Fernandez/Cobb Heir Hunters

Heir hunters spend their lives tracking down families of people who have died without leaving a will.

They hand over thousands of pounds to long-lost relatives

who have no idea they were in line for a windfall.

Could they be knocking at your door?

On today's programme...

The heir hunters travel to India looking for key clues to unlock the hidden past

of a woman who died alone in the UK.

I've found a strange grave.

It could have been the father, I'm not sure, but it's possible.

And heir hunter Cat Whiteaway is in for some surprises when she tackles the case of Queenie Cobb.

I put the kin claim in in August 2008 and everything was fine.

Then in January 2009, the Treasury dropped a bombshell, really.

Plus, the unclaimed estate sitting dormant in the Government's coffers -

are you about to inherit a fortune?

More than two-thirds of people die without leaving a will.

If they have no obvious relatives, their money goes to the Government,

who last year made a staggering £18 million from unclaimed estates.

That's where the heir hunters step in.

There are more than 30 heir hunting companies, who, for a share of the estate,

make it their business to track down the rightful kin.

Last year, they claimed back £6.5 million for unsuspecting heirs

who would otherwise have gone empty-handed.

Hello, Sheila Kingslane? Hello there.

One UK family-run company, Fraser and Fraser,

have helped over 50,000 unsuspecting heirs inherit over £100 million.

As partner Neil Fraser is keen to point out, their work often takes them beyond British shores.

Of all the cases we actually do research in,

probably about 75% to 80% have some form of overseas element.

It's 7:30am in Fraser's central London office.

It's Thursday, the day the Treasury published its list of unclaimed estates.

Could she be a legit and her mother was married in '36?

See if you can find...him.

The team have been frantically scouring the list, looking for potentially valuable cases.

-Is that correct?

-We've got nothing else to go on at the moment.

Partner Neil Fraser thinks he's on to something.

What we've just found here is a case of...

Fernandez - Lily Amala Fernandez.

It sounds a little foreign to me.

It looks like she owned the property, and the property will be 200, maybe £300,000,

so there's certainly money in the estate, which is our first hurdle over.

She died in 2006 so we need to do the inquiries and hopefully we will find somebody who knew her.

There was no-one close enough to spinster Lily Fernandez in her local community of Sidcup in Kent

to have known that she died alone.

Tragically, she had lain dead in her home for several weeks before she was found by the police.

Neighbours remember her as a slightly solitary lady,

but she hadn't always cut such a lonely figure.

Before she retired, Lily had worked as a midwife and ward sister at many London hospitals.

Midwife Logan Van Lessing worked with her at the Whittington in the early 1980s.

I think Lily was one of those people that came into midwifery as a vocation.

When I was a student, I worked with her

and did my first delivery with her,

and it was a very funny occasion because I was absolutely petrified.

There was this woman in strong labour

and this baby was about to be born, and I remember her saying to me,

"Quick, quick, get a pair of gloves on!"

Then just literally catching this baby.

We had a good giggle about it afterwards.

My heart was pounding.

But she was ever so calm and cool about it.

Those are my really fond memories of her -

just having a giggle and a laugh.

She wasn't one of those sisters who you were absolutely terrified of.

She always had a ready smile and she liked doing what she did.

She was a midwife and she was one of these old-fashioned midwives.

Lily never spoke of her personal background to Logan.

Her last name, Fernandez, could be Spanish or Portuguese.

Case manager David Pacifico has tracked down the number of an ex-neighbour.

Hello?

I'm sorry to trouble you so early in the morning, sir.

It's about the late Miss Fernandez.

He's hoping Lily may have mentioned where she came from originally.

Once the heir hunters find this information,

they will be able to trace a birth certificate and build a family tree,

taking a step back generation by generation to find blood relatives

who could inherit Lily's estate.

Any idea, I don't know how well you knew her...

She was from India? Right.

So she still owned an apartment there as well as her house in England?

He reckons she came from India,

but had an apartment somewhere in India where she used to travel back on a regular basis.

I just wondered whether she kept in contact with any family over there, if that's the case.

But it's a real so-and-so if that's the case.

We need a lot more information.

If Lily had two properties, it's likely her estate is of high value.

But finding out all the information the heir hunters need could be tricky.

Because India is a former British colony, there are detailed records

which are searchable from the UK, but it's still a huge task.

If the team can pinpoint Lily's place of birth

within the Indian subcontinent, it will really speed things up.

Usually, the town of birth is listed on the death certificate,

which they will have to get from the local register office,

so David phones senior researcher Dave Hadley.

Can you go over to Sidcup?

We want the death, obviously,

and do a more in-depth inquiry.

Dave is one of a dedicated team of experienced travelling heir hunters

that spend their Thursdays poised to follow leads across the UK.

They've got to be ready to collect certificates,

knock on neighbours' doors, and generally sniff out information in a bid to solve the case.

Initially, I'm going to do some home address inquiries,

and then I'll make my way to the register office, and see if I can get the death certificate.

It obviously makes a big difference whether she's Spanish or Indian.

Particularly if we have to start making inquiries in her birthplace.

Whilst Dave heads to Sidcup,

in London, David Pacifico has been double-checking the case's value.

A spot of research on property prices has confirmed their hopes

that this estate might have considerable worth.

That is the deceased's address.

She must have bought it for that - £152,000, so what could it be worth now?

Plus possibly a property in India.

Let's see what he's got on it - we need more information.

PHONE RINGS

Property constitutes the majority of someone's wealth.

The heir hunters work out that Lily's house in Kent is worth between £200,000 and £300,000.

If there is another property in India, that means hard-working Lily had built quite a fortune.

But although she spent her life caring for others,

there was no one at the end to care for her and inherit her nest egg.

Dave's hoping the information on the death certificate might lead to family.

The main things is whether we can find any of her family still in India

and the inquiries suggest there could still be family over there.

It's 8:30am, and travelling heir hunter Dave Hadley has arrived in Sidcup.

With half an hour until the register office opens,

he is canvassing the neighbours, hoping to build a clearer picture of Lily's origins.

Hello, sir, I'm sorry to trouble you at this early hour of the morning.

My name is David Hadley.

-It's about number three.

-I've had four phone-calls.

Have you really?

Where did she come from, any ideas?

From India. She owned a place in India.

She said to me, if you want to go out there on holiday, you're welcome to it.

So she must have relatives out there?

She used to go back to India quite regularly.

She would say, "I'm going home to get some more money."

So she must have people out there.

-She said she had a nice apartment or house out there.

-Really?

But they need that information off the death certificate to confirm her place of birth,

and there's a possibility the informant might know something about Lily's family.

In the meantime, the team have another way of searching for Lily's birth.

Case manager Marcus Herbert is sending researcher Alan Jackson over to the British Library,

where the colonial archives from the 1600s up to independence in September 1947 are housed.

Alan's used these records before.

-There are three districts - Madras, Bombay, Bengal.

-OK.

If I find the birth, I can look it up on microfilm and get the parents' name.

But Marcus is still not convinced that there will be results.

Personally, I don't see what we can find anyway.

-What, the birth?

-Yeah. Just to be keen.

-Why?

-Fernandez...

-Portuguese?

It could be.

That's the thing, she could even be adopted over here, nobody knows.

If anybody can do it, you can. Thanks, Al.

While he's at the British Library, Alan will do a general search across the whole of India

for Lily's birth record.

As she was born pre-independence, there's a good chance there will be something on file.

In Sidcup, Dave Hadley has been at the register office

and he's got the news they've been waiting for.

I've just picked up the death certificate for Miss Fernandez.

It was seen from the death certificate

that she was born in India

and we've got a date of birth and a place of birth

which is of great help to us.

A competitor of ours has also requested the same certificate,

so obviously, we've got competition on this case.

It's a mixed blessing.

The competition is breathing down their necks, but they have the all-important place of birth.

According to the death certificate, Lily was born in Quilon.

It's an old seaport town in the region of Kerala

in the south west of India.

It's also been on the trading route with Portugal for the last four centuries.

Marcus thinks, knowing what little they do about Lily, it's a good fit.

There's a history on the internet which basically says the Portuguese

were among the first settlers there at the beginning of the 16th century,

so Portuguese name, Fernandez sounds Portuguese or Spanish.

So, I think it looks pretty good.

We've got to work it, anyway.

But there's one small problem.

The informant on the death certificate is the coroner, who wouldn't have known Lily personally,

so there's a nagging doubt that the birthplace and date he's recorded still might be wrong.

David phones the news through to Alan at the British Library.

I've just got the death certificate through.

She was supposed to have been born in a place called Quilon in India.

But Alan has found something that turns everything on its head.

But the one you've got was actually born in '32?

A coincidence or...

Although Alan hasn't had any luck finding a birth record for Lily

that matches the dates on the death certificate,

surprisingly, he has come across a baptism record

that matches some details on the death certificate.

He actually found a Lily Fernandes, but Fernandes with an S,

born in 1932, not '34, on the 8th of May,

but the interesting thing about it... Baptised on 25th June 1932,

where our person was supposed to be born on 25th June 1934.

Interesting.

It's not uncommon for heir hunters to find out

that an international birth record is out by a year or two.

Marcus, what do you think about this?

-I think it looks good.

-Baptised 25th June?

Yeah. I mean, I know it's two years out, but...

That birth took place in Bengal.

The one you found?

We don't know how close it is to Quilon, do we?

In fact, the baptism record is from Jamalpur,

four hours' train journey from Patna in the north of India.

That's more than 1,700 miles to the north of Quilon.

The record also shows that this Lily Fernandes,

spelt here the Portuguese way with an S,

had a sister, Grace, a mother Hortensia

and her father was called Anthony.

At the British Library, Alan double-checks,

and finds neither a birth nor baptism record for Lily Fernandes in Quilon, southern India.

The pressure is really on.

With the commission on £200,000 to £300,000 at stake,

and other heir hunters hot on their heels,

David Pacifico decides to place a call to international manager Georges Delarue,

who's in the Far East on another case.

Hello, Georges, we have a job in India.

Are you very busy, are you free to go?

David is putting his faith in the accuracy of the record-keeping of the British Raj,

but it's a risk he's willing to take.

But will the baptism they have lead them to the family of midwife Lily Fernandez?

Or are they heading on a wild goose chase?

Where is the cemetery of the parish?

-Nearby?

-Oh, it is very far.

-Very far?

It's not just large companies who work Treasury cases.

All over the country are probate researchers,

helping people retrace lost inheritances and missing family members.

Probate researcher Cat Whiteaway has been working cases for more than 12 years,

and has solved over 100 of them.

You're actually piecing together part of a jigsaw.

It's a jigsaw puzzle and I want to complete it.

Cat's a true Renaissance woman.

Her early career as a full-time academic gave way to probate research in 1997.

Since then, she has also worked as a broadcaster,

specialising in family history.

Her dedication and energy means that she never gives up on a search.

She has a strong belief that every case can be solved.

It's always quite nice to just keep going

and keep attacking a case until you find somebody. Most times, I do.

To keep things manageable, Cat often works on cases with a smaller value.

Cases like Queenie Cobb's.

A born and bred East-Ender, Queenie loved children, but sadly, never had any of her own.

So when she died in 2001 without leaving a will,

her £5,000 fortune made its way onto the Treasury's list of unclaimed estates.

Maureen Mosley, the local shopkeeper and long-term friend, remembers her fondly.

Queenie was a friendly lady and she was always interested in your family,

what they were up to, where they were going.

We just got on. She enjoyed a laugh.

I don't think she had much of a life when she was young,

so she was more interested in how other people lived their lives.

Which was great, really.

She was just a good friend.

She used to meet me from work. We used to have a coffee a couple of times a week.

In later years, I used to take her shopping on a Friday to get all her bits.

Her husband had died and then her sister-in-law died.

Really and truly, she had nobody after that.

So I more or less looked after her as best I could.

In 2001, Queenie moved into a care home,

but sadly, after just six weeks,

she suffered a heart attack, which she didn't survive.

Maureen arranged the funeral.

When Queenie passed away, we went back to the home

to pick up her bits and pieces.

All they really was as a handbag, a couple of vases,

a biscuit barrel and nothing really of her past life.

She didn't really have many possessions at all.

So, with no will, and no known blood relatives,

Queenie's estate was passed over to the Treasury solicitors.

That's when Cat happened upon her story.

This advert was placed in The Times in 2003.

It says, "Queenie Francis Cobb, nee Bishop, otherwise Passfield, widow."

That gives me three surnames to work with.

As it is, Queenie Cobb is an unusual name,

and three surnames is even more curious.

That meant Queenie would be easy to trace in the records.

Cat immediately set to work.

As always, I started with the death certificate.

I ordered the death certificate, and once that arrived, it actually gave some quite interesting information.

It confirmed that her maiden name was Passfield,

her date of birth was April 1911, so she was 90 years old when she died.

She was a retired waitress and she was the widow of John Henry Cobb,

who was a general labourer,

and they lived in Canning Town in London.

Because John and Queenie had no children,

Cat needed to find siblings or cousins in order to build a family tree.

These documents are built from information gleaned off birth, death and marriage certificates.

Heir hunters use them like maps,

to lead them to blood relatives entitled to inherit.

To start the tree, Cat needed to find Queenie's parents.

This is Queenie's birth certificate.

Father William Bishop and mother Ada Frances Lynch.

But there was something about the dates that stood out.

We know that Queenie was born in 1911, but her parents didn't get married until 1922.

So when Ada, Queenie's mother, became pregnant in 1911,

having a baby outside of wedlock was not acceptable.

Giving the baby away was often the only option.

Local newspapers would carry advertisements for babies that were up for adoption.

And there were also adoption societies that would find new families for the children.

The shame of illegitimacy meant the birth of a baby like Queenie

would be kept a secret and often never talked about again.

That goes some way to explaining, perhaps,

why she had these different surnames.

Because she was a Bishop when she was born,

but her parents weren't married and they were Roman Catholics.

This was 1911. This was a long time ago.

Very different times.

And it looks like she was brought up by the Passfields.

William and Ada wouldn't have had much choice about giving up Queenie.

It wouldn't have been a formal adoption.

It looks like the Passfields just decided to bring her up.

Or maybe they offered because they didn't have any children of their own.

In fact, adoption wasn't formalised until 1926,

and so there would be no official paperwork for the arrangement with the Passfield family.

But even though Queenie was adopted out,

there was still a chance that her mother would have gone on to have other children.

Now, I knew that Queenie was born in 1911,

so I searched for brothers and sisters for her either side of that date for several years.

And after three years, in 1914, I found a brother for Queenie.

A full blood brother, the same birth parents.

William Frances Bishop, born 1914,

and although he died in 1988, he married and he had two sons,

one of whom, David, was born in 1944, and he would be entitled to this estate.

It was a real breakthrough.

Cat could now draw up the family tree.

Queenie's parents were William and Ada.

Her brother was William.

He went on to have two children,

Queenie's nephews, Michael and David.

Michael died in infancy, so David is the only living relative,

and heir to Queenie's estate.

Queenie's friend Maureen was amazed when she heard that she had a nephew.

When I found out that they'd found some relatives of Queenie's,

it was a great shock.

Because she had never, ever mentioned anybody on her side of the family.

Only John's side of the family.

But would David know that he had an auntie?

Having to tell David that he had an aunt that he'd never heard of,

that his father had never talked about his sister,

I can't imagine what it's like for David, but it makes me have butterflies.

Both William and Queenie were born before their parents got married,

and David always believed that his father was an orphan.

Tragically, the siblings never knew of each other's existence.

Cutting through 80 years of hidden history, Cat believed she had solved the case.

I put the kin claim in in August 2008 and everything was fine.

And in January 2009, the Treasury dropped a bombshell, really,

and said that Queenie had actually left a will.

Queenie's family history had been full of secrets.

And now her estate was proving to have its own set of unexpected developments.

For every case that is solved, there are still thousands that stubbornly remain a mystery.

Currently, over 3,000 names drawn from across the country are on the Treasury's unsolved case list.

Their assets will be kept for up to 30 years, in the hope that eventually someone will remember

and come forward to claim their inheritance.

With estates valued at anything from £5,000 to millions of pounds,

the rightful heirs are out there somewhere.

Today, we've got two cases heir hunters have so far failed to solve.

Could you be the key? Could you be in line for a pay-out?

Anna Margaretta Sernstrom died in Stockton-on-Tees on 4th May, 2006.

Was Anna a friend or neighbour of yours?

Could you even be related to her and entitled to her legacy?

Rosemarie Ann White passed away on 1st September 2004 in Reigate, Surrey.

So far, every attempt to find her rightful heir has failed.

If no relatives can be found, her money will go to the Government.

But could it be meant for you?

And one name that stood out on the Treasury's list

for the heir-hunting team at Fraser and Fraser was that of Lily Fernandez.

It's now the second week on the investigation.

Lily was a 72-year-old spinster from Sidcup in Kent.

Tragically, Lily had been dead for nearly three weeks before she was found.

But her solitary end belied her busy working life

as a sister on maternity wards at the Portland and Whittington hospitals.

Case manager David Pacifico has found letters from former patients praising her work.

"It's been lovely to return to some familiar faces.

"I was fortunate to have Lily Fernandez check me on arrival.

"She's a credit to your staff."

Lily was obviously well loved in her working life.

And her years of dedication had meant that she built quite a nest egg.

That's the deceased's address.

She must have bought it for £152,000.

So what could it be worth now?

Lily's death certificate says she was born in Quilon, southern India.

Despite searching the British Library archives, the team can't find a record of her birth.

But they have found a baptism for a Lily Fernandes in northern India, with a similar day and month.

They are hoping it is the same person.

With rival heir-hunting firms also pursuing this case,

David has decided to follow up on the baptism record.

We're now talking about sending somebody to India,

based on this case, where we think there's relatives there.

The question is, of course, the birth that we possibly come up with, is it correct? I don't know.

It's 8am in the former Bengal region of northern India,

and senior international manager Georges Delarue is on his way to Jamalpur.

He's hoping to find Lily's place of birth.

Georges' background as a television journalist means that he's tenacious in his hunt for clues.

He's hoping he'll find the written record of Lily's baptism today, and that he'll be able to confirm

that it's the same Lily that died in Kent in 2006.

Well, Lily was baptised in Jamalpur.

She might have been born in either Jamalpur or Quilon.

We believe that she had a sister, Grace. And we hope we find either the sister or maybe a nephew,

or maybe there was more than one sister.

The search will say so, maybe.

From a record the heir hunters found at the British Library,

they think that Lily Fernandes may have had a sister, Grace,

and that her mother was called Hortensia and her father Anthony.

But the Lily who died in Kent had her birthplace as Quilon, 1,700 miles to the south of here.

By choosing to follow the British Library record, the heir hunters have taken a big gamble.

Georges' destination is St Joseph's Catholic Church.

Northern India isn't known for its Catholic population,

but in the second half of the 19th century, there was a large influx of Catholics into this region,

where members of the Portuguese community immigrated from Goa.

Georges hopes he'll find Lily's family amongst them.

When he arrives, it's not good news.

The priest isn't here, so he can't access the birth records.

But Georges has an idea.

Where is the cemetery of the parish?

-Oh, it's very far.

-It's very far?

Yes. How will you go?

Otherwise we have to...arrange...

No, we have a car.

So you have a vehicle.

-Yes.

-OK.

We have a vehicle.

You can show us the place?

-Oh, yes. Then you will go and come back again?

-Yes, yes.

We're coming back, of course.

-Yes.

-Thank you very much.

-Yes.

Heir hunters often find graveyards are a good way to search for family names.

But St Joseph's graveyard is a number of miles from the church itself.

It seems the cemetery has been relocated some time ago.

But at four o'clock, I'm supposed to call upon the sister,

who might have found information for us.

The graves here go back to the 1800s

and Georges will read all the tombstones, searching for the Fernandes family name.

There are literally hundreds of graves here.

It could take some time.

There was an earthquake in Jamalpur, in '34.

Suddenly, something catches Georges' eye.

He's found a Fernandes on this tombstone.

If that's his grave, that means in 1965, there was at least two children.

Interesting.

It's the grave of an Anthony Fernandes and the dates match.

Could this be Lily's father?

It's a major breakthrough.

It confirms that he's in the right place.

Now he really needs to access the church records to see if Lily Fernandes was born here.

He's hoping the priest will have returned.

Seven o'clock? OK...

I went to the cemetery to find something

and I found the grave of Anthony Fernandes in 1965.

It could have been the father of this woman.

I'm not sure, but it's possible.

After a long day of travelling, Georges arranges to meet with the priest the next morning.

Thank you very much, it's very kind of you. Bye-bye.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

Georges has returned to St Joseph's Church and he's meeting Father Oscar Beck, who keeps the records.

1932, 1932...

This is 1891 to 18...1936.

So that is the birth certificate.

He's found the entry for Lily Fernandes.

-Lily.

-Ah.

Fernandes. I think we have it.

-Lily, yes?

-Yeah.

-What about the parents' name, matching?

-Fernandes.

Anthony Fernandes, the father.

And she was Lily Fernandes.

-I would like to make a picture of it, if you don't mind.

-Certainly, certainly. Please.

Do you have the death certificates from 1965?

I believe the father died in 1965.

And I will check on the record to see

if there were other brothers and sisters.

Before he leaves the register,

he needs to double-check there are no other entries for the Fernandes family.

This is the funeral...

Yes, I know.

But I want to be sure this one has been alive and hasn't died very young, which has happened sometimes.

Suddenly, Georges finds something that makes his heart sink.

That is very strange. She died when she was three months old.

The Lily Fernandes on the baptism record died as a baby.

She may have the same name but she's not the person they're trying to trace.

And that means none of the family they have been chasing -

Grace, Hortensia, or Anthony -

are related to the Lily Fernandez who died in Sidcup in Kent in 2006.

It's a colossal blow to the investigation.

The team has spent a lot of money on the lead in northern India.

Over the next few weeks, they scour the Indian archives and phone a number of churches in Quilon

but find nothing for a birth of Lily Fernandes.

No answer, unfortunately.

So there's nothing more I can do.

Case manager David Pacifico decides he doesn't want to risk sending a researcher to India again,

until he knows exactly which parish Lily Fernandes was born in.

What is the stumbling block about this is her actual place of birth.

So far, we've not been able to identify her birth.

Although we believe it to be in India,

but where we thought we may have identified it, it proved wrong.

So we're back, shall we say, to square one in that respect.

So the case of Lily Fernandez remains unsolved.

Midwife Logan Van Lessing believes it's unlikely her relatives will ever be traced.

She wasn't married.

And midwifery was her vocation.

When she came in, that's what she spent doing.

She spent her time being with her family, if you like.

I think her work was her family base.

She occasionally used to speak about people she knew.

But that was her vocation and that's how she was, really.

If no family are found and with no will,

all of Lily's hard-built fortune will go to the Government.

If anyone out there knew Lily or where she was born, now is the time to come forward with information.

Your help could crack the case.

But the greatest tragedy of this story is that this warm, loving lady,

who helped guide so many newborns into the world, died alone.

However, she will always be remembered by those that knew her.

We would have a giggle and a laugh.

When you're on duty, you come in and take the report, and she'd be giggling about something.

And we'd just have a laugh, really. I think that sums it up, really.

This photo, in a way, it's kind of a social occasion

but it's also the camaraderie, and teamwork,

and I think that was very apparent when you worked with Lily.

Probate researcher Cat Whiteaway strongly believes that by following the paper trail,

every mystery can be solved.

And, certainly, that was the case when she investigated the £5,000 estate

of retired East-End waitress, Queenie Cobb.

She found that Queenie had a hidden history.

Her parents weren't married and they were Roman Catholics. This was 1911.

It looks like she was brought up by the Passfields.

Queenie had been born out of wedlock and given up for adoption.

By searching the records,

Cat found that Queenie's birth parents had gone on to have another illegitimate child.

William was born three years after Queenie, and although he had passed away, he has a living son, David,

who would be the sole heir to Queenie's £5,000 estate.

When I contacted David to tell him about Queenie's estate,

he was truly amazed to learn about this aunt that he'd never, ever heard of,

and that he was going to inherent some money from her.

Cat had put in all the work and found an heir.

But when she went to submit the claim, something happened she couldn't have anticipated.

I put the kin claim in, in August 2008, and everything was fine.

And in January 2009, the Treasury dropped a bombshell, really,

and said that Queenie had actually left a will.

-It was a complete shock.

-It's quite unusual.

This has only happened to me two or three times, all the time I've been doing this line of work.

Finding out that Queenie had in fact left a will affected everything to do with David's kin claim.

This meant that David was no longer entitled to receive his aunt's estate.

The will was several years old and there were three beneficiaries listed.

Unfortunately, Maureen wasn't mentioned.

But one of them, Trudy Buckle, now lives in Suffolk.

She'd been a good friend to Queenie in the 1970s,

but they had lost touch when Trudy moved away from the area.

When I was contacted by Cat Whiteaway,

it was just out of the blue.

I just didn't know how she'd got in touch with me, where she'd got my details from or anything.

I felt really moved by it, as well,

to think that Queenie had remembered me and left me in her will, even though we'd lost contact.

It's a long time since Trudy has been in Stratford, East London, where the two were neighbours.

I'm going back to the street where Queenie and I lived.

And I haven't been back there since 1982. I think that's 27 years ago.

I'm really, really excited. I'm a bit nervous, but really excited.

Can't wait to see both the houses.

30 years ago, Stratford was a traditional East-End community.

But new transport links and the lead up to the Olympics have transformed everything.

It's changed out of all recognition, this part of it.

Because when I lived here, that was scrubland.

That was really untidy, like.

It was nothing like this. It's incredible.

Despite all the changes, Trudy's memories of that time are vivid and clear.

I can remember Queenie when she used to be out here, cleaning the front.

She used to have a cross-over apron on, that elderly ladies did wear then.

And her slip, I think, she used to be out in, and her thick stockings and that.

And she'd be out here cleaning her front, sweeping, scrubbing the step, washing the front door down.

I can remember going in and having a cup of tea with Queenie.

Queenie must have remembered Trudy fondly to have left her an inheritance.

Cat was able to track down all the beneficiaries on Queenie's will

and today she's meeting with Trudy to pass on the photos from Maureen.

What was she like? What was Queenie like?

She was a really warm lady.

Really friendly. And...

interested in what was going on with our family.

And loved the children. I can't really remember how I met her.

I believe that was probably while I was going up to the shopping centre,

that Queenie was outside and I just got chatting to her, you know how you do.

And she was that sort of person that you would say hello to and "nice morning"

and getting a bit of chat in and that.

I have some photographs to show you.

Wow!

This is Queenie as a young girl.

Oh, she's beautiful, isn't she?

Goodness, I can see that's Queenie.

Wow.

She's gorgeous.

She's, apparently, she's about 15 years old there.

And this is a portrait done by the Passfield family.

It must have been while she was leaving school or something.

-And her first pearl necklace.

-Wow, yeah.

-Lovely earrings.

-Mmm.

Goodness!

And then, I can see the likeness.

-Is that the Queenie you knew?

-That is exactly as I remember Queenie.

I like the way she looks straight at the camera.

Yes. Yeah. And her hair.

Her hair always stays in my mind.

Because it was that colour when I knew her. Oh...

Bless her heart, that is so nice.

Goodness. She didn't change at all.

In many ways, Queenie was a grandmother figure to Trudy and her children

and it's clear that Queenie's legacy has been more than just money for Trudy.

To think what she's done,

to keep me in her mind all that time, although we'd lost contact...

Wonderful, really wonderful.

Thank you.

If you would like to find out more about how to build a family tree or write a will, go to bbc.co.uk

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