0:00:02 > 0:00:07Heir hunters spend their lives tracking down families of people who've died without leaving a will.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11They hand over thousands of pounds to long-lost relatives, who had no idea
0:00:11 > 0:00:14they were in line for a windfall.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17Could they be knocking at your door?
0:00:32 > 0:00:36On today's programme...
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Heir Hunters investigate a shockingly sad news story.
0:00:40 > 0:00:41Oh, my God.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45Is that rubbish at the window?!
0:00:45 > 0:00:49And one family's sterling efforts to track down a great-aunt,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52who disappeared from their radar 50 years ago.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55She left with little notice. She put her house on the market.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58She sold it fairly quickly and left.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02Plus the unclaimed estates sitting dormant at the Treasury.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Are you about to inherit a fortune?
0:01:11 > 0:01:16Every year in Britain, over two thirds of people die without leaving a will.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20And when no heir can be found, their money goes to the Government.
0:01:20 > 0:01:25Last year, the Treasury made a colossal £18 million from unclaimed assets.
0:01:25 > 0:01:31Of that, only £6.5 million was ever claimed back by heirs.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36Hoping to gain a commission, more than 30 probate research companies
0:01:36 > 0:01:42race against one another to track down and sign up long-lost relatives entitled to inherit.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45- Mr Galloway?- Yes.- David Hadley. - Hello.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Fraser and Fraser is one of the oldest firms of heir hunters.
0:01:50 > 0:01:55It's run by Andrew, Neil and Charles Fraser.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58One of the areas I enjoy is the mystery element of it.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03And it's being able to deal with that and bring it to a successful conclusion,
0:02:03 > 0:02:05that's one of the thrills of the job, really.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11They've tackled estates ranging from £5 to £500,000,
0:02:11 > 0:02:17and have successfully claimed back more than £100 million for heirs.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24It's 11 o'clock on Thursday morning.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29As always, the team spent the early hours scouring the Treasury's list of unclaimed estates,
0:02:29 > 0:02:31looking for cases that were worth working.
0:02:31 > 0:02:39Unusually, there's been little of interest today, so Neil is taking a different tack.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42There's just some newspaper articles at the moment about Gordon Stewart,
0:02:42 > 0:02:45dying trapped in a litter maze in his own house.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Every now and then, it's worth having a little look.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Even if we happen to solve the case and don't get anything out of it,
0:02:52 > 0:02:53it will be good that way.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57According to the newspaper article,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Gordon Stewart, a 74-year-old bachelor
0:03:00 > 0:03:03from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire,
0:03:03 > 0:03:05was tragically found dead in his home,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07thought to have died of dehydration.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12His home was filled floor to ceiling with rubbish.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17It seems he was too embarrassed to ask anyone for help or let anyone in.
0:03:17 > 0:03:23He was a very quiet person, and, sadly, no photo of Gordon has been found.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Despite being private, he wasn't a hermit.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32More than 40 people attended his funeral, led by Pastor Alan Harvey.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38There were a number of neighbours there, who obviously knew Gordon,
0:03:38 > 0:03:43had seen him in the district, riding his bicycle, had spoken to him.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49The tribute that was given certainly painted the picture of a man who,
0:03:49 > 0:03:56in the last years of his life was, in some ways, quite lonely,
0:03:56 > 0:04:04someone who obviously was an animal lover, someone who had been very good with his hands.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08I believe he'd worked in carpentry and so on, earlier on in his life,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11I think someone who was, in some ways,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14overwhelmed by his home situation.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25His tragic end may have been shaped by events in Gordon's past.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Sadly, his brother and then his father died when he was only a child.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32It left just Gordon and his mum on their own.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35He seemed to have been very attached and proud of her.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39They lived together until her death in 1975.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45Gordon knew that his home had reached an appalling condition.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49But it seems he was too paralysed by the thought of what to do.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53For Fraser's, sadly, it's not an uncommon story, but they know
0:04:53 > 0:04:58from long experience that there is usually an heir out there somewhere.
0:04:58 > 0:05:06Why we're interested in it is because the article says he didn't have any known relatives.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08That's exactly what we do.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12It's just this one happens to have made the newspaper.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Although Gordon's tragic death has made the headlines,
0:05:15 > 0:05:20it's too recent a case to have been passed to the Treasury's unclaimed estates division,
0:05:20 > 0:05:25so all the Treasury's usual checks regarding family or beneficiaries haven't been done yet.
0:05:25 > 0:05:31One of the things we have to be very, very careful with, when we get cases from almost alternative sources,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34is we're picking this up before any inquiry has been made at all.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37So we don't know if the deceased has left a will.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42There is a danger we could do all this work and then a will turn up.
0:05:42 > 0:05:50Going on instinct, and the lure of a £150,000 property, Neil is prepared to take the risk.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55He's planning to send case manager Bob Smith to Gordon's home town, Aylesbury.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Fraser's employ a team of travelling heir hunters,
0:06:00 > 0:06:05based all over the country, who await the call to be sent wherever the search takes them.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10They follow up leads and hunches and glean as much information as they can about the deceased
0:06:10 > 0:06:15by knocking on doors, hoping to track down an heir before the competition beat them to it.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Case manager Bob Smith is London-based,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27making it easy to drop into the office and get details on today's unusual case.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29We're going to this place as well.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Oh, my God!
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Is that rubbish at the window?!
0:06:35 > 0:06:37Oh, my God!
0:06:37 > 0:06:39- Died of thirst?- Yeah.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49Bob's getting the dates and details on Gordon Stewart and any family the team already know about
0:06:49 > 0:06:53in order to get birth and death certificates, which will give them more information.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57He appears to have a brother, Trevor F,...
0:06:59 > 0:07:02..born December quarter, 1930,
0:07:02 > 0:07:06- in Aylesbury.- You want me to do an inquiry and pick up the death?- Yeah.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08OK.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10Love you all!
0:07:10 > 0:07:12And I'll speak to you later.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16But knowing the papers have already been pressing the neighbours for stories,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20he won't be doing any door-to-door inquiries today.
0:07:22 > 0:07:28Unfortunately, most cases the team work have an emotive story behind them.
0:07:30 > 0:07:37Quite often, they're loners, people that detached themselves from family for various reasons.
0:07:37 > 0:07:43Difficult to believe, to be honest, in a house, looked quite a modern house, it should have water
0:07:43 > 0:07:46and all that, and apparently they die of dehydration.
0:07:46 > 0:07:52Because Gordon Stewart died only a fortnight ago, the team won't be able to get a death certificate yet.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56However, the newspaper article gave his age, so they've had no trouble
0:07:56 > 0:08:02finding his date of birth and have been able to bypass some of their initial searches into his family.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06We know that the brother died aged six.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11The birth of the deceased himself, we are confident we've got the right family.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17For Louisa Cox, Gordon's mother, losing Trevor and then her husband
0:08:17 > 0:08:20must have been almost too much to bear.
0:08:20 > 0:08:27However, the research shows that later in life, when she was 45, she did remarry.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31The team now have all the immediate family members mapped out from their own records,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34but they need certificates from Bob
0:08:34 > 0:08:38in order to find the mother and father's parents to go further back up the tree.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45Is there any chance we could pick those up today?
0:08:45 > 0:08:50- Yes, you have to pay the £10 express fee. £10 on top.- No problem.
0:08:50 > 0:08:57Piece by piece, the certificates are helping to reveal more about the mystery of Gordon's family.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02His mother's birth certificate gives the team the names of Gordon Stewart's maternal grandparents.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06Louisa Jane Cox, born 8th June, 1906.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11- Formally Gilder - G-I-L-D-E-R. - Yeah.
0:09:11 > 0:09:12The marriage of the parents -
0:09:12 > 0:09:16between Francis Eric Stewart
0:09:16 > 0:09:19and Louisa Jane Cox, age 23.
0:09:19 > 0:09:20OK, I'll speak to you soon, mate.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23- All right. Cheers.- Take care. Bye.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28The certificates show a name switch for Gordon's father.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32On Gordon's birth certificate, he's Eric Francis Henry.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36But his marriage certificate shows him as Francis Eric.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39It may cause them problems when they look for a copy of his birth,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42since they'll have to do twice as many searches.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48However, the certificates have given them a leap forward
0:09:48 > 0:09:51on the maternal branch of Gordon's family tree.
0:09:51 > 0:09:58Once Bob gave me the details for Louisa's parents, I then identified their marriage, which was in 1891.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00Then we have a 1901 census.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04On that census, there are aunts and uncles of the deceased.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Fingers crossed we find the descendants of these aunts and uncles.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15Gordon's maternal grandparents were Albert Cox and Louisa Gilder.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24The team have found seven children from their marriage, Gordon's mother, Louisa,
0:10:24 > 0:10:31then John, Albert, Winifred, Lionel, James and Herbert Cox.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33All Gordon's uncles and aunts.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36They also know that Herbert went on to marry Emily Izzard.
0:10:36 > 0:10:43They, or more likely their children, will be in line to inherit a share of Gordon's £150,000 estate.
0:10:43 > 0:10:49With the help of the census, the mother's line has been exceptionally easy to trace.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54Basically, the key, where we jumped from having the top generation,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57the aunts and uncles to a single generation,
0:10:57 > 0:11:05is solely because we found one marriage. The married name, Izzard, is easy to spot in the indexes.
0:11:05 > 0:11:11The benefit of uncle Herbert Cox and Emily Izzard's marriage means within minutes of a birth search,
0:11:11 > 0:11:17they found children, first cousins to Gordon and probably heirs to his estate.
0:11:17 > 0:11:23We've got five possible cousins of the deceased at the moment, which is a fair amount to have.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29They're born in the '20s, between 1920 and 1934.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35And I've just been passed the first one alive, living in Kent.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39They've only been working this case for four hours
0:11:39 > 0:11:44and already, Fran is able to make plans for travelling heir hunter Dave Hadley to see a maternal heir.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49Have you got a pen and paper to take some details?
0:11:49 > 0:11:50Right.
0:11:51 > 0:11:57But as they get closer to living relatives, team member Sara discovers another family tragedy,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01concerning one of Gordon's other uncles, Albert Cox.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06An old newspaper article reports him murdered in 1970.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08This gives us more information on him.
0:12:08 > 0:12:14The more information we can get on people like that, certainly, the more useful it is.
0:12:14 > 0:12:15With so much family tragedy,
0:12:15 > 0:12:21perhaps this was another reason why the local people were convinced Gordon had no relatives.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24But Dave Hadley's about to prove them wrong.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27He's trying to meet Gordon's first cousin, Douglas Cox.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29- Hello, Mrs Cox?- Yes.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32I'd like to speak to Mr Douglas Cox, if I may?
0:12:32 > 0:12:35- Yes, of course. Come in.- Thank you.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40Somebody has passed away on your father's side of the family.
0:12:40 > 0:12:46He didn't leave a will, and so at this stage, we're still searching for the heirs.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49And from then on, I'll explain to you exactly what we can do.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53We lost contact with my family years ago. Haven't we?
0:12:53 > 0:12:57You didn't know much about your father's family in the first place.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02They all lived Luton, Aylesbury area, so we haven't heard from them for years.
0:13:02 > 0:13:09Dave's meeting serves only to further highlight how tragically easy it is for family to lose touch.
0:13:09 > 0:13:15But at least Gordon's estate looks more likely now to go to his real family than the Treasury.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Well, thanks again. I'm really grateful, and it's been a pleasure meeting you. Bye-bye.
0:13:20 > 0:13:21Bye.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31We've done really well today, considering.
0:13:31 > 0:13:37We've found one aunt and uncle, who have left surviving issue,
0:13:37 > 0:13:41who are first cousins of our deceased, Gordon Stewart.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46The team is successfully signing up maternal cousins as heirs,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50hoping to get a commission from the £150,000 estate.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55So far, it's been an easy piece of detective work.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Even with a name like Stewart, there can be unforeseen problems.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02It's come up as Stuart with a "U".
0:14:02 > 0:14:04Oh, gosh! Oh, great(!)
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Has their stream of luck run out?
0:14:16 > 0:14:21Heir hunting doesn't just take the form of fast-paced searches and heavy competition.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Far removed from the rat race, in the Sussex town of Burgess Hill,
0:14:25 > 0:14:29are an heir-hunting duo of a different kind.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37Charles Kerr, the Lord Teviot, is a hereditary peer and works alongside his wife, Mary,
0:14:37 > 0:14:42under their individual company names of Census Searches and Elliot & Whitmee.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45- You've found the thing.- I found it.
0:14:45 > 0:14:51Mary and Charles prefer to work the less competitive cases, thought too small to take on by other companies,
0:14:51 > 0:14:55and have a particular interest in family stories.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59I think one of the nice parts is that you are able to put people
0:14:59 > 0:15:03in touch with relations that they had no idea that existed
0:15:03 > 0:15:08or they knew that existed but had no idea of what had happened to them in the intervening period.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13Mary's work isn't just limited to the UK.
0:15:13 > 0:15:20She's researched a number of estates on behalf of the Office of Public Trustee in Canada.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25When someone dies in testate, they find it useful having a contact like Mary in the UK.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30Very often from the Public Trustee, one gets cases with a UK background.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32It's always interesting because
0:15:32 > 0:15:37so many people went from different parts of the world to Alberta
0:15:37 > 0:15:41that it wasn't always just run-of-the-mill UK research.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49One of the cases Mary was asked to work on was that of Joan Mansfield,
0:15:49 > 0:15:55a British national born in India, who died in Calgary in 1996.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00She never married or had children, and she didn't make a will.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04So who was entitled to her £30,000 estate?
0:16:04 > 0:16:09The only information that one had right at the very beginning was that she had a brother.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14And I think the brother was in New Zealand and he'd already died.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19So it was really very much a question of starting from scratch.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23Mary had limited information, but knew that Joan and her family
0:16:23 > 0:16:26had spent most of their lives in colonial India.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30She plotted the family connection she had so far on paper.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35The first thing I did was a rough draft of the Mansfield tree.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39And I put down Joan's birth date.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44And I put down that she had a brother, that one knew about, who was called Ivan William,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48and from there, the next thing one had to do was to see if she had any other siblings.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55There was already a ten-year age gap between Joan and her brother, Ivan, and in order to gauge how many
0:16:55 > 0:17:00further siblings there might be, Mary was looking for her parents' marriage date.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04As she was with born in India,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08the next port of call was to go to the British Library,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12and to actually see the birth
0:17:12 > 0:17:16or baptism and burial and marriage register, et cetera.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21It's good news to look for events that took place actually in India
0:17:21 > 0:17:25because they were very meticulous about their record-keeping.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28One was able to actually find Joan's parents' marriage
0:17:28 > 0:17:32because that rather gave us a window of how many other children
0:17:32 > 0:17:40they might possibly have, because they were married in 1894 and Joan was not born until 1912.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46In the 18-year gap between their marriage and Joan's birth,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50Henry and Jane Mansfield had four other children.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54The Mansfield family had been quite a long time in India,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57and Joan's father was born in Madras, here,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00and her mother was born in Calcutta, here.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05They were far apart. They moved right up to here to be married in Ambala.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08They had their five children in different places, and, in fact,
0:18:08 > 0:18:13going back in one time to actually have one of their sons in Calcutta.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17Then, eventually Joan, she was born in Faridpur.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22Joan was the youngest of five children.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27Two of her brothers, Hubert and Tyrell died in infancy,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32but siblings Ivan and Phyllis both went on to marry and have children.
0:18:35 > 0:18:42It was looking as if there wasn't very much because we have Phyllis, with her two daughters,
0:18:42 > 0:18:46Maisie and Barbara,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50and we have Ivan, with the one son, Leonard.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Maisie was actually deceased before the deceased.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57Barbara, as she was entitled,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01and then Leonard, he was also entitled because he was still alive.
0:19:01 > 0:19:08So, out of her four brothers and sisters, we only have two surviving kin.
0:19:08 > 0:19:14Mary had her heirs, Joan's nephew Leonard, and her niece Barbara.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Barbara has since died, but her daughter Anne
0:19:19 > 0:19:24remembers when she and her late mother first heard the news of Aunt Joan's death.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29Mother had direct communication with the people in Canada,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33and several...letters,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37pieces of paper, from the Province of Alberta,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40telling mother that she and her cousin Billy
0:19:40 > 0:19:44were heirs and what Joan had left,
0:19:44 > 0:19:50and precise lists, and the fact that they would transport it back
0:19:50 > 0:19:53to this country.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58Anne's mother hoped Joan's boxes of belongings would shed some light on why she'd gone to Canada.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Letters or photographs, anything to explain why she'd upped sticks
0:20:02 > 0:20:05and lost touch with the family in the '50s.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11Initially, she was saddened by the fact that her aunt had died
0:20:11 > 0:20:15and that she knew nothing about her or her life in Canada.
0:20:15 > 0:20:22Um, the boxes revealed a certain amount,
0:20:22 > 0:20:24but of course, there was nothing personal.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29Aunt Joan had left them her legacy and a few belongings.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31But would they ever find out about
0:20:31 > 0:20:34the new life she created for herself in Canada?
0:20:34 > 0:20:36It was Foothills School of Nursing.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40If it's the School of Nursing, perhaps she was in a teaching position.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44Just why had Joan suddenly disappeared?
0:20:53 > 0:20:56For every case that is solved,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59there are still many that remain a mystery.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Currently over 3,000 names drawn from across the country
0:21:03 > 0:21:05are on the Treasury's unsolved case list.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Their assets will be kept for up to 30 years in the hope that eventually,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17someone will remember and come forward to claim their inheritance.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24With the estates valued at anything from £5,000 to millions of pounds,
0:21:24 > 0:21:29it's just possible you could be entitled to one of these unclaimed estates.
0:21:31 > 0:21:37Stanley Harding died in the seaside town of Poole in Dorset in February 2008.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Can you help make the right connections?
0:21:40 > 0:21:45Could you even be related to him and entitled to his legacy?
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Vincent James Connolly died in Camden, London, in March, 2006.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Does his name stir any memories?
0:21:55 > 0:22:01If no relatives can be found, his money will go to the Government, but could it be meant for you?
0:22:12 > 0:22:15It's day two on the case of Gordon Stewart,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18a 74-year-old bachelor from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.
0:22:18 > 0:22:25Gordon was tragically found dead in his home, thought to have died of dehydration.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Too embarrassed to accept offers of help or let people in,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33his neglected home was filled from floor to ceiling with piles of rubbish.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37The shocking nature of his death hit the newspaper headlines,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40but it was the words, "No next of kin"
0:22:40 > 0:22:42that attracted Fraser and Fraser.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Like the genealogical detectives they are, in just a day,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50they had already begun to unravel Gordon's family's tragic story
0:22:50 > 0:22:54and find heirs to his £150,000 estate.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56We know the brother died aged six.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01The birth of the deceased himself, we're confident we've got the right family.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05But with Gordon having died only two weeks ago,
0:23:05 > 0:23:11Fraser's has no way of knowing whether this extremely private man had actually made a will.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16They're risking a lot of man hours and money tracing cousins who may not even be heirs.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23Every now and then, it's worth having a look. Even if we happen to solve the case
0:23:23 > 0:23:25and don't get anything out of it.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30The team have found three maternal first cousins
0:23:30 > 0:23:33they believe to be entitled to Gordon's property,
0:23:33 > 0:23:37all descendants of Gordon's uncle, Herbert.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42Dave Hadley met one of them last night and is off to meet two more this morning,
0:23:42 > 0:23:44hoping to sign them up.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49I'm on my way to see Sheila and Roy, the brother and sister of Douglas,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52who I saw yesterday.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57They would appear to be first cousins of the deceased,
0:23:57 > 0:24:04and I'm hoping they'll be able to give me a bit more information about the father's side of the family.
0:24:06 > 0:24:13The cousins may have known Gordon when he was younger and could have leads to further family members.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18- Hello. Sheila Kingsland?- Yes.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Hello there. Thanks ever so much for seeing me.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23It's a pleasure. Come in.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26What can you tell me about your father's side of the family?
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Did he have any brothers or sisters?
0:24:28 > 0:24:34We don't know. Apparently, Dad left home because he wasn't treated very well.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39- So we didn't even know our grandparents or any side of Dad's family.- OK.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41I've already spoke to the brother.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45So Dave comes away without any new information.
0:24:45 > 0:24:46No, I can't remember.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53But the team in the office don't need it, they are still uncovering maternal relations
0:24:53 > 0:24:55with no trouble at all.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58William Birch. Birch.
0:24:58 > 0:25:03Ah, William Birch. The informant on the parents' marriage.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05The parents of the deceased.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08I'm looking for various Cox marriages.
0:25:08 > 0:25:14I just found Winifred, E.L., in Aylesbury, which is the right initials and the right area.
0:25:14 > 0:25:15So it's looking rather good.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Winifred Cox is Gordon's aunt,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24and the team will immediately be looking for children from her marriage.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29The ones I'm trying to find with initials are a lot easier to find,
0:25:29 > 0:25:34rather than just the single names, because there are quite a few Coxes.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41In a matter of minutes, they've found what they were after.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45Ivor A was born 13th September 1930.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Ivor is Winifred's only child,
0:25:48 > 0:25:53and Fran wants to try and line up a visit from a travelling heir hunter
0:25:53 > 0:25:56to sign him up as another heir.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Hello, Mr Birch?
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Good afternoon. I'm so sorry to trouble you.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06But Ivor needs some convincing that it's not a hoax call.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09No, no, no. It is a genuine matter.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15We are looking into an estate of somebody who has passed away recently,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19and we're trying to trace next of kin of that person.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24Now, I'm rather hoping that you are Ivor Birch,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28the son of Winifred Emily Birch, nee Cox.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32Fran arranges for someone to go and sign up Ivor.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34Hi, Bob.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38I'm afraid I've made you a six o'clock appointment in Amersham.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45On the paternal side of the tree, they've had a few false starts pinning down Gordon's father
0:26:45 > 0:26:48because he switched his name from Eric Francis
0:26:48 > 0:26:51to Francis Eric Stewart.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55This proves slightly tricky.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57It looks as though he may be an only child.
0:26:57 > 0:27:04Our feeling at the moment is that the grandfather is pretty old, 58 on the 1901 sensor.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06So he'd be a father at the age of 59.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09His wife is quite a bit younger.
0:27:09 > 0:27:15But still, I don't think there'll be any more children if the research we have is correct.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17So, everything is gearing on the mother's side.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19They've made real progress.
0:27:19 > 0:27:25But there's still the nagging thought that Gordon may have left a will, but with no way to check,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28Neil thinks it's worth taking a punt on their findings.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33I'm slightly more confident now that what we're doing is going to be fruitful.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37The family we've spoken to so far do not know of the deceased
0:27:37 > 0:27:42and they are distant enough for them not to know about this case.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45The inquiries through social services and through the coroner
0:27:45 > 0:27:48also indicate that they don't think there'll be a will,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51and they're confident that there aren't any known family.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53We've obviously proved them wrong now.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Satisfied they're working a valuable case,
0:27:57 > 0:28:02they really need to concentrate on the paternal branch of the family tree
0:28:02 > 0:28:07in order to make sure they've found all entitled relatives to Gordon's estate.
0:28:07 > 0:28:14The information they have found on Gordon's father, Eric Francis Henry Stewart, comes from the 1901 census
0:28:14 > 0:28:18and suggests he was the son of Bessie and Alexander Stewart,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20a photographic artist living in Fulham.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26Senior researcher Bob Barrett is at the register office
0:28:26 > 0:28:29and has collected a birth certificate for him.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Right, Eric Francis Henry Stewart,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36born 11th November, 1901.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Father, Alexander Henry Stewart.
0:28:39 > 0:28:40He was an artist.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43- Mother, Charlotte Ann Stewart.- OK.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46So our census might be wrong then.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51They were looking at the wrong Stewart family,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54which could have enormous consequences in terms of heirs.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58They not being the parents, he possibly now is not an only child,
0:28:58 > 0:29:03and we need to get back to the drawing board and start from scratch.
0:29:03 > 0:29:08So I'm going to get Noel onto it straight away.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10The search for Gordon's next of kin
0:29:10 > 0:29:13has all been relatively easy up until now.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16But if Gordon's father has siblings after all,
0:29:16 > 0:29:20there may be many more cousins on the paternal side of the family
0:29:20 > 0:29:21they must sign up as heirs.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25So they start a fresh search for Gordon's paternal grandparents' marriage.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30It's come up as Stuart with a "U".
0:29:30 > 0:29:31Oh, gosh!
0:29:31 > 0:29:37Noel's just found the marriage of the paternal grandparents of the deceased.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40We know it as S-T-E-W-A-R-T.
0:29:40 > 0:29:46But they seemed to marry as Stuart, S-T-U-A-R-T.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49So, we're now going to have two surnames to contend with.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51Two different variations.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56This means they have to go back over any previous finds and double check
0:29:56 > 0:30:01everything using the new spelling of Stuart. But that's not all.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04So, plain Alexander.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Oh, gosh!
0:30:07 > 0:30:10Oh, great(!) OK.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13Gordon's grandparents, Alexander and Charlotte,
0:30:13 > 0:30:18have dropped their middle names too, making their search even harder.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21This is not boding well.
0:30:22 > 0:30:27The only concrete information they have has come from Gordon's father's birth certificate.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31They know when and where Eric Francis Stewart was born
0:30:31 > 0:30:35and think they have Gordon grandparents', Alexander and Charlotte's, marriage.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45They check and re-check their birth and death records.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49They go back to the 1901 census.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Because they're chopping and changing the surname around, it's making it difficult.
0:30:53 > 0:31:00They start ordering certificates for all Alexander Stuarts dying in Fulham around the 1920s.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Thanks very much. Bye.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05But still they find nothing.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08I think a lot of our hunches were wrong.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13We're still desperately trying to find the 1901 census for Alexander and Charlotte.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15And we just can't find it.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18It's as if they disappeared just in 1901.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22We know where they were in 1898. We know where they were at the end of 1901.
0:31:22 > 0:31:27But the beginning of 1901, we don't know where they were. Um,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30so, until we find that, we're not going to get any further today.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36At the end of day two, they have signed six maternal heirs,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39all cousins to the deceased, Gordon Stewart.
0:31:39 > 0:31:40And with time on their side,
0:31:40 > 0:31:45they decide to leave their search for paternal heirs for now.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49In the weeks that follow, Gordon's paternal family tree becomes no clearer,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53but at his funeral, a little more about him is revealed.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56He's fondly remembered as a gentle man,
0:31:56 > 0:32:00highly appreciative of well-made things and very generous.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03However, along with the tributes,
0:32:03 > 0:32:07Fraser's also discover some startling news.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11Contrary to all their inquiries, Gordon HAD left a will.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15From our point of view, it looks like our journey's come to an end.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17It's one of the risks we take.
0:32:17 > 0:32:24This always was a risky case to have started, and this time, the gamble hasn't paid off for Fraser's.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29Although there is now no money left for any family members to inherit,
0:32:29 > 0:32:35the team at Fraser's did succeed in reviving some long-lost family ties,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39and, in the end, despite his chaotic final years, Gordon, unlike so many people,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43did the right thing - he'd taken the trouble to make a will,
0:32:43 > 0:32:49so the person he really wanted to benefit from his estate will now inherit.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52I think, obviously, the loss of his mother, as for anyone,
0:32:52 > 0:32:57particularly for a man on his own, was a significant event.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01I think then ill health and eventually having to give up work
0:33:01 > 0:33:04probably impacted his life.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09And certainly, the picture that was painted from the tribute was of someone who perhaps
0:33:09 > 0:33:14had recognised that he wasn't coping as well as he might have done
0:33:14 > 0:33:19but didn't know perhaps how quite to rectify that situation.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Several years ago, Mary, the Lady Teviot, was asked to track down
0:33:36 > 0:33:38relatives of Joan Mansfield,
0:33:38 > 0:33:43a British lady who had died in Canada in 1996.
0:33:43 > 0:33:48Mary located two heirs to Joan's £30,000 estate,
0:33:48 > 0:33:51her nephew and a niece, Barbara.
0:33:51 > 0:33:56She and her daughter, Anne, were delighted to finally receive news of long-lost aunt Joan
0:33:56 > 0:34:02but were left with no clues as to the reason she had suddenly emigrated to Canada.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08For whatever reason, Joan cut herself off completely,
0:34:08 > 0:34:13to the extent, of course, that it was the Canadian government that told my mother that she'd died.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16We didn't know that either.
0:34:16 > 0:34:24Although she'd found her heirs, Mary kept looking into Joan's case on behalf of Anne's late mother.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27She was greatly appreciative that somebody had bothered
0:34:27 > 0:34:30because she wanted to know about her aunt.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35As well as Anne's mother, there was another relative
0:34:35 > 0:34:39particularly interested in hearing that Mary was making inquiries about the Mansfield family.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43Rosemary Webster was not an heir,
0:34:43 > 0:34:48but through her grandfather, she is Joan's cousin once removed.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55Rosemary has inherited a detailed family tree
0:34:55 > 0:34:58and has become an amateur genealogist.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02She too wants to find out what happened to Joan.
0:35:02 > 0:35:09My aunt Gwen was really the one who was very interested and wrote down everything that I have on here.
0:35:09 > 0:35:15She knew all her cousins quite well because she grew up with a lot of them in India.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18So she wrote down everything that she remembered.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22So, really, I haven't had to do a huge amount of looking for things,
0:35:22 > 0:35:28but she spurred me on because there's a lot of questions here that I need to find out and ask.
0:35:30 > 0:35:37Like Joan, her cousin Rosemary had also grown up in India and kept lots of film and photos of life there.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43Through her research, Rosemary discovered that she
0:35:43 > 0:35:47and Joan's ancestors held significant posts in the British Empire.
0:35:49 > 0:35:56Great grandfather, Daniel Timothy Mills, became apothecary to the Viceroy,
0:35:56 > 0:35:59which was a big thing in India.
0:35:59 > 0:36:04They were all doctors in India, in the Army,
0:36:04 > 0:36:09so there must be some genetic link somewhere that has been passed down.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13Harry lived down in Madras, and my grandfather lived right up in the north,
0:36:13 > 0:36:19but they seemed to get together occasionally and meet up.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23And especially when they came back to England, they were all very close.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26Maybe it's because they didn't have English friends,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30because they'd all been abroad and they probably didn't know a lot of people.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33The fact that my grandfather came to live two streets away
0:36:33 > 0:36:39from Harry and Jane means that family must have meant quite a lot to them.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44Joan left India, aged 25, and lived in England with her parents,
0:36:44 > 0:36:47Harry and Jane, until her mother died in 1950.
0:36:47 > 0:36:52Joan must have been in her 30s, early 30s, when I first met her.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58She was ten years younger than her other sibling, so it must have been quite difficult for her
0:36:58 > 0:37:04because she was kind of left to look after her parents because everybody else had flown the nest.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06But I don't think she was unhappy doing that.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09She was obviously contented to be at home.
0:37:09 > 0:37:14But when her mother died, Joan made an apparently snap decision to go to Canada,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17taking her elderly father, Harry, with her.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20Perhaps another colonial adventure beckoned.
0:37:20 > 0:37:26I think by the time this all happened, the family was very scattered.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29They'd all gone to all four corners of the Earth.
0:37:29 > 0:37:34She, basically, probably didn't have any family, which is why she went to Canada.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40Joan's great-niece, Anne, was only young, but remembers what an impact it had.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42She left with little notice.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44She put the house on the market.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47She sold it fairly quickly and left.
0:37:47 > 0:37:53Much later on, I remember my grandmother, her sister, saying how awful it was that
0:37:53 > 0:37:57she'd never heard a word from her sister since she went to Canada.
0:37:57 > 0:38:04She didn't even know when her father died because Joan completely cut off all communication with everybody.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11But today, Mary is on her way to meet Rosemary and Anne.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16And she has exciting new information. She's been in contact with a genealogist in Canada
0:38:16 > 0:38:20who's managed to find out all about Joan's life across the pond.
0:38:20 > 0:38:21Interestingly enough,
0:38:21 > 0:38:26the genealogist in Calgary found she'd become a commercial producer
0:38:26 > 0:38:34and a sales service writer for a year with the first television station in Calgary.
0:38:34 > 0:38:39And after that, she went to work at the Foothills hospital as a registrar,
0:38:39 > 0:38:42where she remained until she retired.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45It's funny that she gravitated towards medicine again.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47It was Foothills School of Nursing.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51If it's the School of Nursing, perhaps she was in a teaching position.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56I'm surprised to find that her father actually went to Canada.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58He was definitely there in 1957.
0:38:58 > 0:39:04Why would an 80-something gentleman live in a different country, where he didn't know anybody
0:39:04 > 0:39:06and his daughter was miles away?
0:39:06 > 0:39:09Well, his daughter, that was the most important thing.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13After all, I think you have to remember he'd lost his wife,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17he'd been in India all his life, and he was in post-war Britain,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20which wasn't very jolly, to say the least.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24So, probably, he decided he would have a better life in Canada
0:39:24 > 0:39:31than staying in England, with a busy lady with grandchildren and a husband to look after.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34Thank you very much for finding this. It's wonderful.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36But that's not all.
0:39:36 > 0:39:41Via a webcam, the Canadian genealogist has been able to put them directly in touch
0:39:41 > 0:39:45with a close friend and neighbour of Joan's in Canada, Lauren Rendell,
0:39:45 > 0:39:52finally someone who can answer all their questions and solve so much of the mystery of Joan's life.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54How did you know Joan?
0:39:54 > 0:39:56Well, I knew Joan in the last part of her life.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00I met her when she was about 71, and we were neighbours.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03I always credit Joan with getting me through a nursing degree.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07She used to make sure my papers were in good order.
0:40:07 > 0:40:13My oldest son is 36 now and I was asking him what he remembered most about Joan.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17He said he remembered all the tales she had about the war,
0:40:17 > 0:40:22and she was in the Civil Defence Corps, I believe,
0:40:22 > 0:40:27and put out fires in London when they had the Blitz,
0:40:27 > 0:40:32and so she would tell him tales about the war years and her experience in London.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36We often wondered whether she talked about her family at all.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40Did she talk about her brothers or her sister?
0:40:40 > 0:40:44She sort of said that she didn't have any contact with them.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48Unfortunately, she had dementia for a few years before she died.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53By the time I realised that she didn't have a will, it was too late to, sort of,
0:40:53 > 0:41:00ask her about family, like, she wouldn't recall, and therefore the Public Trustee took over.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03They said that they did find family.
0:41:03 > 0:41:11- They did. They found my mother, Barbara, who was Joan's niece, and Joan's nephew, Billy.- Right.
0:41:11 > 0:41:16With the money, my mother built the conservatory that we're sitting in here in Dorset.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19So Joan is still remembered.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21Still remembered in both families.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25- Yes, yes.- Well, she would have been very pleased with that.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29- Thank you so much again, Lauren, it's been lovely talking to you. - Thank you very much.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31We'll be in touch with you.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Thank you, and you have a lovely day. Bye-bye.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37- Bye.- Bye-bye.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41For Anne and Rosemary, this connection has been so important.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46To have spoken to someone who knew Joan so well has finally brought her a little closer.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49I feel she's come back into the fold of the family
0:41:49 > 0:41:51because we know more about her.
0:41:51 > 0:41:56She's not just Joan, you know, a distant relative.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58It's almost as if we know her.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00It's been really good.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04- She's once again part of us, isn't she?- Yes.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07That's a good way to put it, yes.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11She's come back to us, having left.
0:42:11 > 0:42:12Yes.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18- The best crystal jug, of course! - Of course!
0:42:18 > 0:42:23MARY: 'It was exciting for me to meet them both,'
0:42:23 > 0:42:27and it's always nice to feel you've done a little bit of good somehow!
0:42:27 > 0:42:30If it's in the course of work, it doesn't really matter.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32It's just a very pleasant, happy outcome.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36I'll put the kettle on, you load the dishwasher.
0:42:36 > 0:42:43Mary's efforts have given Anne and Rosemary some clues as to why Joan left post-war Britain
0:42:43 > 0:42:47and brought a missing family member back into the fold.
0:42:52 > 0:42:59If you would like advice about building a family tree or making a will, go to bbc.co.uk.
0:43:12 > 0:43:16Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:43:16 > 0:43:19E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk