Armer/Dembinska Heir Hunters


Armer/Dembinska

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Heir Hunters track down the families of people who died without leaving a will.

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They hand over thousands of pounds to long-lost relatives who had no idea they were due a windfall.

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Could they be knocking at your door?

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On today's programme - the heat is on when the Heir Hunters tackle an estate

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worth a whopping sum of £1 million, but they're not the only ones on the case.

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She had a phone call at 7.30 this morning. Didn't say who they were.

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So she's given them the daughter's details.

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And the mysterious case of a Polish princess and her unclaimed fortune.

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Craven Street. It's a very, very grand address.

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So if she owned that address, this estate could be worth a lot of money.

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Plus, with thousands of pounds sitting unclaimed in the Treasury vaults,

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could you be a beneficiary?

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Unbelievably, over two-thirds of people in the UK die each year without leaving a will.

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If no heirs come forward, their money goes straight into the Treasury's coffers.

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In 2008 alone, a massive £18 million went unclaimed.

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That's when the probate research companies step in

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and compete with each other to find and sign up long-lost relatives, hoping to gain a commission.

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-Hello. Sheila Kingsland?

-Yes.

-Hello there.

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Fraser & Fraser have been tracing beneficiaries for over 30 years.

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In that time, the company has successfully reclaimed a massive £100 million for heirs.

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But solving these cases can use up many hours of manpower and resources.

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The work we have to do, whether a case is worth £5 or £5,000 or £5 million, is exactly the same.

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With small cases, we don't want to throw resources at it because we won't have the return.

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This is because the Heir Hunters work on commission

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and a large estate can make a big difference to their overheads.

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It's 7am at Frasers' central London office.

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Partner Neil Fraser is going through the list of unclaimed estates just issued by the Treasury.

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He's come across a case that looks promising.

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We're just gonna start looking at Armer. It's a Ronald Armer.

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I can see his property has recently been sold and that's been sold for £1 million.

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I expect to get a lot of competition.

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By a lot, I mean possibly four, maybe five firms looking at it, all very cut-throat.

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So... We haven't really got much time to waste.

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Bachelor Ronald Jackson Armer died alone in March 2008 in Lancaster.

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Born in 1945, Ronald was a young man in the '60s.

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Like many of his contemporaries, he embraced the spirit of the times,

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pursuing an alternative lifestyle and eastern philosophies.

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Local publican Alex Carswell remembers him as an original free spirit.

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Thank you.

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He used to go to the Far East and Thailand and Hong Kong and these places

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long before anybody else went on package tours, long before anybody else went there.

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In his later years, he settled into a frugal and quiet lifestyle

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in this cottage in the affluent village of Ambleside,

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and over time, he began to withdraw into himself.

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Although everybody knew him in the village, he was always on his own. He was a loner to a large degree.

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There was just Ronnie. He would come in, he would have his drink,

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join in the conversation, put his input in,

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but never actually with anybody as such, you know what I mean?

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He had a fall about 18 months before he died

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and he seemed to go down quickly from then.

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Little things. He would come in sometimes and maybe he hadn't washed and different things like that.

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A few little things like that, but it's sad because it happens to a lot of people, not just Ronnie.

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You get to a stage in life, if you've been on your own, and he couldn't do the travelling he used to do,

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where you maybe get to think, "What's the point?" And he just sort of drifted down that route.

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Ronald passed away at the age of 64.

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Although he was a well-known character in the local community,

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the authorities were unable to find any close relations, which is why his name is on the Treasury list.

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Because the estates are published without the values,

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the Heir Hunters must make an educated guess as to their worth.

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Ronald's home in Ambleside is in the heart of the Lake District.

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This resort has been popular since Victorian times.

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In the mid-Victorian era, the Industrial Revolution had wreaked a terrible toll on the towns.

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Factories belched filthy smoke into the sky and the cities had become crowded and stressful places.

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Wealthy Victorians searched for a more idyllic environment to escape to

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where they could find nature at its most pure.

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They flocked to the Lake District which until then had been a remote outpost.

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The powerful industrialists built fabulous holiday homes on the shores of the lakes

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and ever since then, the area has been a magnet to wealthy visitors and retirees.

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Today, property prices in the region are amongst the highest in the UK.

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With such a potentially valuable case to work, the race is on.

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-Can you update them with the Richard Manley business?

-Yeah, I just have.

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If the Heir Hunters are to trace Ronald's heirs before the competition,

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case manager Tony Pledger must work fast.

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-Can we see if the grandmother remarried?

-Yeah.

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He mobilises the team of researchers.

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Using the birth, death and marriage records they have on file,

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the team have already identified Ronald's father as Thomas William Armer

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who was born in Kendal in 1925.

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But they're having difficulty isolating who he was married to.

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Tell them to re-check that marriage. That one.

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-Debbie's done it.

-And...?

-Comes up just as Elizabeth. Elizabeth Stabler.

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Yeah, but what does it say under him?

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-You checked his entry, didn't you, Armer?

-It was just Stabler.

-Stabler.

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How many Armers are there? Can you do the printout for the Armer bit?

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Tracing heirs using the records they have on file can take time.

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Sometimes the best way to find out information is to speak to people who knew the deceased.

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Tony has got hold of the number of an ex-neighbour of Ronald's.

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Sorry to wake you. I was hoping you might tell me something about Mr Armer.

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Did you know any member of his family or...?

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Oh, I see.

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It seems that Tony is not the first to have been in touch.

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Well, no, I appreciate that. OK, thanks. Bye.

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This could be a big setback.

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Not only does the neighbour refuse to talk, but even though it is only 7.40 in the morning,

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a competitor has already been in contact.

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On the plus side, whilst Tony has been on the phone, the team have made a valuable breakthrough.

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They believe they have identified all of Ronald's family tree using existing records

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and it's a small family.

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What we're saying is that the mother...is Elizabeth. Right?

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The dad dies in 1928, right?

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-Thomas William Armer...

-Same address, OK?

-Yeah. Died 15th of December.

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No brothers and sisters on this side.

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Looks like he could well be an only child, so the only chance we're gonna get is on that side.

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The team have confirmed there are no heirs on the father's side of the tree.

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Ronald had only one sibling, a little sister called Melody,

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who sadly passed away at the age of four.

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So the focus has shifted to Ronald's mother, Elizabeth Stabler.

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It seems she has two siblings -

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a sister, Margaret Stabler, who died a spinster in 1952,

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and a brother, Tom Stabler, who was married to a woman called Jean in 1949.

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Tom and Jean would be Ronald's uncle and aunt.

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We want phone numbers of these people up in the area, if there's anybody around there.

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Tom Stabler's wife Jean lives in Whitehaven, just 44 miles from Ambleside.

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As a young woman, she spent a lot of time with her sister-in-law Elizabeth

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and would have known her nephew Ronald well.

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As Jean is a relative through marriage, she is not entitled to inherit,

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but if she and Tom had any children, they would be heirs.

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The researchers have tracked down a number for Tony to call.

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This lady is in her 80s and may not know her nephew Ronald is dead,

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so Tony will need to break the news gently.

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Good morning. Is that Mrs Stabler?

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Now, we've been researching into the family of the late Ronald Armer

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who passed away in 2008.

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Tony is hoping Jean Stabler can confirm their findings so far.

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Did your husband have any other brothers and sisters?

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He was the eldest. He was the eldest and he just had the two sisters.

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It seems the Frasers team have the correct family tree,

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but do Jean and Tom have any children?

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Ah, good. So this is obviously by your husband. Sorry to say this.

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They've hit the jackpot.

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Jean and Tom have a daughter Alyson, an only child living in Sheffield.

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After just an hour, the Heir Hunters now have their first and only heir.

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But the news is a mixed blessing.

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With only one heir, the stakes are now incredibly high.

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We don't think we've got any other aunts or uncles on the paternal side. She could be the sole beneficiary.

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If that's true, she's entitled to a million pounds,

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or the best part of it if our calculations have been right,

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so it's looking like she's the only beneficiary.

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We know we're the second people to make this enquiry and we need to get someone to Sheffield quickly.

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Frasers employ a team of travelling Heir Hunters.

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Highly qualified researchers, they play a vital role in gathering intelligence.

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Every Thursday, they are poised to travel the length and breadth of Britain in search of heirs.

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Neil will need two travellers on this case - one to go to Sheffield to sign the heir

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and another to go to the Lake District to speak to Jean Stabler.

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Jean Stabler lives in Whitehaven and Manchester-based Dave Mansell is on his way to talk to her.

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There's hardly anything on this road

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and if the sun would shine, it would be like heaven.

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This is what the London people don't see.

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They don't get this. They haven't got our beautiful countryside we've got in the Lake District.

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And Neil is now on the line to Birmingham-based Paul Matthews.

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Hi, mate. Neil. Can you make your way to Sheffield post-haste?

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-I think we've got a million-pound beneficiary.

-Okey-cokey.

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-I'll speak to you soon.

-Cheers, Neil. Bye.

-Bye.

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Somebody's got some good news coming today.

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Absolutely. What a result!

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I wish it was me. I'd retire.

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With the commission on a million pounds at stake,

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it's vital that the travellers meet face to face with the family,

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especially as the competition are hot on their heels.

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Frasers weren't the first firm to contact Jean, Alyson's mother.

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She had a phone call at half past seven this morning...

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who didn't say who they were.

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So she's given them the daughter's details.

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Now the office team can only sit back and wait for the travellers to contact Jean and daughter Alyson.

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It's a nail-biting time and with only one heir, they only have one chance at the commission.

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It's a million pounds. It's gonna have a lot of competition, so we're working on it more urgently.

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To solve it makes no difference.

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The thrill of what we do is finding the beneficiary, whether that's for £5 or £1 million.

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But with everyone in the office holding their breath,

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Dave Mansell phones in.

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-Right, we've just left Mrs Stabler now.

-'Yeah.'

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-The deceased lived in a rented house.

-'Yeah.'

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Before that, the family lived in a rented cottage. They've never owned a property. He worked on the buses.

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Could it be that the Armer estate is a case of all that glitters is not gold?

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Royalty is not something you come across every day in the heir hunting business, but in 2008,

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a name cropped up on the Treasury's list of unclaimed estates

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which took research director Gareth Langford on a fascinating ride

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that spanned a continent and a family's fortune.

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The case of Olga Dembinska, or Princess Dembinska.

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I've got the death certificate here. We know that she died on the 28th of September, 1986, in hospital.

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And on the death certificate it says she died as Countess Olga Natalie Von Dane Dembinska.

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Princess Olga Von Dembinska died alone in hospital at the age of 74.

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Her death certificate was witnessed by a hospital employee.

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That was over 20 years ago and Olga's life was to prove something of a riddle.

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There wasn't even a photograph left of her.

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Most importantly, as the value of the estate was not included on the Treasury list,

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the Heir Hunters didn't know its worth, but it did look promising,

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not least because of her last registered address.

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Craven Street. It's very central London. It's a very grand address.

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So if she owned that address, this estate could be worth an awful lot of money.

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The actual property itself is going to be amazing because of the location where it is.

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It's a very, very prestigious area.

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Every good heir hunter knows that property constitutes most of the value of a person's fortune.

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Olga's flat in Craven Street is just around the corner from the Houses of Parliament

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and close to the heart of London's West End.

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Properties on this street range from £500,000 for a two-bedroom flat

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to £9 million for a townhouse at today's prices.

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On the face of it, this estate looked very valuable indeed.

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The name Dembinska is Polish and it's the feminine version of Dembinski.

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It's a name that should also have been easy to work,

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but things weren't so straightforward.

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The first problem we had was a birth certificate for Olga. We didn't have one.

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So that meant we didn't know her parents' names. We didn't know her father's name or her mother's name.

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Without that basic information, it's very difficult for us to move on.

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This was such a blow because the first rule of heir hunting is to work up a family tree.

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The team use the information from birth and death certificates to find parents and children.

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They can then use this as a map to trace each generation until they find an heir.

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But with no certificates, Gareth had to try other avenues of research.

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We started looking to see what we could dig up about the Dembinskas.

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Now, unusually, from our point of view, this meant that we got to know them a little bit better

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because we found personal accounts of the family.

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Normally, we would just have a birth and death certificate.

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Now we were getting what people thought of them when they met them and what they said to them.

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So we're getting a much better picture of what Olga was like.

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The first reference they found to the Dembinski family was by a Canadian academic.

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John Frederick Heard was a celebrated Canadian astronomer.

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His detailed and humorous account of the time he spent with the Dembinskis

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was a rich source of information for the Heir Hunters.

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John Frederick Heard's account of the family is very interesting

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because we only had the deceased's name. We didn't know she had any brothers and sisters.

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He knew the family so well because he lodged with them

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when they were living in this impressive house in Chiswick in the 1930s.

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So the first thing that this told us is that she had a brother and a sister. That was very useful.

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It also told us that her father had recently died and she was living with her mother.

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Through this, the team could confirm a family tree.

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Olga Dembinska had a sister Madelaine and a brother Eric.

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Her mother was born in Yorkshire with the exotic name Carmen de Tesca Bates.

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Her father was EVS Von Dembinski.

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The family were impressively titled.

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One of the early things that he's talking about the family,

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"They took the Royal Highness bit very seriously

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"and expected their friends to use Princess and Prince as forms of address."

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Surely, with the royal title, Olga Dembinska's lineage would be easy to trace.

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Dr Richard Butterwick is a lecturer in Eastern European Studies.

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The Polish nobility was by far the largest nobility in Europe down to the 18th century.

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In fact, older estimates would have put it at something like 10% of the population as a whole.

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And because they were so numerous, there was immense disparity of wealth between them.

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The vast majority of Polish nobles were extremely poor.

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Dembinska is the female version of Dembinski.

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And the name Dembinski is one of the more commonly encountered names of Polish nobles over many centuries.

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But there were many different Dembinski families. They weren't necessarily related to each other.

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In the late 1700s, Poland was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria.

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After an unsuccessful uprising against Russia in 1831,

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thousands of Poles escaped to France where they established a thriving emigre community.

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The exodus continued for another 50 years.

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The Dembinski family were living in France,

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but in 1914, the looming threat of war spurred them on to move to the UK

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and they settled in the large house they bought in Chiswick.

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The family certainly seemed rich in property.

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Ten years after the father died, the family bought land and a couple of cottages in Suffolk.

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Local resident Davina Garner met the Dembinskis when they moved to the village of Long Melford.

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Just known as the Prince and Princess. That was their name - Von Dembinski.

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That's a name you don't forget.

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She is visiting the cottages where they used to live.

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-Do you know the name "Von Dembinski"?

-Yes, it does ring a bell.

-It does ring a bell.

-Yeah.

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It was definitely... That was the person that actually purchased quite a huge chunk of North End.

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-When we bought the property, we obtained all the deeds documentation.

-Yes.

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And when I see that name of royal connection, I was really chuffed

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that we had bought a property

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with some sort of very interesting history about it.

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And the evidence of wealth just kept building

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when, with more information from the Treasury, Gareth found out something

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that would appear tantalising to any heir hunter.

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The new information from the Treasury solicitor was interesting.

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They basically indicated that there were new assets.

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Now, from our point of view, we don't know if this is a small amount of money or a large amount.

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The signs were all very positive, but how large would the fortune Olga left behind turn out to be?

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

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

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are on the Treasury's unsolved case list.

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

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and come forward to claim their inheritance.

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

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the rightful heirs are out there somewhere.

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Dorothy Rose Brewer died in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on 30th August, 2006.

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Was Dorothy a friend or neighbour of yours?

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

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James Arthur Nash passed away on 10th January, 2004, in Tooting, South London.

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

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If no relatives can be found, his money will go to the government, but could it be meant for you?

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With thousands of estates lying unclaimed every year,

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your information could help millions of pounds reach its rightful heirs.

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In London, the Fraser and Fraser team are working the case of Ronald Armer, who died in Ambleside,

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leaving assets they believe are worth a massive £1 million.

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So far they've made good progress and found an heir.

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There's nobody on the father's side. Probably one person on the mother's side. She'd be the only heir.

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She lives in Sheffield. Hopefully, we'll see her later today.

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But travelling Heir Hunter Dave Mansell is beginning to have doubts about the worth of the estate.

0:23:380:23:44

They've never owned a property. He worked on the buses.

0:23:440:23:48

It looks like the sole heir to Ronald Armer's estate is his maternal cousin Alyson Stabler,

0:23:510:23:58

but this information ups the ante further. Whether it's worth £5,000 or £1 million,

0:23:580:24:04

if they don't sign Alyson, they lose their chance of commission.

0:24:040:24:08

There's only going to be one heir. It's possibly a substantial sum.

0:24:080:24:13

And so, obviously, we would like to come to an arrangement with the heir.

0:24:130:24:18

Tony's pinning his hopes on travelling Heir Hunter Paul Matthews.

0:24:180:24:24

He's arrived in Sheffield. The heir is at work. Paul hopes to talk to her husband.

0:24:240:24:29

Her husband will be at home. We're hoping he does manage to track her down and she does call us

0:24:290:24:35

and I get to go and see her. Obviously, it's a decent-sized estate.

0:24:350:24:41

And we'd certainly like something out of it.

0:24:410:24:46

Meanwhile, Dave Mansell has arrived in Ambleside.

0:24:460:24:51

Hello.

0:24:510:24:53

He's hoping to speak to Ronald's neighbours to find out once and for all

0:24:530:24:59

if his estate could be worth £1 million.

0:24:590:25:03

With none of the neighbours in, Dave visits the cafe next door.

0:25:100:25:14

And he's found out something that could really help the case.

0:25:210:25:26

We've come to do an inquiry at the deceased's last known address.

0:25:300:25:34

There's nobody in any of the properties adjacent to it, so I inquired at the nearest cafe.

0:25:340:25:40

And the girl in there was an Armer, so we're about to go to her house and meet her mother,

0:25:400:25:46

to check if she knew a Ronald Armer lived at this address.

0:25:460:25:50

We'll see if there's any connection between the deceased and her family.

0:25:500:25:55

Armer is a common name in the area.

0:25:570:26:00

The woman Dave's going to see is too distantly related to be Ronald's heir,

0:26:000:26:07

but she might have valuable information about him.

0:26:070:26:11

-Did you know Ronald well?

-Well...

-Did he have any money?

0:26:110:26:15

-I'm told he worked on the buses.

-He had enough to go to the pub

0:26:150:26:21

and he lived very quietly and frugally. He didn't spend... He wasn't a big spender.

0:26:210:26:27

Right. There was no rumours about him having a lot of dosh, then?

0:26:270:26:31

Well...no.

0:26:310:26:34

That conversation has backed up what Ronald's aunt has said.

0:26:340:26:39

It looks more and more likely he didn't have a lot of cash.

0:26:390:26:43

120 miles away in Sheffield, Paul has pipped the competing Heir Hunters to the post.

0:26:430:26:50

-He's the first to see Malcolm Fender, husband of Ronald's heir.

-We think it's a substantial estate.

0:26:500:26:57

There was a property involved that was sold for a lot of money. We'd like to claim for your wife.

0:26:570:27:03

-My wife is very surprised at that. She thought he didn't own his house.

-Was he renting it?

0:27:030:27:09

All we know is that the property where he was before has been sold.

0:27:090:27:13

And it sold for this huge amount.

0:27:130:27:15

Malcolm is not an heir and cannot sign on his wife's behalf,

0:27:150:27:20

but he's phoned her at work to tell her about Fraser's.

0:27:200:27:25

There's a leaflet about Fraser's.

0:27:250:27:28

She did express a preference that she would probably go with you.

0:27:280:27:32

That's good news! The trip up the M1 hasn't been wasted, hopefully. All for 10p!

0:27:320:27:39

I hope it is a decent-sized estate, obviously. We'd get a nice wedge out of it.

0:27:390:27:44

It's a great result. It's looking like the absent Alyson may sign to Fraser's,

0:27:440:27:52

but the picture of Ronald's finances is not so hot. From what people are saying, he was not a millionaire.

0:27:520:27:58

Back in London, Neil realises he's made a terrible mistake.

0:27:580:28:04

It's worth 5K.

0:28:040:28:06

Yeah.

0:28:060:28:08

Looks like I didn't read the property page this morning correctly.

0:28:130:28:17

I've read an entry for the sale

0:28:170:28:21

which was linked to that property, but it looks like someone bought the whole block, shops and everything.

0:28:210:28:27

So we're dealing with a little tiny flat connected to that.

0:28:270:28:32

It's not worth any money at all. So... A bit of a mistake by me misreading it this morning.

0:28:320:28:39

It's a huge disappointment, especially as the team have put such hard work into it,

0:28:390:28:44

but the devil is in the detail and mistakes can happen.

0:28:440:28:49

£5,000 is the minimum value of unclaimed estates advertised by the Treasury.

0:28:490:28:55

It's clear now that Ronald never owned his modest terrace.

0:28:550:28:59

The sale that Neil had found was, in fact, for the entire block of houses,

0:28:590:29:06

-but Tony is philosophical.

-You never know where it'll go until you get there.

0:29:060:29:12

It's best not to go making assumptions or public statements too early.

0:29:120:29:19

In the end, Alyson did sign to Fraser's. Although she'd lost touch with her cousin,

0:29:200:29:26

she had fond memories of him.

0:29:260:29:28

He gave me my first records when I got my first record player.

0:29:280:29:34

So I remember that about him.

0:29:340:29:36

He quite liked music. As an adult, I didn't really know him,

0:29:360:29:41

but I guess he was quite... solitary.

0:29:410:29:45

He never married. His parents died in the '80s.

0:29:450:29:50

And we just basically lost touch.

0:29:510:29:53

I suppose that's what happens. He was a very quiet sort of...

0:29:550:30:00

individual, kept himself to himself.

0:30:000:30:03

Alyson was surprised when Fraser's told her Ronald had an estate of potentially £1 million.

0:30:030:30:09

It does get your mind going and you think, "Perhaps I always had it wrong.

0:30:090:30:15

"Perhaps I'm going to get £900,000. Wouldn't that be lovely?"

0:30:150:30:20

Ronald's case had taken on a life of its own

0:30:200:30:23

and suddenly everyone was chasing the mirage of a £1 million fortune.

0:30:230:30:27

My mum actually texted me - she's quite good for 82 -

0:30:270:30:32

to say, "Ring. I have news."

0:30:320:30:34

She said that four probate companies had phoned her that morning.

0:30:340:30:39

The first one rang at 7.30, which was a bit of a shock for her.

0:30:390:30:43

And, yes, four companies got in touch.

0:30:430:30:47

And what would Ronald Armer have thought of all these Heir Hunters believing he was a millionaire?

0:30:490:30:55

He would have stood here laughing because...

0:30:550:30:59

I don't think Ronnie ever, in his lifetime, would ever envisage having that kind of money.

0:30:590:31:05

I don't think there would be much left if Ronnie got his hands on it! In a nice way, you know.

0:31:050:31:12

Until the case is fully worked, Alyson won't know how much the estate is worth,

0:31:120:31:17

but she has thought about how to use the money.

0:31:170:31:21

If it had been a large amount, I'd have felt quite confused.

0:31:210:31:26

But if it's a small amount, Ronald liked going on holidays.

0:31:260:31:30

He went on holidays before going on package holidays was popular.

0:31:300:31:35

So I think I'll go on holiday and think of him.

0:31:350:31:40

Ronald Armer's story just goes to show that not everything is as it seems.

0:31:550:32:01

This was to prove the case when the Heir Hunters looked into the estate of Princess Olga von Dembinski,

0:32:010:32:08

who died in 1986 leaving an unspecified sum.

0:32:080:32:12

Initially, the investigation suggested she was property-rich in Westminster and Suffolk,

0:32:120:32:21

but as Gareth continued the investigation, he began to realise her life was something of an enigma.

0:32:210:32:28

We looked at it on the basis that she lived at a nice address in Westminster.

0:32:280:32:33

So we tried to look at whether she owned the property

0:32:330:32:38

and we spoke to neighbours, but nobody really knew her. She died in 1986.

0:32:380:32:44

Olga was the youngest of three children. She had a sister Madelaine and a brother Eric.

0:32:440:32:50

All three carried the title of Prince and Princess.

0:32:500:32:54

Davina Garner was a little girl when she met Olga's siblings, Princess Madelaine and Prince Eric,

0:32:540:33:01

when they moved into the village of Long Melford.

0:33:010:33:06

I always sort of surmised that they were Russian.

0:33:060:33:10

I vaguely remember somebody saying something about they had been wealthy but they were just ordinary people.

0:33:100:33:18

And I think she had a black car. That's all I can remember then.

0:33:180:33:23

In 1941, Olga was in London, but her sister Madelaine, brother Eric and their mother, Carmen,

0:33:230:33:29

had moved on. It was the height of the Blitz and Long Melford in Suffolk was a safer place to be.

0:33:290:33:36

Davina remembers they quickly became part of the community.

0:33:360:33:39

I think Eric was a gentleman. He was a perfect gentleman.

0:33:390:33:43

He did have beautiful skin!

0:33:430:33:46

He would doff his hat and that sort of thing, yeah.

0:33:460:33:50

But while her family enjoyed a quiet life in the country, Olga was on a mission.

0:33:500:33:56

In 1946 she went to France

0:33:560:33:59

where she went through a lengthy court battle to claim the rights to ancestral land in Poland.

0:33:590:34:05

According to them, it was a Polish family of great antiquity.

0:34:050:34:10

And they claimed direct lineage from King Canute.

0:34:100:34:13

And apparently until the death of Prince von Dembinski,

0:34:130:34:18

they'd been merely a Count and Countess,

0:34:180:34:23

but a relative died and they got the Prince's title.

0:34:230:34:27

Olga's great-great-grandfather was Ernst von Dembinski.

0:34:270:34:32

Dr Richard Butterwick has his obituary.

0:34:320:34:36

What this says is that a representative of the Dembinski family had done well in Prussia.

0:34:360:34:45

He had adopted the "von" prefix to his name,

0:34:450:34:49

which would qualify him as a German noble as well as a Polish noble.

0:34:490:34:55

And he'd become the governor of a circle in Prussia for a period of about 13 years.

0:34:550:35:02

And he'd been decorated. He was an officer in the Prussian army.

0:35:020:35:07

He found himself very well in the new realities, but when it comes to his son,

0:35:070:35:13

we find him serving in the cavalry of the German Legion of the British Army during the Crimean War.

0:35:130:35:19

And then afterwards settling in Britain.

0:35:190:35:23

In 1854, with the Crimean War in full swing, the British were desperately short of troops.

0:35:250:35:31

So they formed a British Foreign Legion and a large contingent volunteered from Germanic states.

0:35:310:35:37

After the war, these young men could not return home as they'd sworn allegiance to another country.

0:35:370:35:44

Many were shipped off to South Africa. Some, like Olga's grandfather, Ernst Charles,

0:35:440:35:50

stayed in the UK.

0:35:500:35:52

Could it be that at that time he had to renounce his rights to an inheritance in Prussian Poland?

0:35:520:35:59

In any case, Olga's attempt to claim her inheritance failed.

0:36:020:36:07

And after years of court battles to claim her inheritance, Olga was declared bankrupt in 1953.

0:36:070:36:14

At roughly the same time, her mother passed away

0:36:150:36:20

and Olga's siblings moved out of the family cottage.

0:36:200:36:24

Was the cottage sold to pay Olga's legal fees? We may never know.

0:36:240:36:29

But suddenly Madelaine and Eric were in reduced circumstances

0:36:290:36:34

and Madelaine hit upon a novel way of finding accommodation - she moved into a local railway cottage.

0:36:340:36:40

In lieu of rent, her job was to open the gate for the daily trains.

0:36:400:36:45

A princess on the railway caused quite a stir and she was filmed for a Pathe newsreel.

0:36:450:36:52

For the past three years, the Princess is on duty from 6am until the last train after 9pm

0:36:520:36:59

six days a week.

0:36:590:37:02

Neighbour Dick Barbour remembers the Princess at work.

0:37:110:37:15

This is the old railway crossing. The lines used to run across the road here.

0:37:150:37:21

The Princess had to come out of her house there to open the gates...

0:37:210:37:28

across here to stop the traffic on the road to let the trains through.

0:37:280:37:34

Madelaine became something of a local legend. Dick kept his donkey in a field close by.

0:37:340:37:40

I walked down here one evening, as I very often did, and saw her out in the road

0:37:420:37:47

closing or opening the gates and I said, "Good evening," to her.

0:37:470:37:52

I could see she wasn't her normal self.

0:37:520:37:55

I said, "Are you all right?" She said, "No, you're in my bad books."

0:37:550:38:00

I said, "Oh? How come?" She said, "Not you, but the donkey."

0:38:000:38:04

I said, "How come the donkey's in the bad books?"

0:38:040:38:08

She said, "I generally set my alarm early in the morning to get the early goods train

0:38:080:38:14

"so it doesn't knock the gates down like it's done in the past.

0:38:140:38:18

"I thought I'd overslept because I heard this peculiar noise, which I thought was the train.

0:38:180:38:24

"I shot down in my pyjamas and opened the gates and no train came."

0:38:240:38:29

She said, "I thought that's peculiar. Then your donkey hee-hawed

0:38:290:38:34

"and I realised that's what got me out of bed, not the train!" She wasn't very amused.

0:38:340:38:40

They were certainly characters.

0:38:400:38:43

In Chiswick, a long time before their recent money troubles, they had unusual ways to earn pin money.

0:38:430:38:51

Quite eccentric. The mother of the deceased is described as a seer.

0:38:510:38:55

Apparently that's how she earned a bit of money. Quite interesting.

0:38:560:39:01

Not something you'd expect a princess to be.

0:39:010:39:05

Her sister as well. They were working as tourist guides to earn some money.

0:39:050:39:11

It sounds like they were real characters. I want to have met them. An interesting bunch, I think.

0:39:110:39:18

In 1966, Olga's sister Madelaine passed away and her brother Eric no longer had a reason to stay here.

0:39:180:39:26

After that, Davina heard from Eric from time to time.

0:39:290:39:32

This is to Mrs Davina Garner. From von Dembinski. A Christmas card.

0:39:320:39:38

And a letter saying that he bought this Christmas card for the verse on the inside

0:39:380:39:46

"to please your young daughters". "The last four cards have been posted today, Christmas Day.

0:39:460:39:54

"The rest will have to have New Year Christmas cards.

0:39:540:39:57

"I have spent the last three years in London. I am still trying to move to Bath in Somerset.

0:39:570:40:03

"With love from Eric."

0:40:030:40:06

In the early '80s, Eric passed away and Olga lived on for another six years in a flat in Craven Street.

0:40:060:40:13

For the Heir Hunters, this case had been full of tantalising details.

0:40:130:40:17

Did the family have some assets tucked away somewhere?

0:40:170:40:21

What had happened to the money from the various properties?

0:40:210:40:25

But the investigation came to an abrupt halt when the team made a surprising discovery.

0:40:250:40:31

Well, essentially, we think it's a dead case.

0:40:320:40:37

We've got a grant from the High Court of Justice saying there's no family or heirs.

0:40:370:40:44

No grandparents, no uncles, no cousins, no nephews, no nieces.

0:40:440:40:49

So from our point of view, it's a dead case. No heirs.

0:40:490:40:53

So that's it, really, for us. It's case closed.

0:40:530:40:59

Neither Olga, Madelaine or Eric had married, nor had they had any children.

0:40:590:41:04

After such a rich and varied family history, this branch of the family tree died with Olga

0:41:040:41:10

in a London hospital. It was now clear that her estate would go to the Treasury.

0:41:100:41:16

So how large was the Dembinski fortune? We may never know.

0:41:170:41:22

Even if Olga had owned her London property, when she died she was penniless.

0:41:220:41:28

The slings and arrows of modern history may have taken their toll on their assets.

0:41:280:41:34

It was a real challenge to hold on to your status and your wealth in the 19th and early 20th centuries

0:41:340:41:41

with the chance of falling on the wrong side of the regime.

0:41:410:41:46

So if a noble family made it through the First World War

0:41:460:41:51

into independent Poland in the 1920s and 1930s,

0:41:510:41:55

and was still in possession of most of its wealth, it was doing extremely well.

0:41:550:42:01

When the team started on this case, they may have seen pound signs,

0:42:010:42:06

but in the end it was the family's story that left an impact on partner Neil Fraser.

0:42:060:42:13

We all thought we were dealing with the case of a lifetime.

0:42:130:42:17

We probably have dealt with the case of a lifetime.

0:42:170:42:21

I don't think we'll ever again research into a countess with possible royal Polish links.

0:42:210:42:28

It's not all about the money, but sometimes the most interesting bit is the social side.

0:42:280:42:35

If we learned anything, not all countesses are rich.

0:42:350:42:40

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

0:42:410:42:48

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2009

0:42:560:43:00

Email [email protected]

0:43:010:43:03

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