwich,

0:23:180:23:22

and they went on to have six children.

0:23:220:23:24

She had her first child when she just 20,

0:23:240:23:27

and she had her last child when she was very nearly 42.

0:23:270:23:30

We then delved into the family of Olive Watson and Arthur Green

0:23:300:23:34

in the hope that we might be able to find some heirs on this branch.

0:23:340:23:38

Their eldest child was also named Olive, but she was known as Betty,

0:23:380:23:41

and she had three children, who we visited,

0:23:410:23:44

and they signed with us.

0:23:440:23:46

The next child of the Green family was George, and he was known as Ike,

0:23:460:23:51

and he had quite a number of children, from whom

0:23:510:23:54

there were seven heirs, who, again, we were able to visit

0:23:540:23:57

and write to, and we signed. Having had a bad start to this case,

0:23:570:24:00

where the first two heirs who we spoke to had actually been

0:24:000:24:03

contacted by a rival firm,

0:24:030:24:05

it was a great relief for us to actually find heirs who

0:24:050:24:09

hadn't been contacted by the competition yet

0:24:090:24:11

and who were very willing to sign with us.

0:24:110:24:14

One of her first cousins once removed is Angela Lang.

0:24:140:24:17

Her mother was Susan's first cousin, Molly,

0:24:170:24:20

and her grandmother was Susan's aunt, Olive Jean.

0:24:200:24:23

She received a phone call from Saul with the news that she was

0:24:230:24:26

an heir to Susan Watson's estate.

0:24:260:24:29

It was a complete surprise, because I didn't know of her existence...

0:24:290:24:34

..prior to the phone call.

0:24:360:24:38

But Angela was glad to be given the chance to reconnect with her past.

0:24:380:24:43

This is a connection that's been lost, as far as my side

0:24:430:24:49

and Molly Green, my mother,

0:24:490:24:52

because my father moved us away from the Cheshire area.

0:24:520:24:56

It is a very strange feeling to inherit from somebody

0:24:560:25:00

whom I actually had no knowledge of before Saul contact me.

0:25:000:25:05

It's a shame that she didn't have family of her own to leave it to,

0:25:050:25:10

but, from my point of view, it's a very nice present to enable

0:25:100:25:16

an extra holiday or something of that nature.

0:25:160:25:20

Angela has come to Peckforton Castle,

0:25:220:25:25

where her great-great-grandfather, the stonemason John Watson,

0:25:250:25:29

helped carve and create this magnificent

0:25:290:25:32

architectural masterpiece.

0:25:320:25:34

It was commissioned by Lord John Tollemache, a landowner

0:25:360:25:39

and Member of Parliament.

0:25:390:25:41

So he purchased this estate in 1840,

0:25:410:25:45

and in 1842, he set about building this castle.

0:25:450:25:48

All the stone as we see now, which your ancestor would have had

0:25:480:25:53

a hand in creating, was all bought from the local quarry.

0:25:530:25:58

The architect Anthony Salvin, who designed the castle,

0:25:580:26:02

had a rather impressive CV.

0:26:020:26:05

He'd previously worked on both the Tower of London and Windsor Castle.

0:26:050:26:09

Would you like to take a look inside the castle, and I can

0:26:090:26:11

show you some of the rooms that your ancestor had a hand in building?

0:26:110:26:14

-That would be lovely, thank you.

-Great.

0:26:140:26:17

The castle, built from red sandstone,

0:26:170:26:20

took nine years to complete. It's Grade I listed.

0:26:200:26:24

-So, welcome to the Great Hall.

-Right.

0:26:240:26:28

This is my favourite room in the whole of Peckforton Castle.

0:26:280:26:32

-Right.

-And if you look around, you will see that it is exactly

0:26:320:26:37

-what a medieval great hall should look like.

-A baronial hall.

0:26:370:26:42

-Yeah.

-It's a very impressive room in a very impressive building,

0:26:420:26:47

I must admit.

0:26:470:26:50

Susan Watson, who's made this possible, this trip,

0:26:500:26:53

this visit, for me, because I'm one of her distant relatives.

0:26:530:26:58

It's very sad that perhaps she's never been back here and,

0:26:580:27:03

maybe, I kind of wish she could have.

0:27:030:27:06

Once all the heirs on the estate were found, we could send all

0:27:090:27:12

the relevant paperwork to our attorney in California,

0:27:120:27:15

who could submit a claim to the relevant court.

0:27:150:27:18

This was all going perfectly well, until he was made aware that

0:27:180:27:22

Susan's partner was actually also making a claim against the estate.

0:27:220:27:26

It turns out that Susan

0:27:270:27:29

and her partner had been living together as common-law man and wife.

0:27:290:27:32

What this meant, in this instance, was that Susan's partner did

0:27:320:27:36

actually have a reasonably legitimate claim to this estate.

0:27:360:27:40

US law was on Susan's partner's side and he WAS a rightful heir.

0:27:420:27:47

So, with an approximate value of around £500,000,

0:27:470:27:52

there were now 27 heirs who would inherit the estate between them.

0:27:520:27:56

And for Angela,

0:27:560:27:58

not only was she going to inherit a piece of her cousin's fortune,

0:27:580:28:02

she'd also been given an invaluable insight into her family's ancestry.

0:28:020:28:06

The death of Susan, intestate, without family, is very sad.

0:28:060:28:12

It is bittersweet.

0:28:120:28:14

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS