0:00:02 > 0:00:04- Today... - Hang on, let me get stuff up.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07..the race is on to find heirs to an enormous fortune.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10I knew she had a lot of money, but I didn't think it was 1.3 million.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13A family's history reveals the ordinary women
0:00:13 > 0:00:16who changed the face of Britain.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18They did something amazing, incredibly brave.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23And in Cheshire, the heir hunters tackle a 25-year-old case.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26So this is good. We're getting closer now.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Across the country, the hunt is on.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32With millions of pounds waiting to be claimed,
0:00:32 > 0:00:34could the heir hunters be knocking at your door?
0:00:43 > 0:00:45It's 2pm in Merseyside
0:00:45 > 0:00:48and heir hunter Saul Marks has an urgent mission
0:00:48 > 0:00:50in a hunt for heirs.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57The case we're working today is Edith May Percival.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00She was from north-east Cheshire.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05The case is one of the toughest Saul has ever tried to crack.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08We actually started work on the Percival case nearly 18 months ago
0:01:08 > 0:01:11and, for one reason or another, it's been quite difficult.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15Saul is part of Celtic Research,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18an heir-hunting company with offices around the UK.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Hi, this is Hector Birchwood. I'm returning your call.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Edith Percival's case was started by colleagues in London
0:01:25 > 0:01:28but as Saul is local to where she was born,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30it has fallen to him to try and crack it
0:01:30 > 0:01:34and today, Saul has a critical lead on Edith's family.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36We're going left here.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40And he's racing to the local archive to check it out.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44"No access to Bridge Street." Fine, all right!
0:01:44 > 0:01:46Saul is feeling the pressure,
0:01:46 > 0:01:50but he's also excited to be doing some old-fashioned research.
0:01:50 > 0:01:55You've got a little mystery here and it's quite sort of romantic,
0:01:55 > 0:01:59in a way, that there are some things which you still can't get online
0:01:59 > 0:02:02and you've got to come and do the actual work,
0:02:02 > 0:02:08um, in the actual archives and touch history and feel history.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10Love it! Fantastic stuff!
0:02:13 > 0:02:18Edith May Percival was born on a farm in rural Cheshire in 1918
0:02:18 > 0:02:22but retired to nearby Knutsford in the 1970s.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26I'd lived here, next door to her,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30for probably about 12, 15 years.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Edith was a pleasant but shy neighbour.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36She be spending time in the front garden
0:02:36 > 0:02:39but she always kept the hedges well-trimmed
0:02:39 > 0:02:41and just kept herself to herself.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46Very private, very quiet. You hardly used to see her, really.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48You'd hardly hear that she was there.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Edith passed away in 1991
0:02:52 > 0:02:57with no will or any close family to inherit her estate.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00The case passed to the government's legal department,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03where it remained for 24 years,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06until Saul and the team picked it up.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12If a case remains unclaimed for 30 years,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16it can then be claimed by the Crown indefinitely.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18So, there's a certain cut-off point
0:03:18 > 0:03:22and you find yourself working cases that are old,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24thinking, "We've not got much time left to crack this
0:03:24 > 0:03:27"or it's all going to go to the government."
0:03:27 > 0:03:30And time pressure wasn't the only incentive.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34The team believed the case was worth at least £60,000.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39Which means it's a fairly high-value case and, if we can solve it,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41there'd be plenty of money for the heirs.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Today, Saul is heading to the Cheshire archives
0:03:46 > 0:03:50to dig deeper into Edith's maternal family.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53Edith's mother was Hannah Scarisbrook Foster
0:03:53 > 0:03:57and she was the youngest in a family of Fosters.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59She actually had three brothers.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Saul has hit a dead end for these brothers, uncles of Edith's,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06whose descendants would be her heirs.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10But Saul has a trick up his sleeve.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14He thinks the Cheshire newspaper archive from 1928
0:04:14 > 0:04:19will have vital clues about one of her uncles, James Davies Foster.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24James, on his death certificate, it showed that he died of meningitis
0:04:24 > 0:04:27but that there was a postmortem with an inquest.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Now, hopefully, that inquest will have been covered by the local press
0:04:31 > 0:04:34and the idea is that, hopefully, we'll find a nice report
0:04:34 > 0:04:38which will mention his two surviving brothers and where they lived.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42No-one had been able to successfully trace these three uncles
0:04:42 > 0:04:44over the last 20 years,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47so any new information about them would be crucial.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Saul's mission is to find out if any of them had any children
0:04:51 > 0:04:53who could inherit Edith's estate
0:04:53 > 0:04:56or whether all three died without heirs.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Right, it's just down here on the left.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05Right, let's go to work.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10But there is no guarantee Saul will find what he needs at the archives,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13making today's work a complete gamble.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Hi, I reserved some newspapers.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18- You've got a booking, haven't you? - I have.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23Many people don't realise the amount of risk involved.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25We can take them over to where you can look at them.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29There's an awful lot of time that we put into cases
0:05:29 > 0:05:31which, quite often, comes to nothing.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33That's huge!
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Saul is looking for any mention of James Davies Foster
0:05:36 > 0:05:38or his two brothers, which could give clues
0:05:38 > 0:05:41to whether they married or had children.
0:05:41 > 0:05:42There you go. July 28th.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45He zones in on newspaper reports
0:05:45 > 0:05:48which would have covered James's death in 1928.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52In this edition is a report, hopefully,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55of the coroner's inquest, but the print is so small,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57it's going to take us a while to go through this.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00They got a lot of words in these old things, didn't they?
0:06:00 > 0:06:05But having examined the whole page, Saul becomes disheartened.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08There is no mention of James Davies Foster.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10I would have liked...
0:06:10 > 0:06:14I would have hoped, really, that it was on this page,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18and it's not, so I'm going to move over to this page
0:06:18 > 0:06:21but I'm a bit...mm.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23You never know, you never know.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25All is not lost yet.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29But suddenly, a new clue leaps out of the pages.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Ah! Now, hang on!
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Right...
0:06:36 > 0:06:39I'm going to read this cos it's relevant.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42"The tragedy of a Crewe Railway works employee
0:06:42 > 0:06:45was investigated by Mr HAW Hastings,
0:06:45 > 0:06:50the deputy coroner at Ford Lane Police Station on Thursday week."
0:06:51 > 0:06:56This is very encouraging because HAW Hastings was the deputy coroner
0:06:56 > 0:07:01who carried out the inquest on James Davies Foster.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04So, if the inquest that we want
0:07:04 > 0:07:06isn't covered in this edition of the paper,
0:07:06 > 0:07:08it might be in the following week's edition.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12But, either way, they are covering his work, that coroner's work.
0:07:12 > 0:07:13We're getting closer now.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16What have we got here?
0:07:18 > 0:07:20HE SIGHS
0:07:24 > 0:07:27But after going through all the available editions
0:07:27 > 0:07:30for James Davies Foster, Saul hits a dead end.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33I'm getting quite stressed now cos I haven't found it.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36There are two things that I'm stressed about.
0:07:36 > 0:07:37One is that it might not be here
0:07:37 > 0:07:41and the other one, that it IS here and I've missed it.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45Because, after all, despite being a professional, I'm only human.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Which means I've got to go through this again.
0:07:47 > 0:07:52Saul can find no mention of James Davies Foster's inquest.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54His trip looks like it may have been wasted.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59But, as the record office is about to close, the archivist notices
0:07:59 > 0:08:03an intriguing detail on James Davies Foster's death certificate.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Right, this death certificate, it actually says that he died
0:08:07 > 0:08:11- at an institution, Bexton Road, Knutsford.- Right.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14- The institution could well be the workhouse.- OK.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17- The Altrincham Bucklow workhouse, but we can check that.- OK.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21If you could, that would be great. Thank you. Brilliant!
0:08:23 > 0:08:26The archivist recognises the address
0:08:26 > 0:08:29of where James died as the local workhouse.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Workhouses were an early form of the welfare state
0:08:32 > 0:08:34and National Health Service.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37They provided shelter, food and medical treatment
0:08:37 > 0:08:40for those who had fallen on hard times.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43As James had been struck down by meningitis,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45if he couldn't afford a private hospital,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48the workhouse would have been his only hope.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53If the archivist's hunch is correct, Saul may have a new and vital clue
0:08:53 > 0:08:57in the hunt for the information on James Davies Foster.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03The workhouse is actually in Bexton Road in Knutsford.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05- Right, so he died at the workhouse?- Yes.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08- Are there any workhouse records? - Yes, there are, actually.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11We have, for the Altrincham and Bucklow Union,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15we have admissions and discharges, which is 1908 to 1940.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Would that include family members,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21like someone who booked him in, as it were?
0:09:22 > 0:09:23Yeah.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26- So, I need to order some stuff, don't I?- Yes.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30There may, therefore, be workhouse records
0:09:30 > 0:09:33which might possibly give information
0:09:33 > 0:09:35about this gentleman's family,
0:09:35 > 0:09:37which is what I haven't been able to find here.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39Let's hope tomorrow brings some better luck.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43But the archive is closing, so Saul will have a tense wait overnight
0:09:43 > 0:09:45until he can see the records.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47That was a bit of a rollercoaster. Hmm...
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Right...
0:09:49 > 0:09:53All we need is something like, "Brother - Frederick Foster",
0:09:53 > 0:09:55and such and such an address.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59Then we can go to electoral rolls, censuses, the 1939 Register.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01Then we'll find him and his wife and then we'll find their marriage
0:10:01 > 0:10:04and their children and it'll be wonderful!
0:10:04 > 0:10:06But when he returns to the archive,
0:10:06 > 0:10:10will Saul find the crucial clue he's been looking for?
0:10:10 > 0:10:13So close and yet so far.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25When heir hunters open a new case, it can reveal hidden fortunes.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27It can be fascinating.
0:10:27 > 0:10:28You never really know what you're going to find.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32It can be an emotional rollercoaster for all involved.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35It is a jigsaw puzzle where you get the first piece
0:10:35 > 0:10:38and I still get butterflies every time.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41And it can uncover life-changing sums for the heirs.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46Some people genuinely need the money and I like to call those individuals
0:10:46 > 0:10:49and let them know that the money's on their way. OK, thank you.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Fraser & Fraser case manager Ben Cornish
0:10:53 > 0:10:57came across one such estate in March, 2016.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01The case of Jean Walley was a private referral.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Jean had passed away on 24th February, 2016.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07Her friends had called the team
0:11:07 > 0:11:09to see if they could track down relatives.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12When we were given the details that Jean had passed away,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16we knew that she was married to a Mason Harwood Walley.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Mason only died in 2015.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Jean had inherited her husband's estate,
0:11:22 > 0:11:24but she, herself, hadn't left a will.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27But before Ben could search for her family,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30he needed to check if there was any value in the estate,
0:11:30 > 0:11:32so he looked at Jean's last address.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34I checked the land registry documents
0:11:34 > 0:11:35to make sure she owned it
0:11:35 > 0:11:38and she was the sole proprietor of the property.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45Average property prices in Jean's street were around £300,000.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49I just want to clarify with you if we're on the right track or not.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51Ben needed to work fast now.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Although it was a private referral,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56her estate could have been made public at any time.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59If it's actually worth pursuing, you know you've got to speed up
0:11:59 > 0:12:02and make sure you get there before anyone else.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08Ben needed more information, so spoke with neighbours of Jean's.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12She lived in the Romford area for almost four decades
0:12:12 > 0:12:14and was well-known by everyone on her street.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18I moved here about five years ago.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20The neighbours across the road there
0:12:20 > 0:12:23used to take great care of Jean and her husband.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Alan also helped Jean out where he could.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31My interaction with Jean was much more limited
0:12:31 > 0:12:34to cutting this hedge here.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36I used to do that about twice a year.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Jean was a well-loved member of the neighbourhood.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43It was very common to see her sitting there
0:12:43 > 0:12:46in her chair in the window, and we used to wave to her.
0:12:46 > 0:12:52So, she was very well looked after in this little small community here.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Jean died only 11 months after her husband, Mason,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01and close friends were able to tell Ben and the team
0:13:01 > 0:13:03they never had children.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Hang on, let me get stuff up.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12If Ben was to find heirs to Jean's estimated £300,000 estate,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15he needed to search back through her family history.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18We found out that she married in 1953
0:13:18 > 0:13:21and her name, at marriage, was Jean Biggar.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25When we looked for Jean's birth record,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28we discovered she was born in 1928 in Carlisle.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34On her birth record, it showed that her mother's maiden name was Nixon.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38With this information, Ben quickly discovered Jean was an only child,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40so moved on to locating her parents.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44We did a marriage search
0:13:44 > 0:13:48and a John Robert Biggar married a Lilian Nixon in 1927 in Carlisle.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51And from that, we started our research.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53Go on, then.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56Ben needed help to look at their families,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00so recruited research manager Isha Adams to start looking
0:14:00 > 0:14:02at Jean's mother's family in Carlisle.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06We knew that her mother was called Lilian Nixon
0:14:06 > 0:14:11and she was born 24th December, 1904.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14So we had a look at the births and there was a birth in Carlisle,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17so we knew that was our Lilian.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Just start from the beginning.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22Now the team could look for Lilian's siblings and parents
0:14:22 > 0:14:26on the 1911 census records.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28I've got a confirmation.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30And they quickly had success.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35We found a 1911 census of a Lilian Nixon,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38born around 1905,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42but, luckily, it was in Carlisle, so we knew we were on the right track.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44The 1911 census showed
0:14:44 > 0:14:48Lilian's parents were James Nixon
0:14:48 > 0:14:49and Mary Blackburn,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51a hatmaker and a housewife,
0:14:51 > 0:14:53both born in Carlisle.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56It also had the vital information Isha was after -
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Lilian's three siblings.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01We knew we had Lawrence, John and Matilda,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05who are uncles and aunt of the deceased.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08The next step, we were looking into the aunt and uncles
0:15:08 > 0:15:10to see if we could find any heirs.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12The team had made quick progress.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14Thanks, bye.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16But they were about to hit a major stumbling block.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21Although Nixon may not seem like a very common name,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24unfortunately, when looking for the aunt and uncles of the deceased,
0:15:24 > 0:15:29Nixon is a very common name in the north, especially in Carlisle.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34The team took a deep breath and started with Jean's youngest uncle.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36Keep that just in case.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39We're looking into a John Nixon.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42John is a very, very common name,
0:15:42 > 0:15:46so it was a bit tricky trying to find his family.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49The team combed through records in Carlisle
0:15:49 > 0:15:51for John Nixon marrying and having children...
0:15:53 > 0:15:56..and eventually came up trumps.
0:15:56 > 0:16:02We went on to find a marriage for him to a Mary Winifred Wilkinson,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06but we couldn't find any children off that marriage.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08It was a dead end for the team,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12so they hoped for better luck with Jean's youngest aunt, Matilda.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Matilda married a William Pendergrast,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17which is a really good name to research.
0:16:17 > 0:16:23We then found one issue, John Pendergrast, born in 1932.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27So, looked into that and, literally, couldn't find
0:16:27 > 0:16:29anything for John past his birth.
0:16:31 > 0:16:32They just seemed to disappear.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37This was a huge problem for the team.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40John would be an heir and they couldn't just leave him untraced.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47Ben picked up the research and looked further afield for John.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50We start looking through the cases where people would emigrate to,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52so you're looking at the Australias,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54you're looking at the Canadas, the States.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56These two are alive as well.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58They could be anywhere in the world
0:16:58 > 0:17:01but the records aren't like they are in England and Wales.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03They're not a centralised record database.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06They change from province to province and state to state.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09But the team's hard work wasn't in vain.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12When we cast the net a bit wider,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16we discovered that John Pendergrast actually emigrated to Canada
0:17:16 > 0:17:19and sadly passed away in 2012.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24But they still needed to check if John had any children,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27so Ben had to do some transatlantic detective work.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31We found the funeral home who dealt with his funeral
0:17:31 > 0:17:35and managed to get hold of his daughter through marriage.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40This step-daughter of John's could be an heir, if John had adopted her.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43Adoption is one of these special rules we have to know about.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46The same as having a blood transfusion,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49you become part of your adopted family.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53Ben needed more information about John's step-daughter.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57He brought this individual up since she was one
0:17:57 > 0:17:59but, sadly, she was never formally adopted,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02which means she's not going to be entitled to benefit from his share.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04OK, cool, I will.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07With only one uncle left to trace,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11the team were running out of options that might lead to heirs.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14Lawrence was really our last hope.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18If I didn't find anything from him, it would not look good.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21But the team's determination would pay off.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26We found a marriage. He had three children.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30The team had finally found potential heirs
0:18:30 > 0:18:33on the maternal side and set about contacting them.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37But they still had the paternal side of the family to crack
0:18:37 > 0:18:40and, as Ben looks deeper into Jean's family history,
0:18:40 > 0:18:42he will make a discovery about her estate
0:18:42 > 0:18:44that will raise the stakes even higher.
0:18:46 > 0:18:47I knew that she had a lot of money,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49but I didn't think it was 1.3 million.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Every year in Britain,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59thousands of people get a knock on the door from the heir hunters.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02I was quite shocked because I didn't realise
0:19:02 > 0:19:06that there was anybody in the family that we could inherit from any more.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09But there are still thousands of unsolved cases
0:19:09 > 0:19:11where heirs need to be found.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13Today, we've got details of two estates
0:19:13 > 0:19:16on the government legal department's bona vacantia list
0:19:16 > 0:19:18that are yet to be cracked.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Could you be the heirs they are looking for?
0:19:23 > 0:19:26The first case on the list is Walter Alderdice
0:19:26 > 0:19:28who died in Weymouth, Dorset,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32on 5th May, 1994, aged 80.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Walter was born in Poole, Dorset, on 9th March, 1914.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Despite Walter appearing to live on the south coast most of life,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Alderdice is a name with Scottish origins.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48Are you related to an Alderdice
0:19:48 > 0:19:51and have connections with Scotland or the south coast?
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Could you be the person the heir hunters are looking for?
0:19:54 > 0:19:57The next case is Mary Ahern,
0:19:57 > 0:20:02who died in 2002 in Hampstead, north London, aged 76.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05She was born on 16th December, 1925.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Could you be a relative of Mary's?
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Do you know anything that could help solve the case
0:20:11 > 0:20:14of Walter Alderdice and Mary Ahern?
0:20:14 > 0:20:16Perhaps you could be the next of kin.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20If so, you could have thousands of pounds coming your way.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Celtic Research case manager Saul Marks is engaged
0:20:28 > 0:20:31in a desperate hunt for heirs of Edith Percival,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34and he's struggling to find descendants
0:20:34 > 0:20:35from three of her maternal uncles.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39It's vital for us, in our job,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42to make sure that we've covered every line of the family.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44We've either got to prove that there are no heirs
0:20:44 > 0:20:46or prove that there ARE heirs.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48We can't just leave them untraced.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Edith's estate has sat unclaimed for 24 years,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58so doing research into such an ancient case is a huge gamble.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03I should actually file this in the correct order.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05One of the risks of picking up an old case
0:21:05 > 0:21:07is that you're going to duplicate work
0:21:07 > 0:21:10which, perhaps, other companies have done.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13So, I might put a lot of work in on a case
0:21:13 > 0:21:17and just be rehashing work which another company did ten years ago.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Right...
0:21:19 > 0:21:21Saul has already spent the previous day
0:21:21 > 0:21:24looking for one of Edith's uncles, James Davies Foster,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27in newspaper archives, without any result.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32But today, he has a new lead, back at the archives,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36and it's his last resort in his hunt for Edith's mysterious uncles.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41I'm really hoping that the records are going to tell us a bit more
0:21:41 > 0:21:44about James Foster and, hopefully, lead us directly
0:21:44 > 0:21:46to Edith Percival's next of kin.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50Saul has been forced to take such an unconventional route
0:21:50 > 0:21:55due to the extreme mystery surrounding Edith Percival's family.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57She was an intensely private person,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00as her neighbour Jeff Tenner remembers.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04What we did know was she'd spend time in the garden
0:22:04 > 0:22:07but always kept herself to herself.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12Jeff lived next door to her for over a decade in the 1980s,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16but never gleaned any information about her family life.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19I think, conversation-wise, we would never have had more than,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23in all those years, half a dozen conversations.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28Edith passed away in 1991, without close family or a will,
0:22:28 > 0:22:29and her money has sat
0:22:29 > 0:22:32with the government legal department ever since.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36While Saul is struggling to locate Edith's maternal uncles,
0:22:36 > 0:22:38he's already had just as much trouble
0:22:38 > 0:22:41on Edith's father's side of the family.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48Right, this is the paternal side. This is the Percival side.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52Edith May Percival's father was Thomas Percival.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55Edith's mother's family and her father's family
0:22:55 > 0:22:58were both farming families from the same district,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01so they're very much a localised family
0:23:01 > 0:23:03from that part of north-east Cheshire.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Marriage records showed Edith's father, Thomas Percival,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11married Hannah Foster in 1918...
0:23:11 > 0:23:13Come on! This way!
0:23:13 > 0:23:15..and was a dairy farmer.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Farming was a very important activity
0:23:18 > 0:23:22in Cheshire and, particularly, dairy farming,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25with its moist and rather wet summers,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29is a thriving, expanding industry
0:23:29 > 0:23:32as a result of the growing demand for milk.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37But dairy farming 100 years ago was a tough, all-consuming job.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39Go on, budge up. Let's have you.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42Milking is easier today than it used to be years ago.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44It would all have been in churns
0:23:44 > 0:23:48and it would have had to be lifted manually onto the lorries,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51so a lot of hard work, lifting heavy churns of milk.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52Stop fidgeting.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Still a seven days a week job,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59half six in the morning till half six at night.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02It's not just something you do in your spare time.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08Thomas Percival was also a potato farmer,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12as this photo of his actual farm in 1908 shows.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17To cope with the endless labour, Thomas's siblings, Lucy and John,
0:24:17 > 0:24:21would also have worked on the farm, leaving little time for love.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24You've got a hierarchical class structure,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26which means that it would be frowned upon
0:24:26 > 0:24:29to marry outside your position in life.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33This meant Saul's hopes of finding heirs
0:24:33 > 0:24:35from Lucy and John would be narrowed.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Because there were limited opportunities
0:24:38 > 0:24:40to find someone to marry,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43you'd tend to find a disproportionate number of them
0:24:43 > 0:24:45might finish up as bachelors, in the case of men,
0:24:45 > 0:24:47or spinsters, in the case of women.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53Saul's worst fears would be realised when he looked into Lucy and John,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56the siblings of Edith's father, Thomas Percival.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02His sister lived to quite an old age but was a spinster,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04so there were no heirs from her line.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07And his brother, Thomas and Lucy's brother,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09was sadly killed in World War I,
0:25:09 > 0:25:11and he hadn't married or had any children,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13so his line dies off as well.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16So, therefore, we were able to establish, definitively,
0:25:16 > 0:25:19that there are no heirs on the paternal side of the family.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21It was a devastating blow.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25It meant Saul's chance of solving the case were slashed in half.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Only Edith's mother's side could now have heirs.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32You work one side of the family through completely,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and you totally eliminate the possibility
0:25:35 > 0:25:36of there being any heirs.
0:25:36 > 0:25:37The question is,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41are you going to find any on the side you haven't yet traced?
0:25:45 > 0:25:49It means Saul's work in the archives on Edith's maternal uncle,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52James Davies Foster, is even more important.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54James died in the local workhouse,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57so now Saul needs to search the workhouse archives
0:25:57 > 0:26:00for any mention of James and his family
0:26:00 > 0:26:03to give him new clues to their descendants.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Hopefully, he's going to turn up in one of these.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15This is the last resort.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22A-ha! Inquest.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27"Mr CAW Hastings..." I thought it was HAW Hastings.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31"..deputy coroner, held an inquest on James Foster on July 25th.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34"A verdict of natural causes was returned."
0:26:36 > 0:26:38What we have here is, indeed,
0:26:38 > 0:26:43a record of James Foster's death in the workhouse
0:26:43 > 0:26:46that's a bit more information than just the death register.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49All it gives, though, is the date of the inquest and the verdict.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53It doesn't mention James's brothers or anyone else in his family.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58It's a hammer blow to Saul's hopes of finding heirs from James.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01It's pretty frustrating to come here
0:27:01 > 0:27:03and look through all these different sets of records
0:27:03 > 0:27:08and get so close to finding information about James.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11So, yeah...
0:27:12 > 0:27:15So close and yet so far.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19Saul has wasted hours of research
0:27:19 > 0:27:22and, after a whole day in the archives,
0:27:22 > 0:27:23he's back to square one.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27I'm going to have to go back to the office
0:27:27 > 0:27:31and look again at some different sources and see if we can try
0:27:31 > 0:27:33and find these brothers some other way.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44While this stage of research draws a blank...
0:27:45 > 0:27:48..all is not lost,
0:27:48 > 0:27:50as Saul has made progress
0:27:50 > 0:27:53with another part of Edith's maternal family.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Sometimes, you work a case for so long,
0:27:57 > 0:28:04it becomes this personal challenge to try and solve this niggling case.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07You just kind of keep going.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12And Saul's persistence would pay off when he checked different records
0:28:12 > 0:28:15for Edith's elusive three uncles.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17I ran a baptism search in the Cheshire baptism records
0:28:17 > 0:28:19for members of this family
0:28:19 > 0:28:22in the hope that I would find entries for James and Frederick.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26What I actually found, much to my amazement,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30was the baptism record of another brother.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34This is George Foster, who was another brother of Hannah's,
0:28:34 > 0:28:36who hadn't appeared on any of the census returns
0:28:36 > 0:28:38that I'd looked at up to that point.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40After so many dead ends,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44Saul finally had some information he could run with.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48Once I'd established that George Foster
0:28:48 > 0:28:52was definitely another brother of Hannah Scarisbrook Foster,
0:28:52 > 0:28:54I was then able to go back to basic sources,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58like the censuses and birth, marriage and death indexes,
0:28:58 > 0:29:00and trace his family down.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04Saul rapidly discovered George married and had a child,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07Hannah Foster, Edith's cousin.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09Hannah, herself, married,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12so Saul was tantalisingly close to finding a living heir
0:29:12 > 0:29:16on this case which had foiled all the other companies
0:29:16 > 0:29:18for over 24 years.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20But would Hannah have children?
0:29:22 > 0:29:26Hannah had one daughter, named Margaret Swindells.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31Margaret was the only heir Saul had found.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35It was a monumental breakthrough on the case,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39but fate would deal Saul a cruel blow.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43Margaret died without children in 2003,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45though he wasn't giving up hope.
0:29:45 > 0:29:46If Margaret left a will,
0:29:46 > 0:29:50then anything that Margaret would have inherited from Edith
0:29:50 > 0:29:54would pass to the residuary beneficiaries of Margaret's will.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02It was a tense wait for Saul to discover
0:30:02 > 0:30:05if Margaret died with a will when he searched the probate records.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13Margaret left a will and she left the residue of her estate
0:30:13 > 0:30:17to a friend of hers named Christine and a couple of charities.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20And Christine and those charities, finally,
0:30:20 > 0:30:23were the first heirs I'd found to Edith's estate.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27What you doing? There's a good boy.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29Christine was one of Margaret's closest friends
0:30:29 > 0:30:34and had inherited money from her when she passed away in 2003.
0:30:34 > 0:30:35Shall I get your ball?
0:30:36 > 0:30:40So, when Saul called her to say she may inherit from Margaret again
0:30:40 > 0:30:43over ten years later, she was sceptical.
0:30:43 > 0:30:50I didn't believe it. I was suspicious of it, initially.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53Christine had met Margaret in the 1960s,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55when she'd moved to Cheshire as a young mum.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00I went to have my son and came home with him
0:31:00 > 0:31:05and she came running out and said, "Can I have a peep, please?"
0:31:05 > 0:31:10And...and that was it, after that.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13They were the kids she never had.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18Christine looked after Margaret until she died
0:31:18 > 0:31:21and inherited a third of Margaret's estate.
0:31:21 > 0:31:26The first lot that I inherited, I've not spent very much of it
0:31:26 > 0:31:29and I've not spent it on myself.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32So, when Saul persuaded Christine he was legitimate,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36the idea of more money coming from Margaret's estate was a shock.
0:31:36 > 0:31:42I didn't know how much the money was and I was too much of a lady to ask.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48And Saul had some good news on the size of Edith's estate.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50During the time we'd been working this case,
0:31:50 > 0:31:54we'd been under the impression it was worth approximately £60,000,
0:31:54 > 0:31:57which is a fairly sizeable estate.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00We've now heard from the Treasury that they believe, in fact,
0:32:00 > 0:32:02it's worth double that.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04It's worth, supposedly, about £120,000.
0:32:04 > 0:32:05Fido.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09So, Christine will treasure
0:32:09 > 0:32:11her inheritance from Margaret and Edith
0:32:11 > 0:32:13and she won't be wasting it.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18It's a nice warm feeling because whatever's left when I go
0:32:18 > 0:32:22will go to my two children, keep it in the family.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31In London, case manager Ben Cornish,
0:32:31 > 0:32:34at heir-hunting firm Fraser & Fraser,
0:32:34 > 0:32:36was working the case of Jean Walley,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39which had already taken some dramatic twists and turns
0:32:39 > 0:32:41to find heirs from her mother's family.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46You can never look at a case and say whether it's an easy case or not.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49- We've got that, haven't we?- Yeah.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52The heir hunters knew Jean owned her own property,
0:32:52 > 0:32:56so the case was worth an estimated £300,000.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01But they were about to discover the true value, which was much higher.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04So, if Ben and the team found heirs on her father's side,
0:33:04 > 0:33:08these people's lives would be transformed forever.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10If we can trace them as quickly as possible.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12Brilliant, OK.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15Friends of Jean had given Ben and the team
0:33:15 > 0:33:17a head start into Jean's family history.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21We were informed that she was married to a Mason Harwood Walley.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24Both her and her husband were originally from up north.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28Although they were from Carlisle,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31by the 1960s, Jean and Mason had moved south
0:33:31 > 0:33:34and spent their retirement living in Romford, Essex.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40So, she was a very chirpy, very dignified lady.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43She became a bit sad when her husband died,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47which was about a year to a year and a half before her,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50but she didn't give up.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55Jean had been married to her husband, Mason, since 1953,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59when he was a Petty Officer in the Royal Naval Air Service.
0:34:00 > 0:34:01But when he left the navy,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05he went to work at the Ford motor factory in Dagenham.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08The factory is still in production today but, back in the 1960s,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11it would have been a very different place.
0:34:12 > 0:34:13It would have been a site
0:34:13 > 0:34:16that produced vehicles that were sold across the UK.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19It would have been far more labour-intensive,
0:34:19 > 0:34:21more semi-skilled work, and the environment itself
0:34:21 > 0:34:23would have been much darker,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26probably a bit dirtier than you see today as well.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30Mason was also likely to have witnessed an amazing period
0:34:30 > 0:34:33in the company and the UK's history.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38Although the vast majority of employees at Ford were men,
0:34:38 > 0:34:41167 women had a vital role,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44sewing the upholstered seats for every car the factory made.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51That was the first car I worked on when I joined Ford.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54- These are beautifully made. - It is lovely.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57It brings back memories of what we done.
0:34:58 > 0:35:03During the 1960s, Gwen Davis and Eileen Pullen were sewing machinists
0:35:03 > 0:35:06who worked alongside Mason Walley in the Dagenham factory.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10It was hard work at first but you got into it.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15We used to have to make 19 seats an hour
0:35:15 > 0:35:18and you had to put your number on the seat
0:35:18 > 0:35:23because, in case there were faults, then a seat would come back to you.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25You couldn't get away with doing bad work.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30But, despite doing a technically demanding job,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33the women were not rewarded for their expertise.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Many of them had hailed from skilled jobs
0:35:36 > 0:35:39in the rag trade in the East End of London.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41They knew that they were skilled.
0:35:41 > 0:35:42In this factory,
0:35:42 > 0:35:46they were paid at the very bottom of the pay hierarchy.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Resentment grew when the female sewing machinists saw
0:35:50 > 0:35:54that less skilled male colleagues got paid the same as them.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58The janitors, who were graded the same as us,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01sweeping up, they couldn't do the work WE were doing.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04The could never come off what they would do
0:36:04 > 0:36:09and go onto another job because they didn't know how to do it.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11All they knew was sweeping.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15So, in 1968, the women, led by Gwen and Eileen, decided
0:36:15 > 0:36:19the only way Ford would listen to them was if they took direct action.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23The moment we lay down our tools and said, "No more"...
0:36:23 > 0:36:27- They didn't have no more seats. - Yeah, they lost, what was it,
0:36:27 > 0:36:30a week and a half? Then they ran out of seats.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33So, it showed our job was important.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37- You can't run a car without a seat, can you?- No, no.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41Production at one of Europe's biggest car plants ground to a halt.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44One of the very high representatives said
0:36:44 > 0:36:48we either go back to work or he'd lay everybody off.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52But the women's strike couldn't be crushed,
0:36:52 > 0:36:54as it had caught the public's eye.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59They want to be understood as the skilled people that they were
0:36:59 > 0:37:01and they wanted to be rewarded accordingly.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05Now, that got reinterpreted as an equal pay strike.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13The women marched on Whitehall to protest for equal pay
0:37:13 > 0:37:17and to try to negotiate an end to their strike.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19The women public, I think, looked at these women
0:37:19 > 0:37:24- as- I- did as a young woman, with a sort of quiet thrill.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27This was very exciting.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29After three weeks of strikes,
0:37:29 > 0:37:31protests and government intervention,
0:37:31 > 0:37:35the women won a pay rise, but not equal pay.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37Then we went back.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41I think it was a rise of about 7p or 9p on the hour,
0:37:41 > 0:37:43not nearly as much as we wanted.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46They never got their regrading.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49Took another, I think, 16 years.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52But Gwen, Eileen's and the other women's actions
0:37:52 > 0:37:54altered Britain forever.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58It put the idea of equality on the agenda,
0:37:58 > 0:38:03so these women were an inspiration for the women's liberation movement.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08In 1970, the Equal Pay Act was introduced,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11prohibiting companies from giving women
0:38:11 > 0:38:13less favourable treatment than men.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17I, personally, find it really inspiring
0:38:17 > 0:38:19that, as a result of something that happened here,
0:38:19 > 0:38:21it led to a much wider change in society.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24The women's actions were so important,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28they've been immortalised in the movie and musical Made In Dagenham.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31They did something amazing, incredibly brave.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Mason Walley would have worked alongside the women in this new era
0:38:36 > 0:38:40until he retired in the 1990s, as a senior manager at Dagenham.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44But when Mason died in 2015,
0:38:44 > 0:38:48his estate passed to his wife, Jean, who hadn't left a will.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54So, heir hunter Ben was trying to ensure her estate
0:38:54 > 0:38:57- went to the rightful heirs. - All right then.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01With Jean's house worth at least £300,000,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03Ben and the team were working fast,
0:39:03 > 0:39:05in case other companies got wind of it.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08When there's a property on a case, the stakes are high
0:39:08 > 0:39:10because you know there's a value to the estate
0:39:10 > 0:39:12and you know that you're going to get competition.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14Cheers.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Having already found three heirs on Jean's mother's side,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22he immediately got to work on her paternal family tree.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25On her birth record, it showed her surname was Biggar.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28This was great news for Ben.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Biggar was a fantastic name for him and the team to research
0:39:32 > 0:39:33and helped them work quickly.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36They found Jean's father, John Biggar,
0:39:36 > 0:39:38had been born in 1905 in Carlisle.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44Ben quickly traced John's parents, Jean's paternal grandparents.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46This is the family tree of Jean Walley.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49We've got Robert Biggar and Mary Elizabeth Carr.
0:39:53 > 0:39:55Ben found Robert and Mary with Jean's father, John,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57on the 1911 census.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00He discovered Jean's paternal grandparents
0:40:00 > 0:40:02only had two more children.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08One of whom was a Mary Elizabeth Biggar, born in 1907 in Carlisle.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10She married a Robert C Douglas in 1930.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Ben could quickly trace their children,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18one of whom was Robert, who was still living in Carlisle
0:40:18 > 0:40:21and who received a letter from Ben and the team.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23Well, I seen this envelope come through the door.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28What's this? Who's wanting money off of us?
0:40:28 > 0:40:31I'm sick of getting stuff through the door.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33And then I opened it again
0:40:33 > 0:40:38and it was saying, "Estate of Jean Walley."
0:40:38 > 0:40:40I says, "I don't know them!"
0:40:40 > 0:40:43I says, "I better phone them and tell them
0:40:43 > 0:40:44"they've sent it to the wrong address."
0:40:44 > 0:40:47So, I got on the phone and he says,
0:40:47 > 0:40:51"Oh, yes, can you remember her husband being a petty officer?"
0:40:51 > 0:40:56I says, "I know who it is! It's my cousin Jean."
0:40:56 > 0:40:59I says, "I was trying to get in touch with her for ages
0:40:59 > 0:41:01"and I didn't know where they'd all gone,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05"after their mother and father passed away, you know."
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Robert has been left with a feeling of regret
0:41:08 > 0:41:11for not being able to find Jean before it was too late,
0:41:11 > 0:41:15but he still has fantastic memories of Jean.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19She had a good head on her shoulders.
0:41:21 > 0:41:26She was always happy looking and always helping people, just like me.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31I just wanted to check with you two things.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Back in the office, Ben and the team have almost completed
0:41:34 > 0:41:36their hunt for Jean's heirs.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39The current status is that we've now completed our research.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42We've established who the rightful beneficiaries will be,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45so we need to market and sell the deceased's property
0:41:45 > 0:41:47and collect in any other assets.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Ben found a total of eight heirs to share Jean's estate.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54But when he had done the sums for what the total value would be,
0:41:54 > 0:41:56it came as a surprise.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59The final value of Jean Walley's estate
0:41:59 > 0:42:01was approximately 1.3 million.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03It was made up of the house price of £300,000,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06plus stocks and shares and other savings.
0:42:06 > 0:42:07I knew that she had a lot of money,
0:42:07 > 0:42:09but I didn't think it was 1.3 million.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11As there's only eight beneficiaries,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14it's going to be a life-changing amount of money.
0:42:15 > 0:42:21It's shocking news for Ben, but one he will enjoy breaking to the heirs.
0:42:21 > 0:42:22It's always nice to see, sometimes,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25when you get these cases where there are only a few beneficiaries
0:42:25 > 0:42:29and they are in genuine need of the funds, it's a really nice feeling
0:42:29 > 0:42:32for us to be able to give them something back from their family.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39Not only will Robert inherit a large portion of her estate,
0:42:39 > 0:42:41it's been pleasant for him to relive memories
0:42:41 > 0:42:44of Jean and their shared childhood.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49Always happy-go-lucky and she used to always be going to dances
0:42:49 > 0:42:53and always, like, jolly.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56She was always jolly when she came, you know.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58She was always laughing and joking.