McGarry/Sharpe Heir Hunters

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

They hand over thousands of pounds to long lost relatives

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

Could they be knocking at your door?

On today's programme, the heir hunters uncover a salacious case of a man jailed for bigamy

and in the process four sisters meet each other for the first time.

You are nothing like I imagined you to be!

And after losing touch with his younger brother for four years an heir has to say a poignant goodbye.

He got bullied a little bit, but still... But there we are.

I mean, I used to sort that out.

And we will have details of some of the hundreds of unclaimed estates.

Could you be in line for a windfall?

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

If no obvious relatives are found their money goes to the Government

and last year, they made a staggering £18 million from unclaimed estates.

That's where the heir hunters step in.

We couldn't find a marriage for your parents.

Over 30 companies make it their business to try and find heirs to inherit this money.

Last year alone, they claimed back over £6.5 million for unsuspecting relatives.

Sometimes we are the link.

We are the actual people who put people back in touch with each other

and that is just so rewarding.

It's 7am on Thursday morning

at the London office of Fraser and Fraser,

a family-run genealogy company.

The Government list of people who have died without a will has been announced.

The first task of the day is to scan through the names

and try to work out whether any of the people listed owned their own properties.

Any more addresses need checking?

Seven look like it needs to be checked.

Heir hunters work on commission, so they need to ensure their costs will be covered by the estate.

When a person dies leaving a house it is likely to be worth

anything from tens of thousands to millions of pounds depending on the property.

But this morning the researchers are struggling to find out

whether any of today's possible cases have a big estate attached to them.

It's one of those days when they will be flitting around

doing lots of cases I think, until we can get something to get our teeth into.

Case manager Tony Pledger is not optimistic about the day ahead.

So far, it's been a waste of time getting up.

I think I would have been better off staying in bed.

Of the listings put out by the authorities

we are looking very initially at 14, but clearly we won't be looking at all the 14.

We might whittle it down to about one and a half in an hour or so, I would hope.

Tony's one case may have just been found.

The team's enquiries have singled out Vincent McGarry,

who died leaving a flat in East London worth an estimated £150,000.

Partner Neil Fraser has given the team the go ahead to work the case.

So, what we are looking at is a case of Vincent George McGarry.

He dies in January of 2007, so it has actually taken two years for it to get to us.

He is from Stoke Newington, Hackney sort of area, E5.

It's an area which has been greatly affected by the Olympics

and the property prices have increased dramatically in that. So, that's good from our point of view.

I don't really know where it's going to go.

McGarry is not an English name, it's more of a Scottish name.

Vincent McGarry lived in Hackney, London, and worked as a telecommunications engineer.

He was just 64 when he died.

His friend and colleague Cliff Parker read the eulogy at his funeral.

If you've got to know Vince, you've got to know his character, got to understand him

and knew how he worked then you were one of his friends for life, which, you know, I think I was one of them.

But some people took him a different way because of his Scottish harshness sometimes.

They didn't really understand him, but he was...

He just worked 24/7 and he was just such a dedicated individual.

Before he worked with Cliff, Vincent spent 22 years of his life in the Army.

He was promoted to the rank of sergeant, but over and above this,

he pushed himself to achieve in all the areas he could.

He liked a challenge.

All the projects that he ever worked on, he loved them. He loved the buzz, the challenge.

And I think the Army when he joined at the age of 22.

It was a challenge for him and seeing his service record, the medals that he got and, you know,

the courses that he went through that he was a very, very good Army sergeant,

as it was. So, yeah.

Vincent's Army service was exemplary.

He was awarded three medals, the most prestigious of which was the British Empire Medal

for meritorious service, which was an outstanding achievement.

Not content to rest on his laurels, Vincent also passed a myriad of courses, physical and academic.

After the camaraderie of the Army, Vincent left and forged new relationships in his civilian life.

Work and friends became Vincent's family and that was it, basically.

Because whether he didn't want to know or he didn't know who his other family were,

which I suspect the latter is probably, you know, the more likely, it was just work

and family and his passions in life which was his bike and his skiing.

Vincent died without a will leaving an estate

which is estimated to be worth £150,000, which will all go to the Treasury unless heirs can be found.

Genealogists start their research by looking for birth,

death and marriage records of the person who's died

so that they can use the dates and names to start building up layers of a family tree

which can lead to heirs.

So, the first thing the office is looking for

a birth record for Vincent to find out his parents' names.

Senior researcher Gareth has already made a discovery, but not necessarily a good one.

Yeah, we've just discovered that McGarry is Scottish, so probably not much we can do here.

Finding Vincent is Scottish is yet another hindrance for the team.

The records for anything that isn't in England and Wales are a little bit more difficult for us

because we don't have the same indexes, although we do have some of the indexes,

and so it slows us down a little bit.

We just have to look at it in a slightly different way.

As the office doesn't have a comprehensive set of records for Scottish births,

deaths and marriages they are calling in reinforcements in Edinburgh.

There's a job down here called Vincent George and the surname is McGarry. M-C-G-A-R-R-Y.

Born on 24 December 1943

and there is a corresponding birth in Edinburgh, St Andrews, in 1944.

So, there we go.

Although their office is based in London the firm have a network of agents

around the world who can help with finding local records.

On top of this, they have a fleet of travelling heir hunters who can be sent wherever they're needed

to chase up clues, collect evidence and when heirs have been found,

speed over to sign them up and get their commission.

As the office have been having a slow morning, travelling researcher,

Ewart Lindsay is still waiting to be sent out on the road from his hometown

and he's hoping for an easy day.

What I can actually hear from the office right now in terms of where I will be going

would be to be going to Watford, to be working in Watford today.

That would be good news.

Hello, Tone. Where do you want me to go?

He's of London E5 when he dies.

He's born in Edinburgh in 1943

and Neil thinks it would be a good idea for you to go up there, all right?

Because obviously if it's going to come out, it's going to come out in Scotland.

Are you serious? I have got to go to Edinburgh?

We definitely want you to get on the next available plane to Edinburgh, right?

And then let us know... Let us know when you get the flight booked,

what flight you're on and when it gets there, right?

So we know what we are aiming at.

OK, mate? Ta-ra. Bye.

Ewart's hopes for an easy day have been dashed and things are about to get worse.

EWART SIGHS

The battery's dead.

Fortunately for the company, making progress doesn't hinge on Ewart being in Scotland.

They have contacts in Edinburgh who can work

from the General Register Office in the heart of the town.

Scottish records are often easier to cross reference than English ones because, unlike records in England,

both the mother and father's names are recorded on marriage and death certificates.

To help matters further, when it comes to official records women keep their birth surname

throughout their life, even if they marry,

which makes it easier for genealogists to ensure they are tracking the right person.

The agent in Scotland has already made the leap that Frasers couldn't from London.

We have the birth of the deceased in Scotland.

Now, the birth of the deceased shows that he was in fact illegitimate.

He was the son of a George Francis McGarry and an Evelyn Miller Davidson.

Now, they hadn't married, but then looking for their marriage subsequent to the birth

we find another marriage. We find the marriage for George Francis McGarry to somebody else.

Now, George Francis McGarry married a Catherine Faulkner Eggo in 1948 in Stirling in the January.

It's a massive breakthrough for the team.

From finding Vincent's birth certificate

the Scottish agents have found his parents' names

and discovered that they were not married.

They also know that his father married another woman

after Vincent's birth, which means that there may be half-brothers and sisters from another marriage.

If Vincent has no full-blood siblings, his half-blood siblings could inherit.

The present thing is to identify the deaths of the parents, but the father obviously could have been

anywhere between Scotland, here or Ireland and the mother probably stayed in Scotland.

So, the first priority is to identify the death of the mother.

The researchers are hunting for the death certificate

because whoever provided the information may have been related to Vincent's parents.

But while the office may be going at full speed, what about Ewart?

I'm happy.

It only took seconds.

But I've got to drive it continuously for at least half an hour, so that's all right.

That works in perfect because I will be going to Heathrow, to Terminal Five.

While Ewart sets off for Scotland, Tony has just had a phone call

from the Edinburgh agent about a tragic event in Vincent's family.

Our Scottish agent has found the death of the mother of the deceased

and it would appear that she committed suicide in 1946. And she was single.

Vincent had a rough start to life.

He was just two and a half when his mother committed suicide and he spent his childhood in care.

It's not clear whether he ever knew his father, George,

but as the office know his mother had no more children,

they'll need to concentrate their search on his father to see if Vincent had any other siblings.

Ewart's arrived at the airport ready to fly to Scotland,

but will there be any heirs for him when he arrives?

And there's some shock news in store for a member of Vincent's family.

The office seem to think that when he married your mum in January 1948, that it was bigamous.

The case of Vincent McGarry is far from solved.

The sweeping hills and valleys of Powys in mid Wales are an unlikely place

to find one part of an international heir-hunting company,

but this is where Peter Birchwood of Celtic Research is based.

Peter's 30 years in the genealogy business

have taught him that heir hunting requires great tact and empathy.

It's not just money. It's the matter of maybe having somebody

who they were close to,

lost touch with and now you have to tell them they're no longer with us.

One case investigated by Peter was that of Peter Sharpe who died in Nottingham aged just 57.

He was single and had no children.

As he never got round to writing a will, his £10,000 estate

went unclaimed for four years before Peter Birchwood found his details.

It was a case where he was born in the 1940s,

so we started looking for any close relatives that he might have had.

On Peter Sharpe's death certificate it showed that he was born in Nottingham in 1940.

This record is the starting point for any genealogist.

From that it's looking through the records

to find, firstly, if the deceased ever married and then to see if there are any brothers and sisters.

But failing those things then we are going to have to start looking back into the parents' families

to look for cousins on both sides of the family.

Peter began looking for the parents

and found that Middleton and Lucy Sharpe had married in March 1938.

Through them he discovered that Peter had an older brother, Patrick,

who was still alive.

Patrick himself had married and had some children and with a case like this it's always a little bit tricky

because you are going to have to tell someone that a close relative of theirs has died

and because Patrick Sharpe was himself an older man

I got in touch with his daughter first who introduced me to him.

As Patrick only lived 10 miles away from where his brother had died,

Peter was cautious about breaking the news to him.

He had no idea how close the brothers had been

or what impact it would have on Patrick to know the truth.

Oh, it was a hell of a shock.

I couldn't believe that. The first thing I knew, Peter Birchwood had found my youngest daughter

and contacted her and then I had a phone call from Josephine

telling me, you know, Uncle Peter had passed away and they were trying to find me.

I didn't believe it to start with. I thought it was a wind-up, you know?

I thought Josephine had got the wrong end of the stick, as usual, but she hadn't, no.

Patrick called Peter Birchwood to find out what had happened to his brother.

The news was a major shock because he had been unable to track down his brother, Peter, himself

and for four years had had no idea what had happened to him.

Unfortunately it seems to have been that Peter moved his apartment,

but he had died almost immediately after moving and that was a clean break.

There was really no way easily for his brother to find him

because there wasn't, unfortunately, a brother to find any more.

Although they were a close family, this simple change of address caused the brothers to lose touch.

So, as a result, Peter died without his family knowing.

Well, at the time you don't realise you're losing contact.

You don't realise that time is moving on, you know?

You might think it's only a few weeks or a few days, but then it comes to months

and suddenly you think, "I haven't heard from our Pete lately", you know?

Or "He has not been round to see me lately, I wonder why?"

And you start thinking, you know, "Where is he?", like, you know?

So, you start searching then and then you come up against a brick wall

because nobody wants to tell you anything, "That's confidential", or things like that.

They push you out. "We can't tell you things like that."

I said, "Well, it's my brother! I want to find him." But, no, they wouldn't help you.

Because the authorities were unwilling to give out confidential information,

Patrick began to despair.

He had always kept an eye out for his younger brother

from the day he was born because Peter had been a vulnerable child.

He was born three months premature and for many years into his childhood was plagued by ill health.

Most of his childhood, even before he started school, was mainly spent in and out of hospital.

In fact, when I was...

When it was summertime I often went to live with my Aunt Mildred

at Ruddington, I did, because our Peter was so very ill, you see?

And they couldn't be looking after Peter and me at the same time,

so I went to live with my Auntie at Ruddington.

Having been a premature baby, Peter was in and out of hospital up until his early teens,

but time apart from his brother didn't stop the two being close.

Well, I was just like a big brother to him, you see?

Big brother and best friend, I suppose,

because he knew if he wanted any help, he either come to me or his dad or his mam.

It would usually be Pat. "Oh, Pat will take you there",

or, you know, "Ask our Pat."

Patrick took Peter under his wing and despite their five-year age gap

they spent many happy hours at the railway line during their childhood in the '50s and '60s.

Well, we always came here as kids, you know?

My brother and me spent hours up here

watching the trains go through, like, you know? Train spotting and things like that.

When I was working, like, you know, when I left school, working,

I used to take him and his two mates to places like Grantham, Peterborough,

Derby, Crewe, all over the place.

I worked on the railway, you see, so I got passes and took him round the sheds.

I always wanted to protect Peter.

As a young boy his health was frail.

Very weak.

So, he needed a bit of protection, the lad did.

When Patrick finally found out what had happened to Peter it was a great shock.

He had to come to terms with the fact that the younger brother he had protected throughout his life

had died and, even worse, that it had happened four years ago.

I would understand it if it had been a few months or a few weeks, but four years, no.

That takes a bit of swallowing, that does.

Once he had found Patrick, Peter Birchwood was able to give him the news

that he would be in line to inherit his brother's £10,000 estate.

He wasn't really worried about how much his brother had left.

In fact, he said at the time, and I believe it's still his intention,

that he would just like to be able to put some sort of memorial to his brother

and as long as there's enough money in the estate to do that then he will be content.

Thanks to Peter Birchwood, Patrick has been able to put his worries about Peter's whereabouts to rest

and he can concentrate on happier memories,

many of which were from their childhood in Gotham near Nottingham.

Today, he is visiting their old haunts, starting with their school.

This was, like, middle school here, when you were about 11 or 12, here.

Peter and Patrick went to school at Gotham Primary during the 1950s.

The school has since relocated, but as Patrick walks around the old building, the memories flood back

of watching out for his vulnerable younger brother on the days that he actually made it to school.

He'd be here for a fortnight, three weeks, then back in hospital, you see, for more treatments.

That's how he went on until he was about, what?

Nine, ten years of age.

But he had his friends here.

People understood him, like, understood what he was going through.

He got bullied a little bit, but still...

There we are. I mean, I used to sort that out.

Patrick has been invited to the school's new premises by head teacher Sue Lymn-Brewin.

She has some photos that she thinks will interest him.

Now, we think that your brother may be on the front row here.

-Right, where's Peter?

-We think...

Yes, that's Peter. That's Peter.

-It is.

-That's Peter.

The school have kept an archive of old class photos,

including some taken from when Patrick and Peter were pupils.

-So, where is he on that one?

-He's there, look.

-That one there?

Yeah. That's Peter.

And how would he have been there, it was 1957?

'57... He'd be just ten.

Just ten.

Patrick hadn't seen the collection of photos since he was at school over 50 years ago.

It's been lovely to see them, you know?

It really has been wonderful to see them. And it's been nice to be invited here.

I am very grateful to the people to invite me back, you know,

and see it all because I probably shan't see it again.

It's... Yeah, it has been well worth coming.

I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

If visiting his old school in Gotham has brought back childhood memories,

Patrick's final stop is even more rich in nostalgia.

He is visiting the house where he and Peter grew up.

It may have changed over the years, but the memories are still vivid.

This was number 10.

It doesn't say so, but it is.

50 years since I left this house.

17 years of age.

Cor blimey!

Turn the clock back to how it was, please, because it were better then.

It was a happy street.

All the laughter, with kids.

Yeah, beautiful. Yeah.

It really was nice.

Pete were 14 then, I think.

Or was he 13? I can't remember now.

13 or 14.

It doesn't seem five minutes.

I think it's time to go home.

Time to go.

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

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

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

someone will remember and come forward to claim their inheritance.

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

the rightful heirs are out there somewhere.

Klaudusz Umanski died in May 2008.

Do you recognise that unusual name?

If so, your memories could prove vital in seeking out Mr Umanski's rightful heir.

Could that heir even be you?

Iris Ann Webb of Upper Holloway in London died in 2008.

Do you recall that name?

Even the slightest memory could be the missing clue needed in the search for heirs to her estate.

These and hundreds more estates are still lying unclaimed.

Only new information from you can help millions of pounds get to the rightful heirs.

Vincent McGarry died leaving an estate worth over £150,000.

Despite his 22 years in the Army, Vincent had a soft side, as his work colleague Cliff Parker remembers.

The ladies, as I said, all come down, bring him cakes and chocolate bars.

All he'd ever eat for lunch was a chocolate bar

and, you know, a drink from the fridge,

but they would always come down.

They knew that if there was anything that they wanted done urgently, they'd bring Vince a chocolate bar

and a cup of tea and give him, like,

a little cuddle and within 10 minutes the job would be done.

That's how they got round it and Vince loved all the attention.

He just lapped it up.

Although he loved the attention at work,

Vincent had no close family to lavish the same attention on him at home

and he died without leaving a will.

Fraser and Fraser are trying to track down his heirs by using their contacts in Scotland.

They know Vincent's mother committed suicide when he was two

and Vincent's father, George, subsequently married.

So, Vincent may have half-brothers and sisters who could inherit.

But the Scottish agents have a bombshell to drop.

But then there's also a note on the Scottish marriage record that says that in June of 1948 that marriage

was found to be bigamous because George Francis McGarry was already married to a Gwendolyn May Griffiths.

OK. So, if George Francis McGarry, the father of the deceased,

had children from that marriage,

then again they would be half-bloods, brothers and sisters of the deceased.

Bigamy is a surprise find, even for a seasoned heir hunter.

There was a large increase in bigamy convictions during the Second World War

as everyone's ordinary lives were turned upside down.

Vincent's father, George McGarry, married his first wife, Gwenda, in 1936.

He then met Vincent's mother, Evelyn, and fathered Vincent out of wedlock in 1943.

But George moved on and married again in 1948,

but as he was still technically married to his first wife, Gwenda, the marriage was bigamous.

George was convicted and jailed just six months later.

Could Vincent ever have known about his father's rakish past

and did he have brothers and sisters from his father's other marriages?

The researchers now have two possible branches

of the family they need to look into,

Gwenda's and Catherine's, both of whom married George McGarry.

If they can trace any children these would be Vincent's half-siblings.

But doing any research on the name McGarry is not easy.

You have got Mcs, Macs

and when they indexed the Mcs and the Macs they decided to chop and change

how they were going to do it every few years.

So, one moment it's the Mcs are in a certain place and then they move

and the Mcs are in another place, so they are just harder to find.

So I hate doing Mcs.

The Mcs may be difficult, but the researcher's persistence has paid off.

Now, with regards to the bigamous marriage,

it would now seem that the wife that,

in theory his bigamous wife, Catherine, died in 1994

and from that death there is an informant, a daughter, who in theory

would be a half-sibling of the deceased,

but they can't readily identify that birth in any obvious location.

They may have found their first heir to Vincent's estimated £150,000.

Vincent's father's bigamous second marriage resulted in a daughter, Christine.

Should this be correct we'll have a half-blood sister of the deceased.

We also have several other areas where we could get more half-blood siblings.

Now, in our order of entitlement we go from our full-blood siblings to half-blood siblings before

we go to full-blood cousins, so they fit in before cousins so it's quite important we find them.

We are going to have near kin instead of going back on to the cousins.

The team found that Christine is alive and married.

Now, they just need to get hold of her.

Unfortunately she is not on the phone.

We would like to talk to her,

so I'm now going to see if we can get in contact with any of her neighbours

and then maybe they will be kind enough to get in contact for us.

As Vincent's half-sister and the one and only potential heir so far,

Christine could be the key to the team cracking the entire case.

She's based in the Midlands and so they are sending senior researcher

Paul Matthews who is based there to go and knock on her door.

The office has spent a bit of time researching this

and now think that there is value to the estate.

They have now located a half-sister in Telford...

..so I'm on my way up there now.

We haven't got an appointment, so it's very much go up there and hope that she's at home.

Paul's travels are just beginning, but Ewart's are well underway.

It's late afternoon and having arrived in Edinburgh

he is touching base with the office to find out where he's needed.

Unfortunately, the only heir they've found is in the Midlands.

I just knew it. There's nothing happening on this case of McGarry.

I knew it. Nothing's happening.

Ewart may have had a pointless journey, but in the office

they're not wasting any time looking for more half-siblings of Vincent's.

This is the deceased father's, George...

George McGarry, his first marriage.

Well, we're assuming it's his first marriage.

It might actually be his second or third for all we know,

but it looks like his first marriage which was in Pembroke, so he certainly got around, this chap.

In more senses than one!

The half-sister the office have already found is about to receive a visit from Paul Matthews.

It's your wife, Christine, that we need to speak to.

We believe her mum was Catherine and her dad was George Francis McGarry, was that right?

That's right, yes.

Could you spare us a few minutes?

Well, she's not in, she's at work.

Yeah, if we can just spend a bit of time,

just find a few things off yourself. OK, thank you.

I shall put you onto the gentleman from Fraser and Fraser, OK?

Because I don't want to be uncertain about, you know, answers I'm giving him.

I don't know whether it's a scam yet or not, no. I don't know.

No, it's not.

-OK?

-No, it's not a scam. Paul Matthews, pleased to speak to you.

What time do you get home from work?

Five-ish. Well, I'll speak to the office.

If they want me to come back later on then I'll do that as well.

But I'll let your husband know either way.

Christine is still at work so the team will have to wait until they sign up their first beneficiary

but in the meantime, the researchers have made an exciting discovery.

There's a new heir.

Ann is another half-sister of Vincent from his father's first marriage,

but with the day drawing to a close will they be able to speak to her in time?

I've found Ann McGarry. She's married an Alcock.

She married him at age 17. We've got the address.

She's on the phone, so we're going to give her a call.

Tony is ready for home, but this call is too important to put off.

If Ann is an heir, she might be able to put him in touch with more.

You've got two sisters?

Well, right. OK.

Well, that's of interest because clearly they might well be involved in all this as well, then.

Ann has two older sisters, Margaret and Nesta.

In just one call the number of heirs has doubled.

Vincent had four half-sisters.

Could I ask you what Nesta's family name is now?

Yeah, OK. Yeah, OK. Thanks ever so much, indeed.

Thank you.

Tony may have been half-way out the door, but staying for that extra call paid off.

Now it's up to the travelling heir hunters to sign up the heirs and earn the company's commission.

Vincent's half-sister Christine is back from work.

Paul is trying to tactfully find out

if she knew anything about her father's unorthodox wedding to her mother.

They married at home.

-Oh, right.

-You can do that, or you could do that, in Scotland, apparently.

If it was all a bit dodgy, the minister would come to the house and do it.

-Well, it was a bit dodgy.

-Well, it seems to have been. I was certainly...

I was born four months later, so that in itself would be dodgy.

But the office seem to think that when he married your mum in January 1948 that it was bigamous.

Well, I had come to that conclusion from something my mother once said

because I had been asking her, "Why don't I have a father?"

And she said, "Well, he was married before,"

but she never actually said any more than that.

He had another relationship where he didn't get married

and produced another child.

-My mother did say he could charm the birds out of the trees.

-Well, yes.

-You can see that he did.

It sounds like that. So, you have got half-blood relatives out there.

Well, I always thought that I probably did.

I had this suspicion that there were other children somewhere.

In one meeting, Christine has gone from being an only child

to discovering that she had a half-brother

and still has three half-sisters she never knew about.

It would be good to know a bit more about this family tree of ours.

It's just a blank on that side.

I've got the names of my father, his parents,

a village in Ireland and that's it.

That's all I know.

But obviously there are a lot more people around.

So, actually from being orphan Annie with no family,

then suddenly I've got family who I'd love to meet.

The meeting has been a success all round.

Paul has signed up an heir so will get a percentage of her claim, and Christine has found a new family

who she's keen to get to know,

something her half-brother Vincent never got the chance to do before he died.

It's a new day in Portsmouth.

Senior researcher David Hadley has arrived at Vincent's half-sister Margaret's house.

Margaret is the eldest of the three sisters from Vincent's father's first marriage.

Your father also, after he left your mother,

-had a bigamous marriage.

-Yes.

Yes, I did know about that.

That was to a Catherine Faulkner Eggo

and that also produced a child, as well.

-Which is this Christine.

-Which is Christine.

-Yeah, so you've got Christine who is a half-sister.

-Yeah.

And you had the deceased, Vincent.

Who was a half-brother. How nice.

David signs Margaret up.

She is overwhelmed by the news of the last 24 hours.

It's a bit of a shock, really.

Something that you think only happens to someone else.

No idea whatsoever about anything ever like that happening in my life and...

Well, we'll just wait and see what all the conclusion will be.

The heir hunters come across the whole gamut of human behaviour

in their job, but even for them this one has been an unusual case.

It looks like we have got four beneficiaries on this,

all of them half-blood relations to the deceased, half-blood siblings, and all of them through the father.

And the father's lived... It sounds like he's lived quite a life, really.

His children are all over the place, from three different women.

Two weeks later, the grown-up children

of two of these different women are preparing to meet for the first time.

Christine, who was the child of Vincent's father's second marriage, is on her way to see

Margaret, Nesta and Ann, who are sisters from his first.

I don't know how I feel today.

Part of me is very, very nervous, part of me is very excited

and part of me just doesn't believe any of this is happening.

Margaret, Nesta and Ann are trying to predict what their new half-sister will be like.

I'm curious to know if she looks like us.

-I bet she does. Because I suspect she's got...

-It might be her mother's side.

There must be a bit of that Irish blood in her, let's put it that way.

She'll be feisty like us!

Well, we've got a bit of Welsh and Irish, I mean, so...

She has got Scots and Irish.

-Oh. We're all Celts.

-Yeah.

You're nothing like I imagined you to be!

-I can't even guess which of you is which.

-I'm Nesta.

Yes, I recognise your voice.

Good. Oh, it's nice to see... This is Margaret, she's the eldest.

-Margaret from Portsmouth?

-Yes.

-Don't be nervous.

-Nervous? That doesn't begin to describe it.

I was... I'm Ann.

-I was...

-The youngest.

-The baby.

-This kind of makes me the baby!

-Oh, she got dressed up and we didn't.

Yes. It must be very daunting.

Well, the whole thing was such a surprise, but yes, I think it's lovely.

-It is. It is. Come sit down.

-I am so excited by the whole thing.

You get to a point in your life

-where you don't think that anything like this would ever happen to you.

-Well, no.

I had absolutely no idea that...

I had thought occasionally over the years,

"I'm sure there might be some family somewhere."

I've never gave it a thought.

Well, having a family I suppose you don't.

We've just been talking about that.

We knew of you, but over the last, what 10, 20 years?

-It goes out of your mind.

-Although the family are happy to have found each other,

sadly they'll never meet their half-brother Vincent who is the reason they are here.

But I am sorry for Vincent that nobody ever seems to have known anything about him.

I wonder if he knew anything about his background though, really.

I mean, with his mother having committed suicide.

And this is from his friends that he served with in the Army and it said,

"Vince was a selfless man who went through his life with all his challenges,

"helping others and committing fully to whatever job he was engaged in.

"He was chivalrous with an afflatus attitude and a true gentleman.

"He was a great man, a crazy wonderful genius.

"Vince, God rest your soul.

"A decent night's sleep at last, my friend.

"Enjoy, as I hear the skiing and cycling is pretty good up there,

"as this, I'm sure you know, is not the end. Thank you."

That's it. That's quite sad that.

-It's really... It's even more sad that we didn't know such a nice-sounding person.

-Yes.

The sisters have made a good start on the lifetime of news they have got to catch up with.

And I don't know why I was nervous.

A really stupid thing to have felt.

But now I am really pleased that I came and met them.

-I'm definitely going to keep in touch.

-It has been very nice.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's nice to get together as three sisters, as we don't very often,

and to have the fourth one join is an extra bonus,

and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself, thank you.

I didn't expect her to look like she looked, or how she looks I should say, but brilliant!

I still think she's part of the family.

Sadly, Vincent, a man who made the Army his family, will never know about his four half-sisters.

However, his legacy has not only provided them with a windfall, but has also brought them together.

If you would like advice about building a family tree or making a will go to...

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