Crook/Coope Heir Hunters


Crook/Coope

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Every year, thousands of people die

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with no will and with no apparent relatives.

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Tracking down their long-lost families

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is a job for the Heir Hunters.

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Coming up...

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...the Heir Hunters uncover an unexpected fortune of a council worker

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hidden in the strangest of places.

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I was very surprised when I found out he'd got money in suitcases,

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but it did fit in with his reluctance to spend money.

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And the intriguing case of two Victorian philanthropists,

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an £800,000 school and some difficult dying wishes.

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There's no clue at all to what was meant and any expert, will expert,

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would have to deem this impossible to implement.

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Plus, how you may be entitled to inherit

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some of the unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.

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Could thousands of pounds be headed your way?

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

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

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

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That's where the Heir Hunters step in.

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More than 30 heir-hunting companies make it their business to track down

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the rightful kin to these unclaimed estates.

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Fraser & Fraser is one of the largest firms of heir hunters in Britain.

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It's run by Andrew, Charles and Neil Fraser.

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You can see the smile on their face

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as they know they're going to receive

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sometimes tens, possibly even hundreds, of thousands of pounds.

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A real life-changing event.

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In its 30-year history, it's united over 50,000 heirs

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with unclaimed estates worth a whopping sum of over £100 million.

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It's Thursday,

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the day the Treasury publishes its list of unclaimed estates.

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The team have identified those which they think contain property,

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making them potentially high value cases and ones worth pursuing.

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I'm expecting it to be quite active today, quite competitive, really,

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and fingers crossed, we'll do well.

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How are we getting on with the census?

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For every name that the team thinks has a property, there are others that are more difficult to judge,

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especially as all estates are listed without giving any values.

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Just very briefly remind me what search we've actually got.

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Senior Case Manager, Tony Pledger, has been given one such case,

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that of Crook.

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You never know what you're gonna find and indeed,

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life's full of surprises, you know.

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I wouldn't be surprised if this didn't work out to be a lot more

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than we anticipate. Equally so,

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I wouldn't be surprised if it would turn out to be a lot less.

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You just dunno, you know.

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Albert Edward Crook died on 1st February 2008, aged 69.

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He'd never married or had children

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but had lived all his life in Cheshire.

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He worked for many years as a farm labourer

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at Hodge Lane Farm in Northwich,

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where he was responsible for the welfare of the working horses.

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Peter Cotherall, the current owner of the farm,

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recalls Albert's dedication.

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Albert was one of the finest horsemen that ever worked on any farm.

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When the horse would be out ploughing the fields and if a shower of rain

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happened to come, Albert would take his coat off

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and put it over the kidneys on the horse, the horse's kidneys,

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to keep it warm and forgot about himself.

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That's how good Albert was.

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His loyalty and industrious nature

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must have made Albert a cut above the rest.

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I'd certainly, as a contractor on a farm, I worked on farms myself

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and I know all about hard work on farms.

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I would staff that man. He would work for me.

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Albert loved to work outdoors,

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but never strayed far from the area where he'd grown up.

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Before he retired, he worked as a gardener for the local council.

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For the last four years of his life, he lived at Morningside Rest Home.

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He had a very reclusive life

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and apart from a few holidays in his later life,

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I don't think he did a lot. I don't think he went anywhere.

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He lived so frugally he must have never spent money at all.

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Albert's working life wouldn't have made him a fortune,

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but because he made no will, any money he did leave

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is being held by the Treasury.

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To get Albert's estate united with the rightful heirs,

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the office need to kick-start the investigation.

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He dies in Crewe in Cheshire and we couldn't positively identify

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his home address, but I've now established that when he died

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he was at a residential care home.

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I've spoken with the care home,

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they've given me some of his details, previous address etc.

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So, we've been making enquiries.

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They thought that he had a niece that went to the funeral

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and that rather seems unlikely,

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so it's probably either a niece by marriage or...

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I don't know what, but we do think that he had a sister.

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Tony has some pieces of information, but nothing is confirmed.

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To get accurate family records, he needs help on the ground.

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That's where the travelling Heir Hunters come in.

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Frasers has a network of senior researchers right across the country

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who are ready to go wherever the hunt takes them.

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They collect the vital birth, death and marriage certificates

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as well as interview people who knew the deceased.

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But their most important job is finding and signing up heirs.

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Ex-Fraud Squad Detective, Dave Mansell,

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has been an Heir Hunter for over ten years.

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His patch is the Manchester region and he's on hand to help Tony with the Crook case.

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Tony thinks he might have identified an address in Northwich,

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but Albert Crook is hardly an unusual name, so...

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he's gonna make some enquiries,

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try ringing a neighbour or two and then...

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But we'll carry on and get the death certificate

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to see if it confirms his suspicions.

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And the only way to confirm these suspicions

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is to find the birth, death and marriage certificates which are the building blocks

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of creating a family tree.

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With the information they get from these,

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the researchers need to work out, generation by generation,

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who the family is, who is entitled and then find any living heirs.

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Only at this point can the company make its commission.

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Dave Mansell is getting the death certificate for Albert

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to confirm the little information they have

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and also to try and find new clues for the family

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from the informant's name.

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Albert Edward Crook died 1st February, as we knew,

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and it's from the Morningside Rest Home that Tony

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had already got the information about,

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so we're off to the rest home now.

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We'll go and see the lady there.

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Back in the office, the search room is in full swing...

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..but not on Tony's little job.

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All the effort is being put into a high value property case.

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Yeah, he's married before. When was his first marriage?

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So you're on your way up to the care home

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to Morningside in Winsford, yeah?

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While Tony waits for Dave to quiz the nursing home about Albert,

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he and his one researcher are looking at potential Crook family members.

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We've got the deceased, we've got that bloke,

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who isn't entitled, he's a step-brother. That's the best I can do.

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With little office support to dramatically push the case forward,

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it's now all down to Dave Mansell and his face-to-face enquiries.

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Albert Edward Crook, when was he admitted?

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June 04, 2004.

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Donna Liddiat looked after Albert for four years.

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Her knowledge of him could be vital.

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One lady in particular used to cook for him and I believe from speaking

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to my deputy, Pauline, that they used to go on holiday together.

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After he passed away, the lady's nephew phoned me

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-to say that they'd found a suitcase...

-Right.

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..and when they've opened it, there's a number of pay packets, unopened.

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Unopened wage packets - I wish I could leave mine unopened!

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SHE LAUGHS

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-Great!

-Albert was never married.

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-He never married?

-He lived with his mother and father in a bungalow

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and when his mother and father died,

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the bungalow was sold and he moved into this sheltered accommodation.

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So, he probably got the proceeds from the bungalow?

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Never married, lived with his parents.

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There was an amount mentioned at that time of £100,000.

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Did you tell Tony that?

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I didn't... I've only just...

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I've not... I found out this information after I spoke to Tony.

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Right, OK, that's great.

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This has just gone from being a small job for Tony

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to a potentially major case for the company.

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A suggested estate of up to £100,000 and the possible existence

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of a suitcase full of money is an amazing turn of events.

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-Bye.

-Bye.

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Donna at the home here said that when the parents' bungalow was sold,

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he got all the proceeds from it and he immediately moved into

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the sheltered accommodation, hence never spending his wage packets.

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No, no, no, I see what you mean. Right, OK then, that's good.

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Our assumption is that the value of the mother's property

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that was sold in the 1990s is still complete,

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because it's been invested in his name.

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So, what we're hoping is it's gonna be in the region of £100,000.

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It's been an incredible morning.

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A case that started out as possibly worthless could now be

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as valuable as £100,000, not to mention the mysterious suitcase.

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With this insider information,

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it's more important than ever that Tony and his team find heirs.

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If they don't, all this money will go to the government.

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Coming across unexpected and unusual estates

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is the high point of being an Heir Hunter.

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One such case was referred to probate researcher company Hoopers,

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the oldest heir-hunting firm in the country.

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They were asked to unravel the mystery of who owned a valuable

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Victorian school site worth almost £800,000.

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We had a plot of land,

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we had this dilemma of identifying the two donors,

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what happened to them, who survived

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and then identifying who was going to inherit from that estate.

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It just made the whole case different from the normal cases that we deal with.

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Essex Council Solicitor, Steven Woodyard,

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was in charge of dealing with the ownership status of the school.

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The case that I had on my hands was a site which was not owned by the council

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but was acquired by two men in the latter part of the 19th century -

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a Mr Coope and a Mr Belli -

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and they acquired the site and owned it jointly.

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This document basically told me

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that the use and control of the school site and the school itself,

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obviously, was transferred to Essex County Council.

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This was in 1913. And it also implied that if

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the school ceased to be a school provided by the council,

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then it would pass back to the original owners.

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If the school ever moved from the building,

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the site would revert to the living heirs

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of the two men who originally owned it.

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And those first title holders were

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wealthy philanthropists Reverend Charles Belli and Octavius Coope.

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They collective donated £160 to buy the land and create the school.

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Local benefactors and life-long friends,

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they were buried side by side

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in St Peter's Church Graveyard in South Weald.

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But 128 years after its creation, the school they built

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now had an increasing catchment area and the council needed to relocate

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to a bigger building, so Steven Woodyard looked up the deeds to the property.

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There was very little paperwork.

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Normally I would expect to see several documents relating to land

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and relating to the council's title in land.

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In this case there are only two documents and the nature of them was,

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one in particular, was different from anything I'd encountered before,

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so I was entering sort of new territory.

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The key article he unearthed was an old legal document

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which revealed the ownership status of the land.

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What we're looking at here

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is the indenture of 1874 which details that the two men

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held the property on a joint tenancy but if one of them died,

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then the other one would actually take the whole legal interest

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in the property and own it in their own right.

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According to the indenture, whoever outlived the other

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would be the owner of the site and their estate would benefit.

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But who died first?

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Establishing this would mean delving back into records over hundreds of years old,

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so Steven needed to refer the case to the experts.

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Hoopers is one of the UK's most established heir-hunting companies.

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Founded in 1923,

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they have a wealth of experience in genealogical research.

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With over 20 full-time researchers, their detective work

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has reunited thousands of heirs with unexpected windfalls.

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They specialise in seeking out beneficiaries named in wills

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and crucially, they also solve issues of property ownership.

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Could I get someone to have a look for a death for me? Anna, would you?

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Chairman, Mike Tringham, with 35 years of heir-hunting experience,

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took up the challenge of unravelling Belli and Coope's final wishes.

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Start about 1880.

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Even if they were over 100 years old.

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Having identified the problem of the two donors,

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we then had to try and identify

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when they died and who survived out of the two of them

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because obviously there's no point in pursuing both families

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because we knew from the official documentation

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that only the survivor we need to concern ourselves with.

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Once we've identified that individual,

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then that's the direction we would go.

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Right, Coope.

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The site was estimated to be worth £800,000...

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Yeah, that's him.

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..a good inheritance for any surviving family members

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of either the Coope or Belli family.

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Jolly good.

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But which was it going to be?

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We discovered that the Reverend Charles Belli

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died on 6th January 1886

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in the Brentwood area and to our surprise, I suppose,

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Octavius Edward Coope only survived by a matter of a few months

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and he died on 27th November 1886, so obviously we knew that

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we had to concentrate on the Coope family and as far as the Bellis' were concerned,

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I'm afraid they were out of the frame.

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The hunt had started for the Coope family,

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to inform them of their unexpected windfall.

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Octavius came from the upper trading classes.

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He started work at his father's sugar refinery business in London's East End

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before moving into the brewing industry.

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In 1845, he joined Edward Ind's brewery, an already well-established

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business in Romford, Essex, renaming it as Ind Coope.

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This was to be the source of Octavius's wealth.

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As soon as I saw the name Coope,

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I obviously connected that with the brewery dynasty

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and knowing that there was a big brewery in Romford,

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I assume that there was some family connection

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with that industry.

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Octavius came from a traditional Victorian family,

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marrying Emily Fulcher in 1848 and having one son,

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Edward and five daughters, Ada, Mabel, Emily, Cicely and Alice.

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Usually, the Heir Hunter's job is to trawl through birth,

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death and marriage records,

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tracing the bloodlines to find heirs.

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But if the deceased had left a will, it would cut out all that work.

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Unluckily for Mike, Octavius had done just that.

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He actually left provision for his widow to benefit from his estate

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during her lifetime but after her death,

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then did he bequeath the residue of his estate to his five daughters.

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There was a son as well, but for some reason

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his son wasn't included in his will. Just the daughters.

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In fact, his son, Edward, was well-catered for,

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with Octavius leaving his portion of Ind Coope shares to him.

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We have identified the five daughters and then we have to look to see

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what happened to them, who they married,

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when they died and then we look to see if they've left a will

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and who they had left their estates to.

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The will spanned over a century and was difficult to decipher, but they

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led the Heir Hunters down through each generation of the Coope family.

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Living relatives to Octavius Coope

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were slowly being uncovered, including Bob Wayne,

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whose great-grandmother, Mabel Coope,

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was one of Octavius's daughters.

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One suddenly realises one's learning a great deal more than,

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or inheriting a great deal more than just a bit of money.

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It is the sort of knowledge of what went on in the past.

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Inheritance isn't just about money, it's about who you are.

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Bob has an appointment with Mike to discover more about the family.

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-This is the great man himself.

-Yes. Quite a good-looking man, actually!

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Yes, I think he was. Obviously looking very prosperous.

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I think the more I look at it and looking at you,

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I think there is definitely a family likeness.

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I received this letter completely out of the blue,

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telling me that there was a sum of money resulting from

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the sale of a property in Essex

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and that it was very likely that we could be entitled to a share of it.

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They asked me for the names of my brothers and sisters

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and so I then had to turn round and write to them all

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and tell them the good news.

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I think I started by saying,

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"Now is your chance to buy that yacht or that Roller.

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"You're in for a share of a fortune!"

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I then covered myself by saying it's more likely to be tuppence ha'penny!

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With Bob's information, Hoopers was able to find more heirs.

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The case was going well, almost too well.

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The will of one of Octavius's daughters, Alice Edgerton Green,

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stopped the hunt in its tracks.

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In later life she'd made changes to her original will

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and as she got older, she changed the effect of her will

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and each successive codicil

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became more and more obscure and complex

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until we get to the point where it was, for us,

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it was impossible to interpret what her intentions were.

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Alice had written numerous notes and amendments, so it was very difficult

0:20:520:20:57

to decipher who she really wanted her legacy to go to.

0:20:570:21:01

Not knowing her heirs put the Coope legacy in doubt.

0:21:010:21:04

The school could not be sold

0:21:040:21:06

until Alice's final wishes could be fulfilled.

0:21:060:21:08

Nothing more could happen.

0:21:080:21:10

All of a sudden, we come up against a brick wall

0:21:100:21:13

and until we could resolve that one issue,

0:21:130:21:17

the whole matter couldn't be settled

0:21:170:21:21

because it would have an impact,

0:21:210:21:23

or it did have an impact, on all the other beneficiaries.

0:21:230:21:26

The whole case now rested on what to do with Alice's will.

0:21:270:21:31

The distribution of the entire £800,000 estate

0:21:310:21:34

would grind to a halt unless the Heir Hunters could find a solution.

0:21:340:21:39

To try and break the deadlock,

0:21:390:21:41

Mike was going to be in for a trip to the High Court.

0:21:410:21:44

For every case that is solved,

0:21:500:21:52

there are still those that stubbornly remain a mystery.

0:21:520:21:56

Currently, over 3,000 names drawn from across the country

0:21:560:22:00

are on the Treasury's Unsolved Case List.

0:22:000:22:03

Their assets will be kept for up to 30 years

0:22:060:22:09

in the hope that eventually

0:22:090:22:11

someone will remember and come forward to claim their inheritance.

0:22:110:22:15

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

0:22:160:22:21

the rightful heirs are out there somewhere.

0:22:210:22:24

Malcolm John Thomas died in Bethnal Green

0:22:240:22:28

in London in March 2007.

0:22:280:22:29

Originally from Pontypool in Wales,

0:22:290:22:31

his mother's maiden name was Griffiths.

0:22:310:22:34

Do these details ring any bells?

0:22:340:22:36

Could you be Malcolm's closest relative

0:22:360:22:38

and entitled to his unclaimed estate?

0:22:380:22:41

Gladys Mary Rayner died in London in April 2008.

0:22:410:22:45

She was born in West Ham in London in 1913 and her parents

0:22:450:22:49

were Robert Thomas Rayner and Mary Elizabeth Sheer.

0:22:490:22:52

Was Gladys a friend, neighbour or possibly even a relation of yours?

0:22:520:22:57

Since the release of the Treasury's list

0:23:030:23:05

of unclaimed estates this morning,

0:23:050:23:08

Heir Hunters Fraser & Fraser have been looking into a number of cases,

0:23:080:23:11

including that of Albert Crook.

0:23:110:23:13

He died at the Morningside Nursing Home in Crewe on 1st February 2008.

0:23:130:23:19

From the enquiries that both I have made on the telephone and Dave Mansell has made locally,

0:23:190:23:25

he appears to have been a long-term resident at the care home,

0:23:250:23:28

he didn't really have any friends.

0:23:280:23:30

He had Alzheimer's and advanced Parkinson's Disease,

0:23:300:23:34

so those two things combined don't really make you a chatty person,

0:23:340:23:39

you know, so he seems to be a bit of a loner, poor old boy.

0:23:390:23:43

With no property registered,

0:23:430:23:45

Albert's estate was assumed to be quite small.

0:23:450:23:48

I don't have a definite value on it yet.

0:23:480:23:50

But traveller Dave Mansell's enquiries with those who knew him

0:23:500:23:54

uncovered something that surprised everyone.

0:23:540:23:56

It has been rumoured that his estate may be worth up to £100,000

0:23:560:24:02

and it seems bricks and mortar

0:24:020:24:04

are not the only place to keep one's fortune!

0:24:040:24:07

I was very surprised when I found out he'd got money in suitcases,

0:24:070:24:10

but it did fit in with his reluctance to spend money.

0:24:100:24:13

He was obviously squirreling it away for a later date,

0:24:130:24:16

though when, I don't know!

0:24:160:24:18

But Tony is hoping to find more than just money.

0:24:180:24:23

It might be his marriage certificate,

0:24:230:24:25

it might be his wife's death certificate,

0:24:250:24:27

and it could be a family tree and it could be documentation

0:24:270:24:30

to show that he's directly related to Queen Victoria, I don't know.

0:24:300:24:34

But clearly, if we can track down the suitcase and have a look in it,

0:24:340:24:40

it might answer the... might solve the matter, mightn't it?

0:24:400:24:44

Dave Mansell is going to the sheltered accommodation in Northwich where Albert lived

0:24:450:24:50

before the care home and where he left his mysterious suitcase.

0:24:500:24:54

But there's some bad news.

0:24:560:24:59

Although the sheltered accommodation

0:24:590:25:01

confirm there's around £2,000 in the case,

0:25:010:25:03

they're reluctant to show Dave the contents.

0:25:030:25:06

Absolutely nowhere here.

0:25:060:25:08

I ended up speaking to the solicitor

0:25:080:25:11

who's got your name and telephone number now.

0:25:110:25:14

-The solicitor?

-Yeah.

0:25:140:25:16

The solicitor for the local authority,

0:25:160:25:18

because they wouldn't give this girl permission to talk to us.

0:25:180:25:21

Tony takes the matter into his own hands.

0:25:210:25:24

The care home is holding a couple of thousand pounds

0:25:240:25:28

of the deceased's money, but they don't know what to do with it,

0:25:280:25:31

so I've now advised the authorities of that,

0:25:310:25:34

the authorities have spoken with the care home, the care home are

0:25:340:25:37

now going to pass it over to the authorities

0:25:370:25:40

and everything gets a bit smoothed out.

0:25:400:25:42

So now at least Tony knows how much is in the case,

0:25:420:25:45

and with the possible value of £100,000 on the estate,

0:25:450:25:49

more of the team have joined the hunt for Albert Crook's heirs.

0:25:490:25:53

I'm entering the marriage of the father, David Ernest Crook.

0:25:530:25:57

And it's not long before they start uncovering Albert's relatives.

0:26:000:26:03

So far we've established his parents and that he's got a sister.

0:26:030:26:07

Unfortunately, from our point of view, the sister was unmarried

0:26:070:26:11

and has predeceased him as a spinster, so there's no near kin.

0:26:110:26:15

As there are no descendants from Albert, or his only sister, Edna,

0:26:150:26:18

the hunt would usually move onto finding cousins,

0:26:180:26:22

but Research Director, Gareth, has just found something else.

0:26:220:26:26

We've discovered that the parents were previously married

0:26:260:26:29

so if they have children from those marriages,

0:26:290:26:32

they'll be half-blood near kin.

0:26:320:26:34

We're hoping that there are children and we can get some heirs from them.

0:26:340:26:37

The team move quickly to find the crucial birth,

0:26:370:26:41

death and marriage records relating to Albert's father's previous family

0:26:410:26:45

and they soon identify several paternal half-blood relatives.

0:26:450:26:49

The deceased, Albert, and his sister, Edna, were children

0:26:510:26:55

from David Ernest Crook's second marriage to Annie Burgess.

0:26:550:26:59

David Crook's previous marriage was to Margaret Pearson

0:26:590:27:02

and together they had four children -

0:27:020:27:04

Edna, Edith, William and Charlie.

0:27:040:27:08

Although they are now all deceased, Edith and Charlie did have children.

0:27:080:27:13

If they, or any of their children, are alive,

0:27:130:27:16

they would be half-blood nephews and nieces and, more importantly, heirs.

0:27:160:27:20

A search through the phone book

0:27:200:27:23

rewards the team with a contact number

0:27:230:27:26

for the widow of one of the half-blood nephews, David.

0:27:260:27:29

Tony wastes no time in giving her a call to break the news.

0:27:290:27:33

Had your husband still been alive, he would, we think,

0:27:330:27:37

have been entitled to a share of this estate

0:27:370:27:39

that we're dealing with, but as he's passed on,

0:27:390:27:42

then unfortunately I don't think you'd be entitled

0:27:420:27:45

because you wouldn't be a blood relative of his, you see.

0:27:450:27:48

You are sometimes, but I don't think you are. Anyway, so...

0:27:480:27:51

Well, you're his wife, yeah, but you're not a blood relative, you see!

0:27:510:27:55

So, his entitlement would pass to his children.

0:27:550:27:58

It turns out David's widow, Winifred,

0:27:580:28:00

had three children who would all be entitled

0:28:000:28:04

and several other family members,

0:28:040:28:06

who may also be heirs, live close by.

0:28:060:28:09

Hello, Dave.

0:28:090:28:10

Right, listen. I think it might be best if you up stumps to Warrington,

0:28:100:28:14

if you could, because I've seen, I've spoken to this lady

0:28:140:28:18

and she's happy for you to go and see her after three o'clock.

0:28:180:28:23

So there's several people in Warrington worthy of a visit.

0:28:230:28:27

Right, I'm en-route.

0:28:270:28:28

Dave Mansell's appointments are now a priority.

0:28:300:28:34

It's down to him to visit all of the Crook heirs found so far.

0:28:340:28:39

Luckily, his first call is to see several heirs at once.

0:28:410:28:45

Alwyn, Albert's paternal half-blood niece,

0:28:450:28:48

Win, the widow of a paternal half-blood nephew

0:28:480:28:51

who will not be entitled, and her son, Tony, who IS an heir.

0:28:510:28:56

A member of the Crook family has died without leaving a will,

0:28:560:28:59

so it means all the blood relatives will be entitled

0:28:590:29:03

to a part of that estate.

0:29:030:29:04

You are one of these people.

0:29:040:29:06

You descended from Edith Crook, didn't you?

0:29:060:29:08

-That's right.

-That was your mum?

-Yes.

-I just need to take some details.

0:29:080:29:12

-Is that all right?

-Yes, that's fine.

0:29:120:29:14

Without revealing the name of the deceased,

0:29:140:29:17

Dave Mansell works through the family information.

0:29:170:29:20

Is there anybody else in the family that you know about that's related

0:29:200:29:25

to you that you've not told me about, on the Crook side?

0:29:250:29:30

-No, not that I can remember or think, no.

-Right.

0:29:300:29:35

It becomes apparent that Alwyn never knew her half-uncle Albert.

0:29:350:29:39

What's happened is this. Your great-grandfather, your grandfather,

0:29:390:29:43

married twice and there were children from the first marriage

0:29:430:29:47

and children from the second.

0:29:470:29:48

It's complicated the whole investigation, really,

0:29:480:29:52

into tracing you.

0:29:520:29:54

But going over the family history jogs Alwyn's memory.

0:29:540:29:57

-There was a disagreement after...

-Your mum's Dad?

0:29:570:30:00

Is that the one that was married twice, yeah?

0:30:000:30:04

It's coming to me now, what she said,

0:30:040:30:07

because I think that's how they fell out,

0:30:070:30:10

because when he got married again and I think there was children

0:30:100:30:16

and she didn't have much to do with her dad.

0:30:160:30:19

-Who didn't, Edith?

-Yeah.

0:30:190:30:22

Often, the reason Heir Hunters investigate cases

0:30:220:30:25

is because of past family splits,

0:30:250:30:27

but it can be a rewarding part of the job

0:30:270:30:29

to inform heirs about their family background.

0:30:290:30:33

I found it interesting and you learn things about your family, so...

0:30:330:30:38

and I'm waiting for the family tree, you know,

0:30:380:30:42

so that would be quite interesting.

0:30:420:30:46

It's a big family.

0:30:460:30:47

And I think the services of Dave, how he's explained everything today,

0:30:470:30:52

has been very good, but it will be better

0:30:520:30:54

when I get the family tree because it's gonna open...

0:30:540:30:57

I can look back to see where did we come from and who?

0:30:570:31:00

Well, no, it's been a marvellous thing today.

0:31:000:31:04

As well as Alwyn and Tony,

0:31:040:31:06

the office have found a further four paternal half-blood heirs.

0:31:060:31:10

-All right.

-Well, thanks very much.

0:31:100:31:12

-Thank you, thanks for your hospitality.

-OK.

0:31:120:31:15

It's not quite wrapped up, but I would imagine

0:31:150:31:17

that we won't have to do a great deal more research.

0:31:170:31:20

There's still other certificates we've got to find

0:31:200:31:23

and a great deal of paperwork to do

0:31:230:31:25

but actual additional research,

0:31:250:31:26

I don't think we've got much more to do.

0:31:260:31:28

It's approaching the end of a long, hard day

0:31:280:31:31

but matters aren't quite as wrapped up as Tony thinks.

0:31:310:31:34

The team have just realised something

0:31:340:31:37

that's going to take the investigation into the next day.

0:31:370:31:40

A slight administrative cock-up, Al.

0:31:400:31:43

Well, you know this Kenneth bloke that we've got, Kenneth Burgess?

0:31:430:31:47

Well, being the illegitimate child of his mother,

0:31:470:31:50

that's a long word for half-blood!

0:31:500:31:51

Prior to her marriage to Albert's father, David Crook,

0:31:510:31:55

his mother, Annie Burgess, had two children out of wedlock -

0:31:550:31:59

Lillian and Kenneth.

0:31:590:32:01

The penny has suddenly dropped that these children, illegitimate or not,

0:32:010:32:05

are of course still maternal half-blood to Albert,

0:32:050:32:08

so they, or any of their children, would be heirs to his estate.

0:32:080:32:13

Unfortunately, despite this late stage of the game,

0:32:130:32:16

there's still gonna be more research to be done tomorrow.

0:32:160:32:20

It seems the investigations are not quite over after all.

0:32:210:32:25

It's day two of the investigation.

0:32:300:32:33

We're carrying on from yesterday's job when we went to Northwich,

0:32:330:32:39

Crewe, Warrington, Appleton.

0:32:390:32:42

We're now onto the maternal side of the family

0:32:420:32:45

and we're going to see, hopefully,

0:32:450:32:48

two or three heirs to the estate.

0:32:480:32:51

So, we're only a minute away so we'll knock onto it.

0:32:510:32:54

He's going to see brother and sister, Steven and Alison,

0:32:560:32:59

Albert's maternal half-blood nephew and niece.

0:32:590:33:03

Your dad was Kenneth?

0:33:030:33:05

That's him.

0:33:050:33:07

-Kenneth Burgess, otherwise known as Kenneth Burgess-Crook?

-Yeah.

0:33:070:33:11

How did that come about?

0:33:110:33:14

He was actually born out of wedlock.

0:33:140:33:17

-Yep?

-So he took my nan's maiden name.

0:33:170:33:21

-Annie?

-She was Annie Burgess.

-Right.

0:33:210:33:23

So he was actually christened... registered as Burgess.

0:33:230:33:26

-Yep.

-Nobody knew in the family!

0:33:260:33:29

It was only when my mother died

0:33:290:33:31

that he actually sorted out my mother's estate and it all become...

0:33:310:33:36

-Clearer?

-Yeah, that he wasn't actually a Crook, he was a Burgess.

0:33:360:33:40

Right. And then Annie remarried, didn't she?

0:33:400:33:43

Yes, she married... cos I knew of my granddad, I didn't know that he...

0:33:430:33:47

So you knew David Ernest Crook as your granddad?

0:33:470:33:49

-My granddad, yeah.

-Great.

0:33:490:33:51

That's super.

0:33:510:33:53

Now Dave Mansell has verified all the family details,

0:33:530:33:57

Steven's sister, Alison, arrives.

0:33:570:33:59

They both have memories of their half-uncle Albert.

0:33:590:34:03

When I used to go up to see my nan, I remember him.

0:34:030:34:05

You know, I was only a young kid.

0:34:050:34:07

-My biggest memories are when he used to cut the grass.

-Yeah, cos he...

0:34:070:34:12

He worked for the local council and used to pop in the house.

0:34:120:34:15

He'd come up, you know, in the street where we lived

0:34:150:34:18

and he'd call to my mum's for a cup of tea and a biscuit

0:34:180:34:21

or whatever and they were the memories I remember most of all.

0:34:210:34:26

They were the only times I really saw him.

0:34:260:34:28

All of the heirs will be in for a substantial windfall,

0:34:280:34:32

as a week later confirmation comes through to the office

0:34:320:34:35

of the real value of Albert's estate.

0:34:350:34:38

It's nice to know that it's turned out to be £100,000 plus

0:34:390:34:43

and both we, and of course the heirs that we traced,

0:34:430:34:46

will, you know, get a lot more than they might have anticipated.

0:34:460:34:51

The fortune that the thrifty Albert Crook never spent during

0:34:510:34:55

his lifetime will now get shared between

0:34:550:34:57

his nine half-blood relatives.

0:34:570:34:59

Uniting unsuspecting heirs with their rightful legacy

0:35:070:35:11

is the day to day work of the Heir Hunters.

0:35:110:35:14

We always take the view that there is always an answer out there

0:35:140:35:19

and if we possibly can, we will find that answer.

0:35:190:35:22

But when probate research company, Hoopers,

0:35:250:35:27

were trying to find the legal heirs

0:35:270:35:29

to a Victorian school site worth £800,000,

0:35:290:35:31

they were faced with over 100 years' worth of wills,

0:35:310:35:35

all stemming from original owner, Octavius Coope.

0:35:350:35:39

Things were going well until they found the will of Alice Edgerton Green, one of Octavius's daughters.

0:35:420:35:48

It contained numerous notes about who she wanted to inherit

0:35:480:35:52

that became increasingly vague.

0:35:520:35:55

It says something along the lines of,

0:35:550:35:58

"The residue to be used to build a church

0:35:580:36:02

"in a crowded area of London over the border if possible."

0:36:020:36:09

By today's standards, in any case,

0:36:090:36:11

building a church in a crowded part of London

0:36:110:36:14

would just be a financial nightmare.

0:36:140:36:16

You couldn't build. You'd need millions for a start.

0:36:160:36:19

"A crowded area of London over the border." Over the border of where?

0:36:190:36:24

What part of London, north, south, east or west?

0:36:240:36:27

I've no idea whatsoever.

0:36:270:36:29

There's no clue at all to what was meant.

0:36:290:36:34

It wouldn't... You couldn't carry out these wishes anyway, and I think

0:36:340:36:39

any expert, will expert, would have to deem this impossible to implement.

0:36:390:36:45

At the time when Alice was altering her will,

0:36:470:36:49

the school still would have

0:36:490:36:51

been playing a thriving part in the community.

0:36:510:36:54

Yvonne Limbrick of the British Schools' Museum

0:36:540:36:57

has her thoughts as to why patrons, Coope and Belli,

0:36:570:37:00

gave their money to build the school in the first place.

0:37:000:37:04

I think it's almost certain that the children who would have been going to

0:37:040:37:08

that school were from the poor families of the area.

0:37:080:37:13

They would have been a very mixed bunch but they would have been poor.

0:37:130:37:18

I would have expected that there would have been

0:37:180:37:22

one schoolroom, just the one,

0:37:220:37:26

and all the children would have been taught in that one schoolroom.

0:37:260:37:30

It would have been fairly bare,

0:37:300:37:33

quite bleak by today's standards. All the children would have had a slate

0:37:330:37:39

and a slate pencil and a sponge to erase their writing

0:37:390:37:43

and there would probably have been enough books

0:37:430:37:47

for two or three children to share...

0:37:470:37:50

..and that really and truly is about it.

0:37:520:37:55

Despite basic facilities,

0:37:550:37:57

the importance of the school would have been huge.

0:37:570:38:00

Attitudes to education were changing and it was no longer seen

0:38:000:38:05

as a privilege, but as a right for all.

0:38:050:38:08

It would have been very important

0:38:080:38:10

because it was a step towards a different life,

0:38:100:38:14

a step towards raising the expectations of people

0:38:140:38:21

to be able to better themselves.

0:38:210:38:24

For Mike, the only way to move the case along

0:38:240:38:27

was to get the legal advice of a QC who could make a judgment

0:38:270:38:31

on what to do with Alice's unintelligible will.

0:38:310:38:34

The QC ruled that Alice's case

0:38:340:38:36

should be treated as if she had died intestate,

0:38:360:38:38

as if she had not left a will.

0:38:380:38:41

Once we'd had the opinion from the QC,

0:38:410:38:45

we were able to work out the proportions in which each individual

0:38:450:38:52

relative of hers, under intestacy rules, was going to inherit

0:38:520:38:57

and we could draw the whole matter to a satisfactory conclusion.

0:38:570:39:02

As Alice had outlived her husband and all of her children,

0:39:020:39:05

they quickly established that her portion of the estate

0:39:050:39:08

would revert to her sisters and their beneficiaries.

0:39:080:39:12

It meant that the council could move successfully into their new school

0:39:140:39:19

and the heirs got their legacy.

0:39:190:39:21

Come on, good boy!

0:39:210:39:23

Bob Wayne, the great-great grandson of Octavius, and one of 32 heirs,

0:39:230:39:30

received his share of the £800,000.

0:39:300:39:33

We only got a small portion.

0:39:330:39:35

I believe that the luckiest ones got about £33,000 each,

0:39:350:39:42

whereas at the bottom of the tree, we got about £1,600.

0:39:420:39:48

I think that one is very interested in knowing about one's family

0:39:510:39:58

and I think most people would find if they actually looked into it

0:39:580:40:02

that they've got far more interesting relatives than they realised.

0:40:020:40:06

Indeed, you know, the connections seem to go on and on and on.

0:40:060:40:13

As for the school, Holly Trees is now situated in a new site,

0:40:130:40:18

with modern facilities for over 300 students.

0:40:180:40:22

I think there are winners all around.

0:40:220:40:25

The education authority end up with a bigger and better school,

0:40:250:40:30

the family, hopefully they're happy and satisfied financially,

0:40:300:40:36

and from the point of view of their ancestor,

0:40:360:40:41

the legacy of Octavius Coope and his friend, the Reverend Belli,

0:40:410:40:46

does continue and I'm sure they're not forgotten. All in all,

0:40:460:40:51

we think it's a pretty good job.

0:40:510:40:53

However, the biggest legacy is what Coope and Belli had created

0:40:530:40:57

for the wider community back in 1875 when the school was first built.

0:40:570:41:03

You see, and this gateway here is where we used to go in

0:41:030:41:07

and that part there was a classroom.

0:41:070:41:11

Sisters, Beryl Beckwith and Betty Shipton, have fond memories

0:41:110:41:15

of the school they attended in 1939.

0:41:150:41:18

Well, we were always made welcome.

0:41:180:41:21

They tried to make it as happy as they could.

0:41:210:41:25

In the first class, obviously, we had slates with the chalks

0:41:250:41:31

and then as you moved up after learning your ABC

0:41:310:41:36

and learning to write your name, then you obviously went up

0:41:360:41:40

to the next class where they took you further with your reading

0:41:400:41:44

and also joined up writing and...

0:41:440:41:48

-Arithmetic.

-Yeah!

0:41:480:41:51

Very happy days.

0:41:510:41:53

Everybody, you know, all joined in together

0:41:530:41:55

for playing games and everything.

0:41:550:41:58

There was never really a lot of nastiness with the children

0:41:580:42:02

because times were hard and we all had to get on together.

0:42:020:42:06

I did use to go home, because every time the bell went,

0:42:130:42:16

I naturally thought it was time to go home.

0:42:160:42:19

And of course Miss Pickett had other ideas.

0:42:190:42:21

She used to come up home after me and run me down Junction Road

0:42:210:42:26

with a big stick and I mean I had to literally...

0:42:260:42:29

THEY LAUGH

0:42:290:42:31

I didn't do anything like that. I was too good!

0:42:310:42:33

THEY LAUGH

0:42:330:42:35

If you believe that, you'll believe everything!

0:42:350:42:38

THEY LAUGH

0:42:380:42:40

And it's Octavius Coope's generosity over 125 years ago

0:42:400:42:47

that thousands of school children,

0:42:470:42:49

as well as 32 lucky heirs, have to be thankful for.

0:42:490:42:52

If you would like to find out more about

0:42:540:42:56

how to build a family tree or write a will, go to bbc.co.uk.

0:42:560:43:00

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:43:200:43:24

E-mail [email protected]

0:43:240:43:28

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