0:00:03 > 0:00:07Heir hunters track down the families of people who have died without a will.
0:00:07 > 0:00:14They hand over thousands of pounds to long-lost relatives who had no idea they were in line for windfall.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17Could they be knocking at your door?
0:00:32 > 0:00:35On today's programme...
0:00:35 > 0:00:39The team try to find heirs for a woman who died penniless in a domestic fire,
0:00:39 > 0:00:45and discover a tale of secrets, burlesque and resistance fighting.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Sometimes, it was the most... improbable people, really,
0:00:50 > 0:00:52that became secret agents.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56And the heir hunters encounter a case of multiple marriages and divorces
0:00:56 > 0:01:00that separated a family for two decades.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03I knew straight away it was my father.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05He knew straight away it was me.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08We introduced ourselves, talked like total strangers.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12And we'll have details of some of the hundreds of unclaimed estates.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Could you be in line for a windfall?
0:01:16 > 0:01:20More than two-thirds of people die without leaving a will.
0:01:20 > 0:01:25If they have no obvious relatives, their money goes to the Government,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29who, last year, made a staggering £18 million from unclaimed estates.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31That's where the heir hunters step in.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35What we couldn't find was a marriage for your parents.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38There are more than 30 heir hunting companies who,
0:01:38 > 0:01:43for a share of the estate, make it their business to track down the rightful kin.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Last year, they claimed back £6.5 million for unsuspecting heirs,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50who would otherwise have gone empty-handed.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53You can see the smile on the beneficiary's face as they know
0:01:53 > 0:01:59they're going to receive tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06It's 7.00am at Fraser and Fraser, one of London's largest heir hunting companies.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10The team's early start is to make sure they don't waste any time
0:02:10 > 0:02:15looking over the Government's newly published list of people who have died without a will.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19They have already earmarked a case to research from the names on it.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26The case we're looking at is William John Toms.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29The information we have so far is that he died in Leighton Buzzard
0:02:29 > 0:02:32but I haven't been able to pin down the address.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37William Toms died in 2008, aged 77.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41His last residence was a Swiss Cottage nursing home
0:02:41 > 0:02:44in Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire.
0:02:47 > 0:02:53Violet is the deputy manager and looked after him before he died.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56We do have quite nice memories.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00He used to be a very happy gentleman.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03He was quite a charmer, I would say.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06He looked, a very nice-looking guy.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12Always having a smile on his face, with a good sense of humour.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17Before he retired, William used to be a bingo hall manager.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21But his possessions point to an interest he nurtured in his spare time.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24He had ornaments.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29I presume he liked birds during his early years of life
0:03:29 > 0:03:34because there were so many ornaments of birds in his bedroom.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39No-one knows how much money William left behind after his death.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41As he died without a will,
0:03:41 > 0:03:46his entire estate will go to the Treasury unless heirs can be found.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53Heir hunters work on commission so they need to ensure their costs will be covered by the estate.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57But sometimes, they work cases before they know how much they're worth,
0:03:57 > 0:04:02just in case they turn out to be valuable,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05which is exactly what they're doing with William's.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10In my past experience, I've often found that the deceased has
0:04:10 > 0:04:13lived a life where the neighbours have fed and clothed them,
0:04:13 > 0:04:18then they've died and they've found they've left a considerable amount of money.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22It's no indication to lifestyle as to what wealth you've got.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27All the team knows about William's lifestyle is that he was in a care home.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31So the researchers are cracking on in the hope of a surprise windfall.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35The first stage in finding heirs is for the team to get the birth,
0:04:35 > 0:04:40death and marriage records for the person who has died.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44They use this information to start building up a family tree, layer by layer,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48which could lead them to siblings, uncles, aunts or cousins,
0:04:48 > 0:04:50any of whom could inherit.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55Early research has already found a potential close relative.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58We're running with a birth we think is correct.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03With this speculative work, this would make the deceased have a brother called Bernard.
0:05:03 > 0:05:11We're just phoning up, now, neighbours to see if this Bernard, the brother, is still alive.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13But it's very speculative at the moment.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Case manager Tony Pledger
0:05:16 > 0:05:19has got through to an ex-neighbour of William's brother.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22We're looking into a family by the name of Toms
0:05:22 > 0:05:25and the Bernard Toms that used to live up the road from you,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29we think might be a relative. What did they bang him up for, then?
0:05:31 > 0:05:32Oh, blimey. Right, OK.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38That doesn't mean he's not the bloke we're looking for but thanks ever so much indeed. Bye.
0:05:38 > 0:05:44Old Bernard Toms is in his 70s. The reason he's not there is because he's in prison.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Bernard being in prison is an unusual turn of events.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51However, in most cases, including William's,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55it doesn't make any difference to the laws of inheritance.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59The only way you can stop inheriting as a blood next-of-kin
0:05:59 > 0:06:03is if you actually murder the victim, murder the deceased.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06That cuts off your entitlement.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09Just being in prison doesn't cut off your entitlement.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14So it makes no difference in this case at all.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16But although Bernard is close kin,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19the team has made another discovery
0:06:19 > 0:06:21that may lead them to even closer family.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26I just identified where the deceased married.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Totally out of area so it was very difficult to locate.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33It's actually in Brent in north-west London.
0:06:33 > 0:06:40William married Winifred May in 1975 but she died before him.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43However, if there were sons or daughters from the marriage,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46they would inherit rather than William's brother.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48David has just spoken to the care home
0:06:48 > 0:06:51to see if they knew of any children.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54What was very helpful from the nursing home - the gentleman
0:06:54 > 0:06:58had a daughter called Pamela but they have no contact with him.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03It was under the Court of Protection up until the time of his death.
0:07:03 > 0:07:10So now, what we're trying to do is to locate his daughter, Pamela.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13If William's finances were under
0:07:13 > 0:07:18the Court of Protection, it would mean that they were being handled by the state.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22This normally happens when a person cannot look after themselves or has no family.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Why would this be the case if William had a daughter?
0:07:26 > 0:07:28Perhaps they were estranged.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30The team will need to unravel the mystery
0:07:30 > 0:07:34so they're going back to the marriage records for Winifred and William
0:07:34 > 0:07:36to see if this will give them any clues.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40So she's 45 then when she gets married.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44- She's not going to have a first kid, is she?- It's possible, isn't it?
0:07:44 > 0:07:48I bet you that's either his second marriage...
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Or she's adopted or she's from her first marriage.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55How do they know at the nursing home then, that her name is Pamela Toms?
0:07:55 > 0:07:59Because she's from his first marriage and that's his second marriage.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03That's a better shout than being a child from her because it would be Pamela...
0:08:03 > 0:08:05There's no Winifred M Slade.
0:08:05 > 0:08:12William married Winifred in 1975 when he was 44 and she was 46.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18So the team think that Pamela was born from a previous marriage.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24We need to try and locate the birth of a Pamela Toms.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27She's a child of the deceased.
0:08:27 > 0:08:33We think it's of the first marriage so we don't know who he married firstly...
0:08:33 > 0:08:38Second marriages are an increasingly common feature of heir hunting
0:08:38 > 0:08:42but make genealogy more complicated because they can result in
0:08:42 > 0:08:45name changes and children from different parents.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Careful research is also required to double-check divorce records.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52A spouse inherits before anyone else.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55A divorced spouse does not inherit at all.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58But it's only more recent cases that tend to feature second or
0:08:58 > 0:09:05third marriages because in the first half of the 20th century, divorce was much less common.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07In the 1950s, the process of getting a divorce
0:09:07 > 0:09:11was much more difficult than it is today.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16The parties would have to go to court before a judge
0:09:16 > 0:09:20and only certain judges were allowed to grant divorces.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24In addition, because divorce law was fault-based,
0:09:24 > 0:09:32those faults actually had to be proved to the satisfaction of the court.
0:09:32 > 0:09:39In the 1970s, this changed and something called the special procedure was introduced.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43This meant you could get a divorce without going near a court.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47You simply filled in the forms, sent them to the court.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51The court would scrutinise them and would grant the decree
0:09:51 > 0:09:54without the parties ever having to attend the divorce.
0:09:54 > 0:10:00This was extended to all undefended divorces with the result that today,
0:10:00 > 0:10:07over 99% of divorces are dealt with in this very simple, almost administrative way.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13So, William's second marriage to Winifred in the '70s
0:10:13 > 0:10:16was unsurprising in the context of divorce trends.
0:10:16 > 0:10:22Now the heir hunters need to find out what they can about William's previous marital history.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27Tony is putting in another call to William's care home to ask some more questions.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32I know that Mr Toms was a widower when he died.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37I think his wife had died quite a few years ago but I was thinking he might have been married twice.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39I don't know how much you know...
0:10:39 > 0:10:43Ah, the stepdaughter, was she called Pamela?
0:10:44 > 0:10:49Would you possibly be able to give me a phone number for her so I could contact her?
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Clearly, she would know more about Mr Toms' family than most people would.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57It's not entirely good news for Tony.
0:10:57 > 0:11:03Pamela was a daughter from the first marriage but not William's.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07His second wife was also married before and had three daughters,
0:11:07 > 0:11:14Pamela, Cary and Rona, so they're not blood relatives and therefore, not entitled.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18There's some more bad news about the estate.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22She also thought that it might not be very substantial.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25She thought maybe less than £20,000. So we'll see how we go.
0:11:26 > 0:11:32William's estate is potentially much smaller than the heir hunters had hoped
0:11:32 > 0:11:35so the sooner they can find heirs for it, the better.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38As it may not be worth much, other cases will take priority
0:11:38 > 0:11:41and Tony will have fewer resources to draw on.
0:11:43 > 0:11:49But with a brother, at least two wives, three stepdaughters and potential children,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Tony's small team have got their work cut out
0:11:52 > 0:11:56and there may be some difficult phone calls ahead.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00The worst thing would be to tell someone their father's dead and it's the wrong person.
0:12:00 > 0:12:06Unfortunately for the heir hunters, the William Toms case is far from being solved.
0:12:12 > 0:12:18There are several large heir hunting companies in London but few that have been going as long as Hooper's.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Founded in 1923 by Alfred Hooper,
0:12:22 > 0:12:27the company has nearly 90 years experience in finding heirs for tough cases.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29So, that's that solved.
0:12:29 > 0:12:35But while experience and resources can give a company the edge, a dogged determination to get
0:12:35 > 0:12:38to the bottom of a case can also go a long way,
0:12:38 > 0:12:43as senior case manager Kevin Edmondson found out with the estate of Mary Lorraine.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51This was a rather unusual case.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56This lady, Mary Lorraine, died in a fire in a flat in Brighton.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01This was in 1973 and it's rather unusual for us to be dealing with
0:13:01 > 0:13:05cases of people who died in 1973, rather than in more recent times.
0:13:07 > 0:13:15Mary Lorraine died tragically in her Brighton flat 30 years before her case was advertised.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19She was just 59 when a fire swept through her home.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Mary was a virtual recluse, living in poverty.
0:13:22 > 0:13:29The fire broke out just hours before she was due to be evicted for owing £55 on her rent.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33She was obviously in dire financial straits.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37So it was a great surprise to find, when the case was advertised by
0:13:37 > 0:13:41the Treasury Solicitor, that her estate was valued at over £100,000.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Years after Mary's death, it was discovered that
0:13:44 > 0:13:49there were £2,600 worth of government bonds in her name.
0:13:49 > 0:13:56Because the case wasn't advertised for another 30 years, the bonds matured to a value of over £100,000.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00Even at the original value, the money would have lifted Mary out of poverty,
0:14:00 > 0:14:06but as it was, there was a possibility that even her heirs might not benefit from it.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11The rule in cases advertised by the Treasury Solicitor is that you have
0:14:11 > 0:14:16up to 30 years after the date of death of someone who has died,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19to claim their state.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24The unusual thing about this one was that they advertised the case
0:14:24 > 0:14:28almost 30 years to the day after this lady died.
0:14:28 > 0:14:35The researchers had no idea what had taken so long for the case to come to light.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39But as it was valuable, they hoped to the Treasury would allow some extra time to solve it.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44As Mary had died so long ago, they couldn't rely on talking to neighbours
0:14:44 > 0:14:50or people that had met her so they had to use other sources to get information about Mary's life.
0:14:50 > 0:14:56We found from a newspaper report that was published at the time of her death, that it was believed
0:14:56 > 0:15:02she had been involved in the Resistance in Belgium and Holland during the Second World War.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07Mary was thought to be a recruit of the Special Operations Executive,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09or SOE, which was set up in 1940
0:15:09 > 0:15:13while the Second World War waged through Europe.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17The brainchild of Winston Churchill, SOE was a resistance movement
0:15:17 > 0:15:22which worked in conjunction with MI5 and MI6.
0:15:22 > 0:15:28Unlike them, however, it also took on and trained people with no intelligence experience.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32One of the reasons that women were recruited was because
0:15:32 > 0:15:36in occupied Europe, young men were a scarcity.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38A woman was much less conspicuous.
0:15:38 > 0:15:45A young man agent would automatically have had perhaps excited the unwarranted interest of the Gestapo
0:15:45 > 0:15:49whereas a young woman wouldn't have had the same effect.
0:15:51 > 0:15:57The walks of life and the skills that SOE agents had were very varied
0:15:57 > 0:16:00but basically, it had to be a familiarity with the country
0:16:00 > 0:16:05which one was going to operate in, its customs and obviously, its language.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11Sometimes it was the most improbable people, really, that became secret agents.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Special Ops recruits would have had full weapons training
0:16:14 > 0:16:18although Mary's contribution may not have involved combat.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23Women SOE agents that were dropped into occupied Europe -
0:16:23 > 0:16:30their role was mainly that of couriers or radio operators, rather than actually engaging
0:16:30 > 0:16:34in military operations, though in some cases, that did happen.
0:16:34 > 0:16:40Whatever role Mary played, she would have been likely to feel the impact of the war for the rest of her life.
0:16:40 > 0:16:46It's said that a lot of people that work for SOE in the special forces
0:16:46 > 0:16:51generally found it very difficult to return to civilian life.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56If you've been trained almost to act as a criminal,
0:16:56 > 0:17:01it's very, very difficult to return to an ordinary life.
0:17:03 > 0:17:09The researchers were unable to find a record of Mary's precise activities during the conflict
0:17:09 > 0:17:15so instead, they focused on finding any other information that could lead to her near relatives.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22The article which appeared in the paper also said that she was reputed
0:17:22 > 0:17:26to be the daughter of Mabel Love,
0:17:26 > 0:17:33who was a very well-known music hall actress in the Edwardian and late Victorian times.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37This was good news for the researchers.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Finding Mary's mother meant they would potentially
0:17:40 > 0:17:43be able to check for siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48Like her daughter, Mary, it seemed that Mabel Love had had an interesting life.
0:17:52 > 0:17:58Mabel Love was a popular young actress on the London stage at the end of the 19th century.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01She was known for appearing in burlesque productions
0:18:01 > 0:18:04which were parodies of classical plays or operas.
0:18:04 > 0:18:11Mabel Love started her career at 12 in a version of Lewis Carroll's
0:18:11 > 0:18:15Alice-in-Wonderland, which was obviously a big success
0:18:15 > 0:18:20and she became known as a burlesque actress.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23As a woman, I think, certainly actresses earned more
0:18:23 > 0:18:28than they might have done in other occupations that were open to them.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33One photographer, Frank Foulsham, had the idea of making postcards of actresses.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37Postcards were becoming popular and he realised that you could sell
0:18:37 > 0:18:39a lot of lovely young actresses.
0:18:39 > 0:18:45An actress could sell the rights to her appearance
0:18:45 > 0:18:48for a year for a certain sum of money.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52Somebody like Mabel Love, who was obviously very beautiful,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56was known by writers of the period as the pretty girl of the postcard.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00One year's postcard sales would have earned Mary's mother
0:19:00 > 0:19:03the equivalent of £78,000 in today's money.
0:19:04 > 0:19:11But for a beautiful actress, there were also other means of ensuring a comfortable lifestyle.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16There was a certain glamour obviously about the stage and about actresses.
0:19:16 > 0:19:23Some of them were certainly pursued by people who were very wealthy or very grand and very aristocratic.
0:19:23 > 0:19:29But many of these girls certainly had protectors, rich men
0:19:29 > 0:19:34who housed them, looked after them, paid for their expenses
0:19:34 > 0:19:38and who would have given them the opportunity to live
0:19:38 > 0:19:42in a much grander style than they ever would have done
0:19:42 > 0:19:44in their lives before that happened.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48There were great opportunities for actresses in those days.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52But not all of them took them, of course, but some obviously did
0:19:52 > 0:19:55and Mabel seems to have been amongst them.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00Mabel enjoyed 30 successful years in the business so Mary would have
0:20:00 > 0:20:04had a comfortable childhood, thanks to her mother's wealth.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08In Mabel's will, she arranged for money to be set aside for her daughter
0:20:08 > 0:20:12in the form of government bonds to be administered by her sister.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Perhaps Mabel's sister died before she could tell Mary about them.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Perhaps she thought she was aware of them.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23No-one knows why Mary didn't gain access to her money
0:20:23 > 0:20:27but tragically, the bonds lay untouched and she died in poverty.
0:20:33 > 0:20:40The researchers were pleased to trace Mary's mother but there was an even more useful discovery to come.
0:20:40 > 0:20:45We had a big breakthrough when we finally discovered that Mary had married,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48not only once, but twice.
0:20:48 > 0:20:55Firstly at the age of 21 in Cairo in Egypt to a 53 year-old widower.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58It was a great finding for Kevin.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03They traced Mary to Cairo where she married Richard Emrys Thomas at the age of 21.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09It's unclear what she was doing there
0:21:09 > 0:21:13but neither husband nor life in Cairo would be permanent fixtures.
0:21:15 > 0:21:22We then discovered that she had married for a second time in 1948 in Montreal in Canada.
0:21:22 > 0:21:29Finding two marriages was great news for the heir hunters as it meant they could then look for children
0:21:29 > 0:21:33who, after the spouse, are next in line to inherit.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38The really big breakthrough was that we discovered she had a child by her first marriage.
0:21:38 > 0:21:44A son called Richard David Thomas who was born in 1936 in Cairo.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48The mystery of Mary Lorraine was intensifying.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52Now it seemed she had a son but why was there no will?
0:21:52 > 0:21:58Where was he? With the estate advertised so long after her death, would he even inherit?
0:22:01 > 0:22:05With £100,000 in danger of going to the Treasury, finding heirs
0:22:05 > 0:22:09for Mary Lorraine would be a race against time for the heir hunters.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21For every case that is solved, there are still thousands that remain a mystery.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29Currently, over 3,000 names drawn from across the country are on the Treasury's unsolved case list.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35Their assets will be kept for up to 30 years
0:22:35 > 0:22:40in the hope that eventually, somebody will remember and come forward to claim their inheritance.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46With estates valued at anything from £5,000 to millions of pounds,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49the rightful heirs are out there somewhere.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57Clara Brooks of Nottingham died in July 2006.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Does her name ring any bells?
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Could you be the one person entitled to her estate?
0:23:06 > 0:23:12Kathleen Pradzynski died in Paddington, London, in October 2005.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15The heir hunters have run out of leads.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Do you know anything about her? Maybe she's your long-lost aunt or cousin.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25Could your help get the heirs of Clara Brooks and Kathleen Pradzynski
0:23:25 > 0:23:28and thousands of cases just like these?
0:23:28 > 0:23:30Is there a fortune out there waiting for you?
0:23:36 > 0:23:41William Toms died in 2008 in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46Tony and Gareth are the only ones working on the case because the care home where he lived
0:23:46 > 0:23:49have estimated that his estate is relatively small.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53It might not be very substantial.
0:23:53 > 0:23:54It might be less than £20,000.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58So, while the rest of the office are busy on other cases,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Tony is trying to figure out William's family set-up.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06He was married twice and had three stepchildren from his second marriage.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09Tony has tracked down one of them, Rona.
0:24:09 > 0:24:17So we know he was born in Plymouth in 1930 and I think he married Winifred Slade in 1975.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21My assumption would be that Winifred would have been your mum.
0:24:21 > 0:24:27- Oh, OK...- Rona could be the key to the team finding heirs.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Do you think he might have had children from his first marriage?
0:24:32 > 0:24:34Oh, he had a son?
0:24:38 > 0:24:42According to the stepdaughter, he had a son, Keith,
0:24:42 > 0:24:43from his first marriage,
0:24:43 > 0:24:50from whom he got divorced. So we'll now have to go back and redo everything again.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54Stepchildren are not entitled to inherit
0:24:54 > 0:25:01because they are not blood relatives but if the team can trace William's son, they may have found their heir.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03We've had a bit of a change of plan.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07Whereas we were looking for Pamela Toms,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10we are now looking for the son of the deceased, called Keith.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13So Pamela is in fact Keith?
0:25:13 > 0:25:17No, Pamela is Rona's sister.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19But he has a son, Keith?
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Yes and he got divorced from his first wife.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25She doesn't know who the first wife was.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30The team waste no time in tracking down William's first marriage details.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35It seems he married a Joan Evans in 1956 and had a son, Keith.
0:25:38 > 0:25:45But the marriage was doomed to failure and William divorced Joan for adultery in 1964.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51Now the office have these dates, they can use them to trace William's son and probable heir, Keith Toms.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57We've been trying to confirm whether Keith is the son of William and I think I've done it.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02We knew that William, or we had hoped William was married to an Evans
0:26:02 > 0:26:07but now it looks like her maiden name was Berry.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10She was born as a Berry and was married three times.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12It's looking good at the moment.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16I'm just going to go and give Tony this news and maybe we'll go and see Keith.
0:26:16 > 0:26:23It seems that William and his wives kept the divorce courts busy.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27His first wife, Joan, was married three times.
0:26:27 > 0:26:28William was her second husband.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33After they divorced, both Joan and William subsequently remarried.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40It's now 3pm.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44Trying to untangle William's marital history has meant that Tony
0:26:44 > 0:26:47and his team are taking longer to complete the case than hoped.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51You've got multiple marriages, loads of in-laws, etcetera,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55and the whole thing gets little bit complicated to understand anyway.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59The multiple marriages mean that Tony could always have
0:26:59 > 0:27:03missed someone and double checking whether a child is related by blood or marriage
0:27:03 > 0:27:08is key because it makes all the difference to whether you can inherit.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13In addition to this, the heir hunters have to take extra care before speaking to close kin.
0:27:13 > 0:27:19Until you find out the history of the family, you can never tell how someone is going to take the news.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23We have to be very careful that the information we're telling them is correct.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25The worst thing we could do is tell them,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28we think your father's dead, and we've got the wrong person.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34Ordinarily, the team would deploy a travelling researcher to go out
0:27:34 > 0:27:39and meet any heirs, especially in the case of very close relatives.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44- Hi Christine, Paul Matthews, Fraser and Fraser, a bit unexpected?- Yes!
0:27:44 > 0:27:48A face-to-face approach is the preferred option for speed and tact
0:27:48 > 0:27:51but it's a costly way of doing things.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00But as William's estate is so small, the heir hunters can't afford the expense of sending someone
0:28:00 > 0:28:06in person to meet his son, so Tony is going to have to break the news of William's death in a phone call.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11I'm hoping that you will be able to help and that you are the chap we're looking for.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14Would your mother have been Joan?
0:28:14 > 0:28:20She was born as Berry, I think but I think she then married a Mr Evans,
0:28:20 > 0:28:25then she married a Mr Toms and then she probably then married a Mr Manning.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28Keith is able to confirm a lot of the team's work
0:28:28 > 0:28:31but as his parents divorced when he was just three,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34he knows very little about his father
0:28:34 > 0:28:38which may help lessen the impact of what Tony is about to say.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42I appreciate that, that the Toms family, you don't know a great deal about.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47When they died, they don't appear to have left a valued will.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51I have to tell you that that person would have been your dad,
0:28:51 > 0:28:52William Toms.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Now, he, it would appear, after he got divorced from your mum,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01married again and from her first marriage, there were three children.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05I've spoken to some of those today
0:29:05 > 0:29:13and they then told me vaguely that there was you, Keith, because they vaguely remember that.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17Having run through Keith Toms' mother and father's various marriages,
0:29:17 > 0:29:22Tony is confident that Keith is the right heir to William's estate.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26And despite the complexities in researching the case,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30the estate will ultimately be passed down simply from father to son.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35We didn't expect to find children of the deceased when we first started.
0:29:35 > 0:29:42Certainly, the people in the care home had no knowledge at all of these children or of his earlier marriage.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47They only knew about his second marriage, they knew nothing about his first marriage.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50So, hopefully at the end of the day,
0:29:50 > 0:29:55it will prove beneficial both to the heirs and to us.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00This case has been a lot harder to work than some of the big cousin cases we work,
0:30:00 > 0:30:04where we break on to them very easily. This has been one that has taken a while
0:30:04 > 0:30:07to pin down the addresses, to track people down,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11to confirm we have the right names and families.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13Quite hard work even if it is quite close relatives.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16I think it will be one we remember.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20I don't think it's one that will actually make the firm any money.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26Although it doesn't seem surprising for a father's estate to go to his son,
0:30:26 > 0:30:31Keith Toms, or David as he is known, was certainly not expecting it.
0:30:31 > 0:30:38I must be honest, it was a complete shock because my father, I haven't spoken to for a number of years.
0:30:38 > 0:30:43I lost contact about 25 years ago. I didn't know who, what, where or when.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46William divorced David's mother for adultery
0:30:46 > 0:30:49and left the home when David was just three years old.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Joan brought up her son as a single mum.
0:30:53 > 0:30:59We were constantly moving from one place to another, on trains, moving from one city to another.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04I think we lived, from conversations with my mother before she died,
0:31:04 > 0:31:10we've lived in places such as Plymouth, Portsmouth, Wrexham, Coventry, all over the place.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14Pretty much a nomadic sort of lifestyle.
0:31:14 > 0:31:19Then she met another chap, Ron Manning, who brought us up from
0:31:19 > 0:31:22approximately the age of 9 or 10 years old,
0:31:22 > 0:31:26all through adulthood. Obviously, he was regarded as my father.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31With David constantly on the move as a child,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35it may have been hard for William to stay in touch with his son
0:31:35 > 0:31:40and it wasn't until David was in his early twenties that he heard from his father again.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46William saw his son in a national newspaper and was inspired to get in touch.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50Their first meeting was in a cafe near where David lived.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54I knew straight away it was my father.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58He knew straight away it was me. We both made a beeline for each other
0:31:58 > 0:32:05and we just sat down, introduced ourselves and talked like total strangers.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08I was unsure at that time whether we were going to meet again.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11I was of the opinion that, fine, we've met.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16Was he then going to lose interest in me, was there going to be an interest carrying on,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19was I going to be interested in keeping in touch with him?
0:32:19 > 0:32:25As it happened, or as it transpired, we did stay in touch, all but briefly
0:32:25 > 0:32:28and then lost contact again at a later date.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35It wasn't until his death that I actually knew where he was
0:32:35 > 0:32:38or what he'd been doing for the the second gap.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41So there was no real emotion with regards to it
0:32:41 > 0:32:45because I couldn't find emotions, to be honest,
0:32:45 > 0:32:49because he was to all intents and purposes, a stranger to me.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57Inheriting his father's estate has brought his fleeting relationship to a close.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01But it is not the money that will have a lasting impression on David.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Our family has been pretty fragmented
0:33:05 > 0:33:12and I've made it a concerted effort to stay with my children, make sure that we are a complete unit,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16a complete family and once the family do segment,
0:33:16 > 0:33:19which they're bound to do as they grow older,
0:33:19 > 0:33:23they get married, they move away from home,
0:33:23 > 0:33:25I'd like to think that we've done enough
0:33:25 > 0:33:26for the family to stay in touch.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29I'm hoping, fingers crossed,
0:33:29 > 0:33:36that it will be completely different from how my father and myself were.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51Mary Lorraine died in 1973, aged 59.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55She left over £100,000 in government bonds which had been set up for her
0:33:55 > 0:33:58by her burlesque actress mother, Mabel Love.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04But as Mary had died 30 years before her case came to light,
0:34:04 > 0:34:11the researchers had to work fast to find heirs in case the Treasury refused to accept the claim.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14All the time we were working on this case,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16we knew there was a distinct possibility
0:34:16 > 0:34:21that even if we found the heirs, in the end, they wouldn't be any benefit to the heirs or ourselves.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25The heir hunters had a breakthrough when they discovered
0:34:25 > 0:34:28that Mary had been married twice and had had a son
0:34:28 > 0:34:32by her first marriage so they put all their efforts into tracing him.
0:34:35 > 0:34:40They discovered that Richard Thomas was born in 1936 in Cairo,
0:34:40 > 0:34:47a year after Mary was married but he had severe learning difficulties and was put into care at an early age.
0:34:49 > 0:34:54In the late seventies, Richard was moved to The Old Rectory care home in Somerset
0:34:54 > 0:34:58which has since closed and sold for redevelopment.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00Elaine Cridland worked there for 26 years
0:35:00 > 0:35:03and was Richard's key care worker.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Richard loved life, he lived life to the full.
0:35:07 > 0:35:13He was placed with us and he was there for 24 years and he was just like part of the family.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17He had a good rapport with all the other residents and the staff.
0:35:17 > 0:35:18He just enjoyed life there.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22Elaine and her sister, Linda, who also worked at the home,
0:35:22 > 0:35:27have kept hundreds of photos from their time there, including many of Richard.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31That's a nice one, isn't it?
0:35:31 > 0:35:35That's when me and Paul took him down to Cornwall and he always liked
0:35:35 > 0:35:41to sit at the front of the minibus and Paul got him some sunglasses.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43That's a nice one.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45I'm not sure if that's Torquay
0:35:45 > 0:35:48or the one that we went to Cornwall as well.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50This one's really old, I think it's Christmas.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53That's got to be back in the eighties.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56Every Christmas, he always wanted a jumper.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58I remember that. The trouble with Richard,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01he opened his presents and then quickly took them upstairs
0:36:01 > 0:36:04because he didn't want anybody else to have them!
0:36:05 > 0:36:07It was the care home workers and residents
0:36:07 > 0:36:11who became Richard's family for the time they were there.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16Now as the building undergoes a complete overhaul, the sisters have come back for one last visit.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22In all the years we've worked here, we've never known Richard
0:36:22 > 0:36:25to have any contact with any of the family, have we?
0:36:25 > 0:36:29No, he never even talked about anybody, did he?
0:36:29 > 0:36:31No, he was quite a private person.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34We've been in care for 26 years and we've never
0:36:34 > 0:36:37known any family or relatives to come and visit him, have we?
0:36:37 > 0:36:39No, I think it's quite sad.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41Very sad.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45Although he may not have had a lot of contact with his mother,
0:36:45 > 0:36:51Richard was her sole heir but unfortunately, as the heir hunters were about to find out,
0:36:51 > 0:36:55he wouldn't be able to inherit her £100,000 estate.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59Sadly, we discovered that he had died a few years previously.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04At the time of his death, nobody knew who his next of kin or relations were.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08Richard died in 2001, aged 64. Without a living heir,
0:37:08 > 0:37:14there is now a real possibility that Mary's money would go to the Treasury.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19But because there was a 30-year gap between Mary dying and her estate
0:37:19 > 0:37:23being advertised, the heir hunters took a gamble and planned to argue
0:37:23 > 0:37:28that it would have passed to Richard in that time and that it should now pass on to his family.
0:37:30 > 0:37:35Mary's son had died without leaving a will so really, the search began
0:37:35 > 0:37:39all over again to find out who his next of kin were.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47If Richard had inherited Mary's estate, the search for possible
0:37:47 > 0:37:50heirs could include his father's side of the family
0:37:50 > 0:37:52who were not blood related to his mother.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57This would include aunts, uncles and cousins.
0:37:57 > 0:38:02We did know that his father had been previously married and so the first step was
0:38:02 > 0:38:08to find a record of that marriage and to discover whether there had been any children from that marriage.
0:38:08 > 0:38:14We eventually established there weren't, so the next stage again was then that we had to find out about
0:38:14 > 0:38:18Richard's father's brothers and sisters.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21If Richard's father had brothers and sisters,
0:38:21 > 0:38:24this could lead to cousins and potential heirs.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27Do you think you could do me a search please
0:38:27 > 0:38:32for the birth of a Richard Emrys Thomas?
0:38:32 > 0:38:351881, Pontypool.
0:38:36 > 0:38:42If it's not there, you could go on to the next quarter.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44But the name wasn't the easiest to research.
0:38:44 > 0:38:51It's a very common name and finding Thomases is often like looking for needles in a haystack.
0:38:51 > 0:38:57Thomas is the eighth most common name in England and Wales but despite this,
0:38:57 > 0:38:59the heir hunters refused to give up
0:38:59 > 0:39:02and their tenacity was rewarded with a lucky break.
0:39:02 > 0:39:08Fortunately, we found out that the father of Richard Emrys Thomas
0:39:08 > 0:39:13was a schoolmaster called David Sadwin Thomas.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18Even more fortunately, from our point of view, when he died in 1901,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22he left a will which, very conveniently for us,
0:39:22 > 0:39:24named his five children.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29Richard's grandfather's will set out the names of all Richard's uncles and aunts.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32Although heir hunters make their living from people with no will,
0:39:32 > 0:39:39finding one in the process of their research can be a godsend, because they often list entire bloodlines.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45We were then able to follow down the lines of the children
0:39:45 > 0:39:50to eventually trace the heirs of Mary's son, Richard.
0:39:50 > 0:39:56Kevin's team found five heirs who were all children of Richard's cousins.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01They were related to Richard through his father, Richard Emrys Thomas.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04As his mother, Mary Lorraine, had divorced him,
0:40:04 > 0:40:06these heirs would not have been eligible
0:40:06 > 0:40:09had the team still been searching for Mary's heirs.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12But as they made the claim for Richard's heirs
0:40:12 > 0:40:17on the basis that he should have inherited her money in his lifetime,
0:40:17 > 0:40:19the Treasury accepted the case.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22One of Richard's heirs was Paul Thomas
0:40:22 > 0:40:27who was surprised to discover this relative he never knew he had.
0:40:28 > 0:40:32I think I have very mixed feelings because there is a sadness
0:40:32 > 0:40:36that I never knew him and yet, he was alive, well within my lifetime.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39It would have been nice to have met him.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Paul's father kept a family scrapbook
0:40:47 > 0:40:50with newspaper clippings and photos of all their relatives.
0:40:52 > 0:40:57That's a photograph of my grandfather in his regiment in Egypt.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00That is his brother,
0:41:00 > 0:41:02his younger brother,
0:41:02 > 0:41:09Emrys Thomas, who is the husband of Mary and father of Richard Thomas,
0:41:09 > 0:41:11Richard David Thomas.
0:41:12 > 0:41:18I think there's a very marked resemblance between Emrys and Ithel, my grandfather.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22I like to think that Richard probably might have looked rather like Emrys.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26The resemblance goes down through the family.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30Mary Lorraine and in turn, her son, Richard,
0:41:30 > 0:41:36provided Paul with a material legacy as well as an opportunity to reflect on his family ties.
0:41:36 > 0:41:43There were five heirs in total, to an estate worth over £100,000, which was shared between them.
0:41:43 > 0:41:49Well, the money came as a complete surprise and so I was able to realise a long-cherished dream.
0:41:49 > 0:41:55I always wanted to live by water and get a boat but what I really wanted, ever since I was a small boy,
0:41:55 > 0:41:59was a Rolls Royce, so I bought it.
0:41:59 > 0:42:05Paul may have realised a lifelong dream but is rueful that it may have been at his cousin's expense.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09The big sadness is that really, we don't deserve the money.
0:42:09 > 0:42:15Richard ought to have had it and he may not even sadly have known that his mother died.
0:42:15 > 0:42:21Had he done so, the money would have come to him and it might have made quite a difference to his life.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27The purchase of the Rolls Royce is the final stage in the heir hunters'
0:42:27 > 0:42:33quest to connect Mary Lorraine and her son, Richard's estate, with its rightful beneficiaries.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37It was a pursuit that led them to a glamorous burlesque acting heritage,
0:42:37 > 0:42:44a tale of wartime resistance, a son who inherited too late and a forgotten fortune.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48Stories that all told, paint a picture of an extraordinary life.
0:42:52 > 0:42:58If you would like advice about building a family tree or making a will, go to -
0:43:21 > 0:43:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:43:24 > 0:43:27E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk