0:00:02 > 0:00:05Today, the heir hunters follow a case that suddenly goes cold.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07It's as if this family had completely disappeared.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09At that point, we had no idea why
0:00:09 > 0:00:11we couldn't locate any further records.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Another team uncover a deeply buried family secret.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19He grew up thinking his grandmother was his mother
0:00:19 > 0:00:22and actually his mother was his sister.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25It's a day of surprises for two families.
0:00:25 > 0:00:26My dad didn't know anything.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29His father, my grandfather, wouldn't tell him anything.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33It's very strange to inherit from somebody I never knew.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47Every year across the country,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49thousands of people die without making a will
0:00:49 > 0:00:51and with no known relatives.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55Their houses can be left empty for some time.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59One such case has been handed onto heir-hunting firm Fraser & Fraser,
0:00:59 > 0:01:01and partner Andrew Fraser is on his way
0:01:01 > 0:01:04to the deceased's house in Broadstairs, Kent
0:01:04 > 0:01:07to investigate the property.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09This is a regular thing we do several times a month.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13We all go out and look at properties that form part of the estates that
0:01:13 > 0:01:16we're working with and we're instructed to deal with.
0:01:16 > 0:01:22So, I'm looking today for any assets that may form part of this estate,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24and of course, we're looking for - equally important -
0:01:24 > 0:01:28to find liabilities and even a will.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31However, it is very unusual for me to go to a property
0:01:31 > 0:01:33that has sat empty for four years.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38The house belonged to Joyce Hilda Houlden
0:01:38 > 0:01:41who died in 2011, aged 87.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46So, hopefully the keys will get us in
0:01:46 > 0:01:47and we'll find lots of post.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Neighbour Anthony Collings has many memories of Joyce.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57She kept herself looking well.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00She dressed well. She was always smart.
0:02:00 > 0:02:01She was just well presented.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04I think she presented herself all the way through
0:02:04 > 0:02:07until the last days, to be perfectly honest.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09She was always immaculately turned out,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11even when she was gardening.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24Given that it's been four years since she died,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28I think it's in particularly good order and very clean.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36She was a strong woman, both physically and mentally.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38She was a very proactive person.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40She would be up first thing in the morning.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Especially when George passed away,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46she was the one that was up on a ladder painting the drainpipes.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53She always used to call me Andy, even though my wife used to say,
0:02:53 > 0:02:54"His name is Anthony,"
0:02:54 > 0:02:57and she used to do it just to get a reaction from me.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59She just had that quirky personality,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01which was always nice.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11At the office in London, Gareth Langford is keen
0:03:11 > 0:03:13to get all the family research done this afternoon.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19We have to work this particular case as any other case, really.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21We have to assume that it's competitive,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24so we work it as quickly as possible.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Researcher Josh Crawford gets straight onto the job.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29So, we found out from her death certificate
0:03:29 > 0:03:31that Joyce Houlden,
0:03:31 > 0:03:35she was born on 11th October 1923 in Bromley.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40We also discovered that she was the widow of a Mr Houlden.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43The first thing Josh needs to do is find the marriage record,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45which will give them Joyce's maiden name.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49We did a quick search and we discovered that
0:03:49 > 0:03:55there was only one Joyce H marrying a Houlden pre-1974,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59so the marriage was in Bromley, which is really good for us
0:03:59 > 0:04:02because that's also the same place where Joyce was born.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07At Joyce's house, Andrew's found evidence of her maiden name.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09So, I was going through the wardrobe
0:04:09 > 0:04:12and I found a number of letters from the House of Commons,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14and then I have here a personal message
0:04:14 > 0:04:16and it's signed Elizabeth R.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19"Joyce Hilda Britten..." The deceased's maiden name.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23"My appreciation for your loyal and devoted service as a member
0:04:23 > 0:04:27"of the Women's Land Army from July 1943
0:04:27 > 0:04:30"to the 2nd of January 1947."
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Like many women in the 1940s,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Joyce helped the war effort by joining the Land Army.
0:04:40 > 0:04:47The Land Army came about because the government
0:04:47 > 0:04:52in their judgment took away the farm men for the army.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56They also took them away from the mines.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01So, they had to have somebody to do the work,
0:05:01 > 0:05:07and they found that girls were only too willing to step in
0:05:07 > 0:05:09and do what they possibly could.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Dorothy Taylor and Iris Newbold both worked on farms,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16which is what Joyce had probably done.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20- That is my sister and I.- Oh, yes.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25And that is where we were working at Easton Farm.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30And we had eight acres to take every single weed out.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34I didn't realise what I had let myself in for,
0:05:34 > 0:05:39because I had been working in an office nine till five.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43I didn't even know there was a half past five in the morning,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46but I soon learned.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51And of course, when it was pouring with rain and snowing and blowing,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53you still had to go.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57And like Joyce, the hard work ethic has never left them.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00You can take the girls out of the Land Army,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03but you'll never take Land Army out of the girl.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07I still grow onions out there and strawberries.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Anything I can fit in that tiny plot if I can bend down.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12On a good day, I can bend.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16On a bad day, it takes potluck cos I can't bend any more.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18- I am 90.- Yep.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26At the office, Josh is looking for any evidence
0:06:26 > 0:06:30that Joyce and her husband George may have had children.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Doesn't look like there was any issued to the marriage,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35so our next step is to go back a generation and work out
0:06:35 > 0:06:37what's happened to the other kin.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Maybe she has siblings.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43To do this, the team refer to Joyce's birth certificate,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46which gives them the names of her parents.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Their marriage certificate is now key,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52as it will give Joyce's mother's maiden name.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55So, I've got there a marriage certificate here.
0:06:55 > 0:07:01Joseph Britten marries on the 7th of June, 1923.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04He's 50 years old at the time of marriage.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07He's also an engraver on steel and copper.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10He's a bachelor and his father's name is John Britten
0:07:10 > 0:07:12and he was a printer's manager.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17His wife, Joyce's mother, was Hilda Florence Pocock.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20She was 25 years old. She was a spinster.
0:07:20 > 0:07:25She had no profession, and her father was Sidney Albert Pocock,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27who was a cabinet maker.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30In 1896, Joyce's grandfather Sidney
0:07:30 > 0:07:33married her grandmother Florence Gaywood,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36and when the team searched for evidence of any other children,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40they discovered something very interesting on the census records.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44On the '01, they also listed infirmities,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46and he is actually down as being totally deaf.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51And it's not only Joyce's grandfather that was deaf.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Her own father, Joseph Britten, was too.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56Maybe that's the connection between the families.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59They knew each other from their disability.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01Unusually, we're looking at a family
0:08:01 > 0:08:04where the deceased father, Joseph Britten,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07who was born around 1873, is a very, very similar age
0:08:07 > 0:08:10to the deceased's grandfather, Sidney Pocock,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13who was born around 1870.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17Both men probably grew up using sign language
0:08:17 > 0:08:20taught in one of the deaf schools that had been set up.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23- TRANSLATION:- The deaf world is very small,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26so it means that, you know,
0:08:26 > 0:08:27most of us know each other,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29perhaps from school.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Now, my assumption, and I'm not sure about this,
0:08:32 > 0:08:37is that Sidney was educated probably at the Old Kent Road school.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42Now, his daughter, Hilda, would be able to sign...
0:08:43 > 0:08:46..obviously, because of that relationship with her parents.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Now, Joseph might well have gone to the same school,
0:08:50 > 0:08:56so Hilda's father and husband may well have known each other.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02But the late 1800s was a time of much change for those who were deaf.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05It was decided that sign language should no longer be taught
0:09:05 > 0:09:06to deaf children.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Instead, they had to learn to lip read.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15Sidney, I think, would've been OK simply because all of his education
0:09:15 > 0:09:18would probably have been via sign language,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23whereas Joseph being a bit later,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27it could've had an impact on him.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30At first, he might have been taught through sign language,
0:09:30 > 0:09:32but then later might have had to change
0:09:32 > 0:09:37to the oral method of education, which would've limited his access.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41As both her father and grandfather were deaf,
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Joyce may have learned to sign too.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49At the office, the team have done birth searches
0:09:49 > 0:09:52and now found that Joyce's maternal grandparents
0:09:52 > 0:09:55had four children in total.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58They need to follow each line to see if they can find anyone
0:09:58 > 0:10:01who is entitled to a portion of Joyce's estate.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05Research with the surname Pocock was relatively straightforward.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07It's quite an unusual surname.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11There's quite a lot of potential for name variants,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13but the research was going quite smoothly.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17So, we were able to locate Alfred Pocock's marriage
0:10:17 > 0:10:20to his wife, Ellen Elizabeth,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23and indeed we were able to locate children from that marriage.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25There were quite a few children.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29But their research was to come to a sudden dead-end.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32And then the trail went completely cold.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35It's as if this family had completely disappeared,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38and at that point, we had no idea why
0:10:38 > 0:10:40we couldn't locate any further records.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48In some of the cases the heir hunters investigate,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51trying to track down living heirs is like piecing together
0:10:51 > 0:10:55a jigsaw puzzle with no picture to follow.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58- I've got her birth now, so hopefully, we can find her.- OK.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01One case that proved particularly tricky
0:11:01 > 0:11:03was that of Arthur Sebastian Pickwell.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10He lived in a small bedsit in St Albans
0:11:10 > 0:11:15and passed away on the 5th of June 2014, aged 78.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19His friend and work colleague Jennifer remembers him well.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24I first met Arthur Pickwell in St Albans City Hospital
0:11:24 > 0:11:29in about 1976 when I was a staff nurse
0:11:29 > 0:11:31on the intensive care unit
0:11:31 > 0:11:35and he worked next door in the operating theatres
0:11:35 > 0:11:38as a theatre technician.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41I think the surgeons put a lot of trust in Arthur
0:11:41 > 0:11:45because he was vital to what they were doing.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48If they needed something, Arthur knew where it was.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51But it was after Arthur retired from his job
0:11:51 > 0:11:53that he and Jennifer became friends.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58He came to live just nearby to where we live,
0:11:58 > 0:12:03and I used to see him walking up to down every day
0:12:03 > 0:12:05to get his paper and his shopping.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08He never came around to our house, even though I invited him.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11He was quite content to be on his own.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15Didn't really see him with any friends.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Every week, called round to see him.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21And then when he became ill, he had to go for investigations.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24My husband and I said we'd take him to the hospital,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28and that was only a few weeks before he died.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32As Arthur had passed away without making a will
0:12:32 > 0:12:33and with no known family,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37the details were picked up by senior case manager Amy Moyes
0:12:37 > 0:12:40at London heir-hunting firm Finders.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42With the surname Pickwell,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44it looked like a pretty good surname to work with.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47It's not particularly common.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51It may be more common to wherever he may have been born,
0:12:51 > 0:12:56but for the time being, it looked like a good surname to work with.
0:12:56 > 0:12:57There's two possible addresses.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Might as well visit both of them if they're in the same area.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Researcher Suzanne Rowley could find no evidence
0:13:03 > 0:13:05that Arthur was married or had children,
0:13:05 > 0:13:07so the next step would be
0:13:07 > 0:13:09to see if his parents had any other children.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13- I ordered, like, ten births...- Yeah. - ..and four of them were right.- OK.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Any offspring they had would be potential heirs,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21but finding Arthur's family was to hit a sudden stumbling block.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23I did a birth search
0:13:23 > 0:13:26looking for an Arthur Sebastian Pickwell
0:13:26 > 0:13:27in Holbeach.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32The one that popped up was an Arthur Pickwell,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35no middle name, born in 1926.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38I noticed straightaway that on the indexes
0:13:38 > 0:13:41it noted that his mother's maiden name was Pickwell.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Either his mother and father were both Pickwells by birth,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48which would probably be slightly unusual,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51especially given the surname is less common,
0:13:51 > 0:13:57or Arthur was actually an illegitimate child,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00which would potentially make our work a lot more difficult.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05I noticed that he didn't have a father noted
0:14:05 > 0:14:07on his birth certificate.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11I did think that this would be a lot harder than I first thought.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13This meant that I couldn't do a marriage search
0:14:13 > 0:14:14between his parents,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17cos I just had the plain Annie Pickwell to work with.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21An easy one for them to send or check if it's right or wrong.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23On any case that we work,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25the starting point for us is the deceased's details,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28and then we need to step backwards, and that's quite often easier
0:14:28 > 0:14:32when we have two names on the deceased's birth certificate.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35Now, in the case of Arthur Pickwell,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38we only had his mother's name because he was born out of wedlock.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40Now, that does pose a few problems for us,
0:14:40 > 0:14:45one of those being finding information about the mother.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Arthur's birth certificate gave them some clues that may help.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53We noticed that Annie Pickwell was a domestic servant
0:14:53 > 0:14:55at Holbeach Drove.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58I found that in a lot of cases I've worked
0:14:58 > 0:15:03when a child is born out of wedlock, particularly in the late 19th,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07early 20th century, it's quite typical that the mother was working
0:15:07 > 0:15:08in the domestic service industry.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Now, that would be because if she got married
0:15:11 > 0:15:13she wouldn't be able to keep her job,
0:15:13 > 0:15:15so the constraints of the job meant that
0:15:15 > 0:15:18these ladies were less likely to meet a male suitor
0:15:18 > 0:15:21and someone that they would be able to settle down with.
0:15:21 > 0:15:26The team knew Annie Pickwell worked in a place called Holbeach Drove,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30but Arthur's birth certificate said he was born in Shrubbery, Fleet.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Suzanne decided to investigate further.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37So, I had a look and I found that The Shrubbery, Fleet
0:15:37 > 0:15:38was actually a workhouse.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41I found that often in these cases,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45they give names to prevent embarrassment on birth certificates,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49so that made me think that he probably wasn't aware
0:15:49 > 0:15:50of his family.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53He probably didn't know his mother Annie existed.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57It seems as though he was born at the workhouse and left there.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02Arthur's friend Jennifer remembers he did talk
0:16:02 > 0:16:04about his upbringing on one occasion.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08I once asked him had he got any family,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12and he said, "I haven't," and that was quite a few years ago.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16And from that conversation, I thought, "Poor man.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18"He needs, you know,
0:16:18 > 0:16:25"some...somebody to sort of, um, be his friend, I suppose."
0:16:25 > 0:16:26Hmm. Yeah.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32In 1926, when Arthur's mother Annie was pregnant with him,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36she was a domestic servant so probably had little choice
0:16:36 > 0:16:38but to go to the workhouse.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43Peter Higginbotham has researched Britain's workhouses extensively.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46The workhouse was the last place you would want to have a baby,
0:16:46 > 0:16:51and anybody who possibly could would make other arrangements.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53So, really, it was the people with no money,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and particularly the working class, who would end up there.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Annie Pickwell, as a single domestic servant in those days,
0:17:02 > 0:17:03really wouldn't have had much option.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05If you were a pregnant domestic servant,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07you may well have lost your job.
0:17:07 > 0:17:08Your family may have disowned you.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11And to have a baby, you really need two things.
0:17:11 > 0:17:12You need a place to have it
0:17:12 > 0:17:15and possibly pay for a midwife or a doctor.
0:17:15 > 0:17:16I mean, there were charities around,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20but a lot of those wouldn't deal with single mothers.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24It was only when the workhouse opened its doors to a single mother.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28In the 1750s,
0:17:28 > 0:17:33the death rate amongst workhouse children in London was over 90%.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Well, in the early days, workhouses were quite grim places.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39They were really very crowded.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43The people who ran them were usually people like
0:17:43 > 0:17:46ex-soldiers or sergeant majors, you know,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49who were used to ordering people around.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51Conditions also were pretty basic.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53In 1882, there was a scandal
0:17:53 > 0:17:58at the very workhouse Arthur was born in - Holbeach.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00There was an outbreak of a condition called scabies,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04or the itch as it was known, a skin condition.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07The master of the workhouse, Walter Waterer,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11brought in a fumigation cabinet, if you like.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13You were locked inside this box sealed at the neck
0:18:13 > 0:18:18and you were naked inside the box and sulphur was burned beneath you.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21The aim was to fumigate all the disease on your body.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25And a particular inmate, Thomas Bingham,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27was placed in the cabinet.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29Unfortunately, the master wandered off
0:18:29 > 0:18:33and apparently forgot about this poor chap
0:18:33 > 0:18:34locked inside the cabinet,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37and when he came back 20 minutes later or so,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40the poor boy was basically roasted to death.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Annie would have spent just two weeks in the workhouse
0:18:42 > 0:18:44when she had Arthur.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47If the mother was capable of being employed,
0:18:47 > 0:18:53then she would be let out, as it were, to get a job,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55and Arthur would have stayed in the workhouse,
0:18:55 > 0:19:00with Annie possibly contributing from her wages to his upkeep.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03There's probably a hope that eventually she might either
0:19:03 > 0:19:07get married and take Arthur away from the workhouse,
0:19:07 > 0:19:09so she would probably have kept in touch.
0:19:09 > 0:19:10Not very often.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15Probably once a month, she might have possibly visited him.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17Separated from his mother,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20Arthur would've faced a lonely and uncertain upbringing.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25Once the child reached the age of, you know, two or three,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28the workhouse would probably have placed Arthur
0:19:28 > 0:19:32in some other institution - an orphanage or a children's home.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39And they didn't know anything about his original family.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Back at the office, the team were trying to see
0:19:42 > 0:19:45if Arthur had any family he may never have known about.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48Dealing with an illegitimate birth,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50there are a number of issues that are thrown up.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52For instance, being able to establish whether
0:19:52 > 0:19:57there were any additional siblings, illegitimate or legitimate.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00The only detail they had to go on was his mother's name,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03Annie Pickwell, and the area she lived,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05Holbeach in Lincolnshire.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07Found that Annie didn't ever marry,
0:20:07 > 0:20:11so then went on to see if she had any other children out of wedlock.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14First of all, we started off in the Holbeach area,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16cos if she had Arthur in Holbeach,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19I assume she may have other children in that area.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22'I did a Pickwell-Pickwell birth search
0:20:22 > 0:20:24'and the first one that came up'
0:20:24 > 0:20:30was for an Albert Pickwell in 1913 in Holbeach.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33The birth certificate for Albert Pickwell was ordered.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35It revealed that in fact
0:20:35 > 0:20:38his mother was Annie Pickwell as well.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Domestic servant.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42And again, the address comes up, Holbeach Drove,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45which certainly links it back to Arthur.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49He was born on 23rd of October 1913,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53so that was actually 13 years previously.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57So, it looked like Arthur had a brother who was also illegitimate.
0:20:57 > 0:20:58If he had had any children,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01they would be the heirs the team were looking for.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04And as the search unfolded,
0:21:04 > 0:21:08this wasn't to be the only family secret the team would uncover.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12He grew up thinking his grandmother was his mother
0:21:12 > 0:21:15and actually his mother was his sister.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26Thousands of people in Britain receive a surprise knock on the door
0:21:26 > 0:21:28from the heir hunters every year.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30I was aware of eight cousins
0:21:30 > 0:21:34and it looks like I've got something like 70 cousins.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38And there are many more cases where the heirs have yet to be traced.
0:21:38 > 0:21:39Today, we have two names
0:21:39 > 0:21:42from the Government Legal Department's Bona Vacantia list
0:21:42 > 0:21:46whose estates are still to be claimed.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49The first is that of Patricia Legh-Kelly.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54She was 85 when she died on 27th of March 1986,
0:21:54 > 0:21:56in Camden, North London.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01She was born on the 1st of July 1900 in St Helier, Jersey.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05She worked as a theatre dresser and was wardrobe mistress
0:22:05 > 0:22:07for The Old Vic Theatre in London,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09travelling with the company to New York and Australia
0:22:09 > 0:22:11in the late '40s.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16In the 1960s, Patricia is thought to have lived with Laurence Olivier
0:22:16 > 0:22:18and his family.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21Do you have any connections with Patricia
0:22:21 > 0:22:24or do you have any clues that would help crack this case?
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Next, the unsolved case of David William Evans Walters.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35He was 61 when he passed away on 23rd of December 1992
0:22:35 > 0:22:36in Birmingham.
0:22:37 > 0:22:43He was born in Central London on 29th of December 1930.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47David was adopted in 1939 when he was eight years old.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51He served in the Royal Marines.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54He was married to Simone Marie Fernande Brazier,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58who died three years before David in 1989 in Birmingham.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02If you think you may be related to either of these people,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05you would need to make a claim on their estate
0:23:05 > 0:23:07via the Government Legal Department.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Do you know anything that could help solve
0:23:11 > 0:23:16the cases of Patricia Legh-Kelly or David William Evans Walters?
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Could you be their next of kin?
0:23:25 > 0:23:29In London, heir-hunting firm Fraser & Fraser
0:23:29 > 0:23:32are investigating the case of Joyce Houlden.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35The family may be entitled to a share in an unclaimed estate.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39She lived in Kent, and Andrew Fraser is at Joyce's house
0:23:39 > 0:23:41looking for any important paperwork.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46This is a lady who was very well organised.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50The house is spotless, and the day she went out to hospital,
0:23:50 > 0:23:53this is how she left it.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Joyce died in 2011, aged 87.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00She was a widow and had no children.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Neighbour Anthony Collings remembers Joyce never talked about her family.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07She didn't have a massive family connection,
0:24:07 > 0:24:12so there wasn't children or grandchildren around the house.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16The team have been looking for descendents
0:24:16 > 0:24:19of Joyce's two aunts and uncle on her mother's side of the family.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22But they weren't in luck.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Edith had died in childhood and Winifred's children had passed away.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29This left only descendents of uncle Alfred's
0:24:29 > 0:24:31who could be heirs.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34From the stem of Alfred Ambrose Pocock,
0:24:34 > 0:24:36we were able to establish, obviously, that he was married
0:24:36 > 0:24:39and that he had several children.
0:24:39 > 0:24:40Now, these were all Pococks.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42We were able to find the birth records,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45but after that, the trail went completely cold.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47There must have been a reason for that.
0:24:47 > 0:24:53We couldn't establish really any records after 1942,
0:24:53 > 0:24:54which was very unusual.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59So, really a stroke of luck was the records of Cyril Ambrose Pocock.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01Now, he had a very unusual Christian name,
0:25:01 > 0:25:06and we were able to locate records under the surname of Preston.
0:25:06 > 0:25:07It had to be the same guy,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10and once we had that surname Preston,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12if we applied to that to the rest of the family,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14we started finding everybody else's records.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17So, there had been a family name change at some point,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20and they had gone from Pocock to Preston.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23With the name change cleared up,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25the team are able to continue their search
0:25:25 > 0:25:28for Joyce's uncle Alfred's descendents.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Having an entire family change their surname,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36around that period, in the '50s, was a very unusual event.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Certainly not something that we come across very often.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41Makes our work extremely difficult
0:25:41 > 0:25:43if an entire family is going to change their surname,
0:25:43 > 0:25:48but fortunately, in this case, we were able to work around
0:25:48 > 0:25:50with the records that were available.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Josh's search for heirs continues to make slow progress.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Sometimes you do get the situations
0:25:56 > 0:25:58where they will just have an initial for their first name
0:25:58 > 0:26:01rather than having their full name spelled out.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04You've got to be quite creative when you're looking for it.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10Yep. There we go. Found it.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12OK.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15The team were able to find a total of eight heirs
0:26:15 > 0:26:18on this side of the family, but there was still more to uncover
0:26:18 > 0:26:22on Joyce's father Joseph Britten's side.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26On the 1891 census, Joseph had seven siblings,
0:26:26 > 0:26:31the oldest of which was Frederick, who was 20 years old.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33Then we had Joseph, who was 18 years old,
0:26:33 > 0:26:39Emily, who was 16 years old, Ellen, who was 14.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41We had Florence, who was 11, Lily, who was five,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43and Rose, who was also five years old,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47so they could possibly be twins.
0:26:47 > 0:26:48The team checked an earlier census
0:26:48 > 0:26:50to see if they had any older children,
0:26:50 > 0:26:51and found one more.
0:26:53 > 0:26:59There is actually an older child, Elizabeth, a daughter.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02So, she is the eldest sibling of Joseph
0:27:02 > 0:27:05and the oldest daughter of John and Sarah.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08You've got to cover all bases and make sure you can, you know,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11find as many people as possible.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13And as the team began to look
0:27:13 > 0:27:15for living descendents of Joyce's aunts and uncles,
0:27:15 > 0:27:19they came across something interesting about Mary.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22She had seven children,
0:27:22 > 0:27:25and that was by the 1911 census, so...
0:27:25 > 0:27:28Whereas most of the other parts of the family
0:27:28 > 0:27:30were having just one child or even no children,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Mary, obviously, decided to make up for the rest of the family.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38So, it turns out from our research that Mary was a suffragette,
0:27:38 > 0:27:40so I'm guessing she would've been really busy,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43considering she also had a family of seven to look after at that time.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46Mary had five sons and two daughters,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49born between 1892 and 1905.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51Mary's children,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55they were the generation a lot of which went to war.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59By the 1940s, Mary's youngest child David
0:27:59 > 0:28:03was working as an interceptor and the Second World War.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07David would listen into and record enemy radio transmissions.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Without volunteers like him,
0:28:09 > 0:28:11there would've been no messages to decode.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Of those seven children of Joyce's aunt Mary,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18the team managed to track down seven cousins once removed
0:28:18 > 0:28:20and eight cousins twice removed.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24So, in the end, on the paternal side of the family,
0:28:24 > 0:28:25there were 17 heirs,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29and the majority of those heirs come from Mary herself.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35One of these heirs is David's daughter, Sylvia,
0:28:35 > 0:28:37who never knew her father's cousin Joyce.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43I was very surprised to know that I had any further relations
0:28:43 > 0:28:44other than the ones I know.
0:28:44 > 0:28:49I'd never heard the name Joyce Hilda Houlden before,
0:28:49 > 0:28:51nor of her father Joseph.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56It's very strange to inherit from somebody I never knew.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58She was a stranger,
0:28:58 > 0:29:02and there are all kinds of questions about what she was like.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05It would have been nice to know her, I think.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08There is a feeling of incompleteness,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11that there was somebody 12 years older than me
0:29:11 > 0:29:15who could have been interested in the same things
0:29:15 > 0:29:20that the rest of the family have enjoyed and found worthwhile.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24As far as I know, we didn't know her. Very strange.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26I feel I've missed out.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30Maybe I could've stood next to her at the Promenade Concerts
0:29:30 > 0:29:33and not even known that she was a relation.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37It is sad when people lose touch with each other.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41But Sylvia does have fond memories of her own grandmother Mary,
0:29:41 > 0:29:43who would've been Joyce's aunt.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48I know that she was a suffragette - my parents told me about this -
0:29:48 > 0:29:50and that she was there on the occasion,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54or one of the occasions, I imagine, when Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57but she had to get home and get the dinner up
0:29:57 > 0:29:59for her five sons and two daughters,
0:29:59 > 0:30:03so she got on a tram and off she went.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06I don't think she was ever arrested. I've never been told that.
0:30:11 > 0:30:12At Joyce's house,
0:30:12 > 0:30:17Andrew has found something that will be added to the pot of inheritance.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20These are the type of things we're really looking for.
0:30:20 > 0:30:25Something like this, which says, "Your annual statement,"
0:30:25 > 0:30:27and it shows a balance of...
0:30:29 > 0:30:30..£52,000.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36This case is slightly unusual in that the deceased passed away
0:30:36 > 0:30:40four years ago, and all that time, you know,
0:30:40 > 0:30:42obviously, the property has been empty.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45It has been looked after by neighbours, friends,
0:30:45 > 0:30:47but you know,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50it just shows you that there are cases that slip through the net,
0:30:50 > 0:30:52through the system, really,
0:30:52 > 0:30:54which is what happened with this one,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57and, you know, they are out there.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59The total value of all of Joyce's possessions,
0:30:59 > 0:31:04including the sale of her house, came to £300,000,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07which will be split between all 25 heirs,
0:31:07 > 0:31:11but for Sylvia, it isn't about the inheritance she will receive.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15I'm quite content with what I have.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17I've no ambitions to have a bigger house.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20In fact, in some ways, I'd like it to be a little smaller.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24But it is interesting just to know about her.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26I wish she wasn't a stranger.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40London heir-hunting firm Finders are looking into the case
0:31:40 > 0:31:42of Arthur Sebastian Pickwell
0:31:42 > 0:31:45who passed away in St Albans in 2014.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48When I first got to know him,
0:31:48 > 0:31:50I could see he was a very private man.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Research had revealed that Arthur was born illegitimately
0:31:55 > 0:31:57at a workhouse and that he had a brother,
0:31:57 > 0:31:59also a workhouse child.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01I might have some lines,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04more lines to look on on the actual tree.
0:32:04 > 0:32:05But it seemed Arthur himself
0:32:05 > 0:32:08never knew of his humble beginnings in his lifetime.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13I did ask him if he knew anything about his childhood,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15and he said that he thought fostered
0:32:15 > 0:32:18just for a short while after he'd been born
0:32:18 > 0:32:21and then he'd been sent to an orphanage
0:32:21 > 0:32:26in somewhere in either Surrey or Sussex.
0:32:26 > 0:32:27With no father's side to look into,
0:32:27 > 0:32:31the team tried to trace Arthur's brother Albert Pickwell,
0:32:31 > 0:32:34but it wasn't looking hopeful.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37There were a few possibilities that I thought could've happened.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39The first, that he may have gone abroad.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43That's why nothing was coming up in the UK records.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45Another possibility was that he might have grown-up
0:32:45 > 0:32:48with another family using a different surname,
0:32:48 > 0:32:52which made me think I needed to look a bit more into Annie
0:32:52 > 0:32:57and into Holbeach Drove to find out more about the family.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00They found that Annie Pickwell was born in 1889
0:33:00 > 0:33:02and that her mother was also called Annie,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05but there was no father listed.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09It seems Arthur and Albert's mother had also been born illegitimate.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14And now I'm going to look into another line
0:33:14 > 0:33:15where we can start working on it now.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18When Annie was two in 1891,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21there were almost 1.4 million domestic servants
0:33:21 > 0:33:23working inside Britain's homes.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26The census for this year would give the team an idea
0:33:26 > 0:33:29of the kind of life Annie and her mother were living then
0:33:29 > 0:33:31and who they were living with.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34The census showed that Annie Pickwell Snr
0:33:34 > 0:33:38was working as a domestic servant in the household of Charles Alexander.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43He had a family and they seemed to be their servants,
0:33:43 > 0:33:45so it did a census search
0:33:45 > 0:33:49and I couldn't find either Annie Pickwells on any censuses,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52apart from this one, the 1891.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55I then thought I should follow the Alexanders
0:33:55 > 0:33:57to see what happened to them.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00By that time of the next census in 1901,
0:34:00 > 0:34:03things were quite different in the Alexander household
0:34:03 > 0:34:04at Holbeach Drove.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09I found that there was an Annie Alexander married
0:34:09 > 0:34:10to a Charles Alexander.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12This seems to show that Charles
0:34:12 > 0:34:15actually married his domestic servant
0:34:15 > 0:34:17after his wife had passed away.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21Now married to her employer, the team discovered that
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Charles Alexander had made an unusual gesture
0:34:24 > 0:34:28towards his new wife's illegitimate daughter, Annie.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32As being born out of wedlock was frowned upon during that era,
0:34:32 > 0:34:34he listed her as a daughter,
0:34:34 > 0:34:37so she seemed to fit in with the rest of the family,
0:34:37 > 0:34:42but in fact, her birth name was Pickwell.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44This finding had given the team that crucial lead
0:34:44 > 0:34:47they needed with Arthur's half-brother Albert.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51So, this discovery of the Alexander surname
0:34:51 > 0:34:53then made me look back at Albert Pickwell,
0:34:53 > 0:34:55which made me think he could have possibly taken on
0:34:55 > 0:34:57the Alexander name.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00The next step was to search for a death certificate
0:35:00 > 0:35:03of an Albert Alexander with the same date of birth
0:35:03 > 0:35:05as Albert Pickwell.
0:35:05 > 0:35:06Straight away,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09I found he only passed away down the road
0:35:09 > 0:35:10from where he was actually born.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15To me, this looked like this was definitely the correct person,
0:35:15 > 0:35:17given the Alexander surname
0:35:17 > 0:35:20links in with the rest of the family.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23They now knew that Albert Alexander was the Albert Pickwell
0:35:23 > 0:35:25they were looking for.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27I found that he married,
0:35:27 > 0:35:29but unfortunately, he had no children.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32This led us back to square one.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36But the hunt for Albert did unlock yet more family secrets.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40When the team looked at the death certificate for Annie Pickwell Snr,
0:35:40 > 0:35:42who'd married again and become Mrs Bloom,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45grandson Albert was the informant,
0:35:45 > 0:35:47but he was recorded as her son.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51Him being listed as the son could've meant he grew up thinking
0:35:51 > 0:35:53his grandmother was his mother
0:35:53 > 0:35:56and actually his mother was his sister.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58Which may also explain why Albert's name
0:35:58 > 0:36:01was changed to Alexander when he was growing up.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04So, when we deal with children who are born out of wedlock,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07it's quite common that they are raised by another family.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10Whether that's due to a formal adoption or an informal adoption,
0:36:10 > 0:36:12there'll be a change of surname there
0:36:12 > 0:36:15and that can make our job vastly more difficult when it comes
0:36:15 > 0:36:17to tracing their whereabouts
0:36:17 > 0:36:19or whether they've passed away or married.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24In the early 20th century when Albert was born,
0:36:24 > 0:36:27the social stigma of illegitimacy was very strong.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30Families responded to illegitimacy with strategies
0:36:30 > 0:36:32to try to minimise the damage,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35so changing Albert's name, his surname,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38to absorb him into a family where he could be raised
0:36:38 > 0:36:43in a respectable way would've been a very common sleight-of-hand.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46Children's right to know about their parentage
0:36:46 > 0:36:50wasn't regarded as a kind of paramount right,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53and it would've been quite common for children to later discover
0:36:53 > 0:36:55that their auntie was in fact their mother or,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58you know, their grandmother turned out to be
0:36:58 > 0:36:59a different kind of relative.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04But the question still remained why Albert was able to be adopted
0:37:04 > 0:37:08by the Alexanders, but Arthur was sent to the workhouse.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11- Yeah, I'll look into that one.- OK.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14The team investigated further
0:37:14 > 0:37:17and found that Charles Alexander died in 1913
0:37:17 > 0:37:20and Annie Snr later remarried.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23It does seem to be quite likely
0:37:23 > 0:37:26that when Annie Snr married somebody new that
0:37:26 > 0:37:29that really closed off the options for Annie Jr,
0:37:29 > 0:37:33so that new husband might well have been really not interested
0:37:33 > 0:37:36in dealing with any more illegitimate children,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39so that would've made for some very tragic choices for Annie Jr.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45Despite solving the riddle of Albert Pickwell
0:37:45 > 0:37:47becoming Albert Alexander,
0:37:47 > 0:37:49the team was still no closer to finding any heirs
0:37:49 > 0:37:51to Arthur's estate.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54We're a genealogy company.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57For researcher Suzanne, it was back to the drawing board.
0:37:58 > 0:38:00Bye-bye.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02So, I searched for more births of Annie Pickwell,
0:38:02 > 0:38:04the domestic servants,
0:38:04 > 0:38:09and another birth came up in that area - Fred Pickwell.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11Mother's maiden name, Pickwell.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16So, again, this looked like another son of Annie.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19Like Arthur, Fred was born after Charles Alexander had died,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22and when his birth certificate arrived
0:38:22 > 0:38:23there was no father listed
0:38:23 > 0:38:26and his place of birth was the workhouse again.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31At this point, I didn't think I would be able to find
0:38:31 > 0:38:32any heirs for Arthur,
0:38:32 > 0:38:36so another way I tried to find Fred Pickwell
0:38:36 > 0:38:40was to search for a Fred using his date of birth.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45- AMY:- We came up with one hit for a Fred Halgarth
0:38:45 > 0:38:48who had passed away in 1992 in Holbeach.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52Now, this is the exact area where Fred Pickwell had been born,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55and so we were fairly confident that this was probably
0:38:55 > 0:38:59our Fred Pickwell having simply changed his name.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01In the circumstances like this one
0:39:01 > 0:39:03where Fred had been born in a workhouse,
0:39:03 > 0:39:06from time to time, you come across a situation where that child
0:39:06 > 0:39:08perhaps was raised by another family,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12so the child takes on a new surname rather than by official adoption.
0:39:14 > 0:39:19The team found that Fred Halgarth had married Beatrice Hall in 1941
0:39:19 > 0:39:21and they'd gone on to have a son, Raymond Halgarth.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26From his marriage, the team located two heirs.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32Fred Halgarth's grandson Karl
0:39:32 > 0:39:35knew nothing about his grandfather's past,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38and he had never heard of the name Pickwell.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40I feel sorry for Annie Pickwell.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45She grew up in a difficult time and she, obviously, made mistakes,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48but, you know, no-one is there to judge, and they're not,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51but unfortunately, she passed it on to my grandfather,
0:39:51 > 0:39:55who was probably ashamed of what he was,
0:39:55 > 0:39:56which was nothing bad.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59All three children were illegitimate.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01She was a legitimate. Her mother was illegitimate.
0:40:01 > 0:40:06At the time then, it was taboo.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10My dad didn't know anything because his father, my grandfather,
0:40:10 > 0:40:12wouldn't tell him anything, and he wouldn't.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14He couldn't talk about it,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17and I feel quite sad that he couldn't about it
0:40:17 > 0:40:22cos if it was my kids or grandkids, I'd want to tell them...
0:40:22 > 0:40:23if I had a bad experience.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25He never told his son.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29And he used think a lot of me. He would never tell me.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33He must've carried that around with him all his life.
0:40:33 > 0:40:38Like, an anger and a hurt, and I feel sad for him.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Karl couldn't confirm that his grandfather, Fred Halgarth,
0:40:43 > 0:40:44was Fred Pickwell...
0:40:46 > 0:40:50so when the claim to Arthur's estate was submitted by the heir hunters,
0:40:50 > 0:40:51it was rejected.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56Sometimes we can work cases maybe for days, weeks, months and years,
0:40:56 > 0:40:58and we know who the heirs are.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01The problem may come when we then have to then
0:41:01 > 0:41:04prove their entitlement to the Government Legal Department.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06As in the Pickwell case,
0:41:06 > 0:41:08if someone is informally adopted by another family
0:41:08 > 0:41:11and there's a discrepancy on a certificate
0:41:11 > 0:41:14or a lack of linkage between certificates,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17that can make our job very difficult.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20We need to try and get the claim accepted,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23so we're just trying to look through the records
0:41:23 > 0:41:26that we've got to see if there's anything in particular
0:41:26 > 0:41:30we can argue as further proof that he's one and the same.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34We were able to show that there are only two other
0:41:34 > 0:41:37Fred Pickwell's deaths within the entire country
0:41:37 > 0:41:38and these were completely out of area
0:41:38 > 0:41:42for our Fred Pickwell/Fred Halgarth,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46and the gentlemen were also of the wrong age.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48They were far too old.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50Similarly, we were able to show that there was only one other death
0:41:50 > 0:41:55for a Fred Halgarth, and he was of the wrong age entirely.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59OK. So, that's good supporting evidence.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01So, with all this evidence that there was no other Fred Pickwell
0:42:01 > 0:42:05'and no other Fred Halgarth born in 1960,'
0:42:05 > 0:42:08we were able to prove our claim to the Government Legal Department
0:42:08 > 0:42:11and then it was accepted.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14And Karl and his family will now receive the inheritance
0:42:14 > 0:42:17from Arthur, his grandfather's half brother.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20Well, to be honest, it was a nice surprise,
0:42:20 > 0:42:24and I feel I would've liked to have met him.
0:42:24 > 0:42:29And I feel sorry if he died somewhere on his own. I do.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32I feel bad about it, but I'll thank him for what he left us,
0:42:32 > 0:42:33cos I didn't expect it at all.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36I didn't even know he existed.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39And for Karl, it's opened up an avenue in his family
0:42:39 > 0:42:41that he's going to continue to explore.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46Me and my sister are going to go down to see Arthur
0:42:46 > 0:42:49and Albert's graves.
0:42:49 > 0:42:54My name is Halgarth, but I'm not sure now whether it is Halgarth.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56Is it Pickwell or...?
0:42:58 > 0:43:02I'm not sure. It's a strange, strange feeling.
0:43:03 > 0:43:04That's the truth.