Porter/Hunt Heir Hunters

Every year, thousands of people die without leaving a will, and seemingly with no next of kin.

But, often, there's a distant relative who unwittingly stands

to inherit, and that's where the heir hunters come in.

On today's programme, when a shy and reclusive woman passes away,

she leaves a fortune and a mystery behind her.

She didn't really leave the house and she

didn't have any friends outside other than my wife or myself.

And an unsolved case worth over £100,000 throws up more questions than it does answers.

She wouldn't talk about anything a lot.

It was her secret, you know what I mean?

And we'll have details of some of the hundreds of unclaimed estates.

Could you be in line for a windfall?

In the UK, about two-thirds of people don't have a will

and, therefore, leave no record of their last wishes.

If they die and leave an estate and an obvious relative can't be found, then the money automatically

defaults to the Government, who last year made £18 million in unclaimed estates.

Heir hunters must leave no stone unturned, and there are over 30 companies competing

to track down beneficiaries and put them in touch with the fortune they never knew existed.

With so much money at stake, and working for a commission,

it's a lucrative business and therefore, competition can be fierce.

It's not going to beat me, I refuse to let it beat me.

Fraser And Fraser have handled over £100 million worth of inheritance in the last 10 years alone.

The search for an heir can take them anywhere,

so the team must exhaust every line of inquiry in their hunt for the beneficiaries.

It's 7.00am on Thursday, and Fraser And Fraser is already a hive of activity.

This is the morning the Treasury releases its weekly list of unclaimed estates.

Neil and Tony are scanning their cases to see if any seem worth investigating.

The case we're going to start to running with is Margaret Porter.

Her maiden name is Nye,

which is quite a good name to research.

She's from Carshalton in the Sutton area, Surrey.

I haven't really got a very good address, I haven't really got a very good age.

The team have a very little information to go on,

so they use census and birth, death and marriage certificates to build a family tree for the deceased.

Going back generations and generations,

the team hope to uncover potential heirs to an estate.

Margaret Porter, maiden name Nye, passed away in June 2008,

leaving behind an estate worth an estimated £25,000.

Jack McAuliffe was her neighbour for 15 years and knew her as a private person.

Margaret was a very slight, frail lady.

She was timid.

She didn't really leave the house

and she didn't have any friends outside other than my wife or myself.

Although Margaret spent the last few years of her life alone,

she had been happily married for over 50 years to Harry Porter.

As far as Jack knew,

the couple met before World War II, and were wartime sweethearts during the conflict.

Margaret worked in a munitions factory in the North of England, and Harry served in Burma.

When the war ended, they got married, but had no children.

During the time Jack knew the couple, it seemed Margaret relied on Harry a great deal.

Margaret and Harry were very close to each other.

He used to do a lot of things for her, shopping,

some cleaning and housework and what have you indoors, and they seemed to live for each other.

After Harry died, Margaret had the help of her brother and sister, Ernest and Eileen.

And when they passed away in 2006, Jack and his late wife helped where they could.

If my wife baked a cake or bread pudding, some would always go over there.

Often at my expense!

The thing that Margaret really enjoyed was her

little dabble on the weekly lottery,

in the hope, of course, that she became a millionairess.

Needless to say, it never happened.

Margaret spent the last few years of her life in a nursing home

in Carshalton, Surrey before passing away aged 86,

leaving behind an estate worth an estimated £25,000.

By 7.20am, the team are piecing the story together.

With the case seeming to be based in Surrey,

Neil and Tony think Bob Barrett will be their local man on the ground.

PHONE RINGS.

-Hello, Bob Barrett.

-Hiya, Bob.

It's time to call upon the expertise of the travelling heir hunters.

Throughout the UK, Frasers have a team of researchers on standby,

who are able to hit the road at a moment's notice.

Their job is to track down vital clues and information on the case,

and, eventually, sign up the rightful heirs.

They have to work fast, as a rival heir hunting company is never far behind.

Pleased to meet you.

Bob is one of the team of travelling heir hunters, and is based in the Home Counties.

Tony sends him to Kingston register office to find the death certificate

of the deceased and any information he can find on Margaret's parents.

By 9am, Tony has found the details of the births

and deaths of Margaret's siblings, Ernest and Eileen, and a phone number for Margaret's sister-in-law.

I'm hoping that, if your husband turned out to be of the right family,

then he would have been entitled, and therefore that entitlement would pass to any children that you might have.

I don't know if you have any children... You didn't? That's a shame.

It wouldn't actually pass to yourself, because you wouldn't be a blood relative, you see.

From this call, Tony learns that neither Margaret's brother nor sister had any children,

so her estate won't pass to nieces or nephews. This means they will have to start looking for cousins.

Have you any idea of where your mother-in-law was actually born?

In Ireland?

The maiden name was Gundry, I think. It's a fairly unusual name, isn't it?

This conversation has given Tony a very useful lead.

She thought that the mother of the deceased was born in Ireland,

so we'll be asking our Irish agent if they can identify the birth in Ireland, and we'll wait and see.

But we're making some headway, so it's looking fairly positive at the moment.

Margaret Nye was the daughter of Elizabeth Gundry and Ernest Arthur Nye.

Margaret married Harry Porter, but they had no children.

Elizabeth and Arthur had two more children, Ernest and Eileen,

who both married, but also had no children.

Call for Tony...

Hello.

Bob calls with the information he's gleaned from the marriage certificate of Margaret's parents.

30th April, 1921.

Yes, tell me who the father is.

Charles Nye.

So, that's what you wanted to hear, I think.

-What about the mother?

-Elizabeth Gundry, 21, spinster.

Thanks, bye.

With Bob's update, Neil and Tony can start a family tree.

Using the 1911 census, Neil notices an interesting trend on Margaret's father's side.

The names we can read are Violet, Daisy, Rose, and Ivy.

Obviously, they're all named after flowers or plants,

which is a trend we've seen once or twice before, but it's still quite rare.

Margaret's father Ernest was the son of Charles Nye and Emma Haggar.

So far, we know they had five children and a penchant for flowers,

naming four of their daughter, Violet, Daisy, Rose, and Ivy.

I'm a particular fan of flowers in names, my daughter's called Rose. We've got a Rose here.

They started Violet, Daisy, Rose, and then I think maybe they decided to abandon the whole flower thing.

Maybe people started to notice.

Ivy Nye married George Mileham in 1917.

Neil is looking into whether they had children who could be heirs.

I just looked at the stem of Ivy.

Hannah Nye.

I've just got a son of hers up to date.

He's in the Hounslow area, and his name is George, after his father, George.

He's not a flower,

his sister's called Joan, and that's not after a flower, either.

Joan, after Joan of Arc,

and George, after the slayer of the dragon.

I don't think Neil is going to be calling any of his children by flowers.

He's not so keen.

If I have a child, I'll name it after myself.

Neil - a long standing tradition, he'll be called Neil.

Neil updates Bob Barrett with his discovery of George Mileham,

Ivy's son, hoping he can pay the potential heir a visit and sign him up.

I'll give you a treat, you can make your way to Hounslow.

-Hounslow, right.

-Bye.

I'm on my way to Hounslow now

to see a gentleman who's in his 90s, the paternal first cousin of the deceased and he's an heir.

Back in London, the paternal side of the tree just keeps growing.

As the tree expands, it's a timely reminder of what a sheltered and

lonely life Margaret lead, despite having so many relatives all living quite locally to her Surrey home.

With so many stems to research, Aisha has been brought in to help,

and she's working on another floral name - this time, an English Rose.

So, Rose marries a William Mitchell.

She marries in Croydon, but before she married she was a servant in Wimbledon and Epsom.

I found that out from the censuses.

I found a death for her in Merton, which isn't too far from Croydon,

so we're trying to find children in that sort of area.

Nothing is really springing out at the moment, so I'm just going to have a look for them.

It's not been too tricky, so far, so while Gareth is at lunch I'll just to try and finish it off.

But, Neil might have spoken too soon.

Bob has arrived at George Mileham's house, and it's not good news.

-Bob Barrett.

-If it's to do with the... I've already seen someone about this.

Oh, you have? With regard to?

The person they're looking for, regarding the will.

Right, so we can't interest you in doing business with us?

Sorry to have disturbed you.

-That's quite all right.

-Bye, now.

And I hope, at the end of the day, it's all worthwhile for you. Bye-bye.

So, one of our competitors got there first and has signed that particular heir,

so I'd better get back and tell them the good news in the office.

-Hiya.

-Hello, Neil.

Good news and bad news.

Did you get any family information?

No, he...

didn't really want to speak to me at all. He's already...

It's all too much for him, he's an elderly old gent, etc.

I'll give you something else later. Bye-bye.

Tone?

How may assist you?

Storm clouds are brewing overhead, and Tony's cheery mood proves all too brief.

That's a bit of a bummer, isn't it?

With the competition hot on their heels,

Tony gets straight on the phone to another potential heir. But is he too late?

Hello? Hello, Mrs Nye?

Oh, you have, indeed?

Yes, we're obviously another company, you see...

You say you've just had a call from somebody else about it?

Yes, that's another research company, you see.

But Tony won't be going down without a fight.

We've just got to go back

and re-look at our research and work at some other stems up.

So, there we go.

It's one of those cases where you expect to get competition on it,

and that's occurring. But I have every confidence in the team

and I'm sure that we'll triumph in the end.

With no sign of Margaret's mother's birth in Ireland, Tony asks Bob

to collect her death certificate to see if it might offer any clues.

September 1979 in Merton.

-So could you sort of try pointing that way?

-What was her maiden name?

-Gundry, G-U-N-D-R-Y, in theory.

-OK, cheers.

I've got something to do now, then,

which is

to go to Merton registry office.

We can't find the birth of the mother of the deceased,

so we're getting the death to see if it gives a place of birth on it.

It might not do. But we were told that she was born in Ireland, and we can't find it in Ireland.

Perhaps she was born between Ireland and Scotland,

born in the Isle Of Man. She doesn't seem to be born in Scotland.

So, perhaps she was born over here, or perhaps the name is wrong,

or incorrectly reproduced, or whatever, I don't know. I'm trying to deal with this. OK? Thank you.

Coming up on Heir Hunters - good detective work uncovers an enormous family for the reclusive Margaret.

We had an Ernest, Frederick, Charles, Violet, and Ivy...

-I think there was about 13 of them, altogether.

-There was quite a few, wasn't there?

Hoopers, based in London, are one of the oldest heir hunting companies in the country.

The chairman, Mike Tringham, has over 35 years' experience as a genealogist.

Despite decades of heir hunting and a dedicated team assisting him,

one case in particular has left Mike stumped.

It's this kind of case which really gets the juices flowing.

The more frustrating it is, the more difficult it is,

the more impossible it seems to solve, the more you want to solve it.

This was the case of Clare Hunt, a friend to many and lifelong partner to Herbert Hunt.

But she proved to be somewhat of an enigma after her death.

Clare Hunt was thought to have been born in the early 1920s, possibly in Blackpool.

Unfortunately, for the first few decades of her life, very little is known about her.

It is not until she met Herbert Hunt in the early '50s that her life can be more easily pieced together.

Herbert's younger sister Lillian remembers Clare well

and met her for the first time when she herself was only six years old.

She was so bubbly.

Her appearance was all perfect, her hair was always done nice...

She was just someone that you looked up to and you'd think, "Oh, it's nice to see someone like that."

Clare and Herbert's love affair was one that would last a lifetime.

But, despite knowing Clare for well over 50 years,

Lillian was never able to paint a clear picture of Clare's life before Herbert.

Clare had told me when I was younger that her parents and her sister died in a big car accident.

Whether Clare was in the accident or not, I've no idea.

She says she was the only one that was left

and she had to survive for herself.

She wouldn't talk about anything a lot.

I think she thought that was very...

It was her secret, you know what I mean?

Despite her tragic start in life, it seems Clare found true happiness when she met Herbie.

After courting for a while, they left Kent and set up home together in Blackpool.

Herbie was in the council in Maidstone, and he had a transfer from Maidstone to Blackpool.

I think that was her home roots, so she always liked to be there.

They moved up there and they stayed

till the day they died.

Under the bright lights of Blackpool, Herbie and Clare

took advantage of all that seaside life had to offer in the 1960s.

They must have liked bingo very much, because they were always going.

They liked the night life.

They didn't have any children to have to worry about,

so I think they went out a lot together and enjoyed themselves,

went abroad and everything like that.

It was the couple's shared love of bingo which gave them a great deal of pleasure,

especially in their late years when they'd retired.

Graham Sanderson Roberts, who works in the bingo hall, remembers the couple fondly.

The doors opened at 10.30, Clare and Bert would probably be in at around 10.45.

As soon as they came in, it was two cups of tea, two portions of chips,

always in the same seat. They sat in the same seat for nearly 13 years.

They would talk to their friends, it was just a routine. It was the same thing every day.

On its own, number 2.

And one day in 2002, Clare and Herbert's years of dedication to the bingo balls paid off.

-One lucky winner.

-I was there when the results

came through, when they shouted and they were told that time they'd actually won just close to £70,000.

The atmosphere was electric.

Everybody was cheering, they were clapping. It was just...

an ecstatic moment for them in their lives.

Despite winning such a huge sum of money, the couple decided to keep

news of their success to themselves, and their passion for the game couldn't be extinguished.

They never changed. They were still there five afternoons a week.

It wasn't the money they were looking at,

it was the atmosphere of the club, the people, the friends all around them.

It never changed them.

Sadly, after over 50 years of partnership

and just three years after their bingo win, Herbie passed away, and Clare was overwhelmed by grief.

I think it was very hard for her.

He looked after her for a long time, and then all of a sudden he's not there.

And she must have been,

well, really heartbroken.

Just eight months after Herbert's death, Clare, too, passed away, in a care home.

Later on Heir Hunters, Mike struggles to uncover

official and vital evidence of Clare's early life, which could hold the key to her past.

We looked in all records available to us in the UK

and abroad, and unfortunately we were never able to discover

a record of this marriage.

For every case that is cracked, there are still many thousands which remain a mystery.

These cases sit on the Treasury's unsolved list and can remain there for up to 30 years.

The estates can range wildly in value, from £5,000 to many millions,

with the rightful heirs completely unaware of the windfall they could claim.

Today, we've got two cases heir hunters have so far failed to solve.

Could you have the answer?

Could you be in line to inherit?

Margaret Pike passed away in March 2005 in London.

A beneficiary to her estate still cannot be found almost five years after her death.

Did you know her? Might you be able to help solve the case?

Jean Rawlinson died in Peckham, London, in June 2006,

leaving no will and an estate that is waiting to be claimed.

Could she be a distant relative of yours?

Might you be the missing link in this mystery?

Heir hunters Hoopers are given many cases from the Treasury's list, but other cases can be referred to them,

and one such case was that of Clare Hunt.

Mike Tringham has been investigating the case for the three years since Clare died

just eight months after her partner Herbert Hunt, in Blackpool.

It started off as being pretty routine, or so we thought.

But once we got started, we soon realised that it wasn't

as simple and straightforward as the normal run-of-the-mill case.

The couple had managed to accrue quite a nest egg in their time together,

and with the help of their £70,000 bingo win they left behind £120,000 in their joint account.

Because Herbert had predeceased Clare and the money was held in the

couple's joint bank account, the estate passed to Clare.

But, sadly, the couple had not made a will.

As the estate was entirely in Clare's name, only her blood relatives would be able to inherit.

So Mike began trying to trace Clare's family,

and this is where Clare's secrecy about her early life began to cause complications.

There was a date of birth on the death certificate, but neither her

place of birth nor her maiden name was given.

That's not unusual, particularly in the cases that land on our desk.

We started looking at possibilities of identifying her birth, and we drew a blank, unfortunately.

Usually, Mike would begin by building a family tree,

using a name and birth, death and marriage certificates

in order to trace parents and any blood relatives.

Working through the generations, often a beneficiary can be found who would be eligible to inherit.

In the case of Clare Hunt, three years after research began, Mike is still no closer to a resolution.

On Clare's death certificate, it stated she was born in 1921, but, frustratingly for Mike,

this conflicted with hospital records found from the '80s which stated she was born in 1925.

We looked at many of the females born, particularly in England and Ireland and Scotland,

by the name of Clare who were born in either 1921 or 1925,

but none of them fitted the bill.

Mike also drew a blank when looking for Herbert and Clare's

marriage certificate, raising the possibility that the couple never wed.

In fact, none of Herbert's family had attended any ceremony.

I just assumed they were married, because when they used to come down they used to share the room.

So I just assumed they were married, because I don't think my mum would

have let them do that if they wasn't.

The question of whether the couple were married had major ramifications.

Aside from the couple's £120,000 in their joint account,

Herbert had left behind some money of his own, £12,000.

If Herbert and Clare had been married, then this £12,000 would have gone to Clare.

If they hadn't, then Herbert's personal sum would go to his blood relatives, such as Lillian.

So Mike needed to prove the couple's union one way or another.

The simplest explanation is that

she took up with a Mr Herbert Hunt so therefore she had obviously taken on his name.

Mike's theory seems to have been supported by his discovery of some records from the '90s.

This is a form filled in by Herbert Hunt, and it's got here "Marital status". It's left blank.

"Birth of wife." Left blank.

And then further down, it says "Name of account - Herbert S Hunt and Clare Hunt".

And alongside the name Clare Hunt it says "Not his wife.

"Spoke to Bob Leadbetter, 10th September '92."

That's obviously an official in the bank,

and they've confirmed, clarified, that Clare Hunt was not his wife.

With no real idea whether Hunt was Clare's actual surname, Mike was unable to even start a family tree.

Did Clare use a false name?

Had she ever been known by another name?

In a further twist, additional records from the Pensions Office

suggested Clare may have married another man, Bernard Valentine, in 1951, before meeting Herbie.

If this marriage took place, Bernard or any children they may have had would be heirs.

If Mike could find evidence of this union, the case could be cracked.

We looked in all records available to us in the UK

and abroad, and unfortunately we were never able to discover

a record of this marriage, if indeed it took place.

No, I wouldn't have said she was married before,

and I'd stake my life on that.

She was always Herbie's.

I have this theory that perhaps she did marry a Mr Valentine

and the marriage didn't work out and she walked out, and not long after,

she met Herbert Hunt, and because she was already married and had walked out on her husband,

she couldn't marry Herbert, and that situation remained for the rest of her life.

With no further leads, Mike has hit another dead end on this case,

and the question of exactly who Clare Hunt was remains a mystery.

At the moment, I'm at a loss as to where we go from here.

I hope someone might remember her,

might recall who Clare was, might have gone to school with her,

might have met her, might have been married to her. Who knows?

Mike has searched for over three years and is no closer to solving the case.

Might you have the missing piece of the jigsaw?

Do you recognise Clare from her photograph?

Do you remember her marrying a Bernard Valentine?

Perhaps you knew her under a different name, when she was in her 20s and early 30s.

Even the tiniest piece of information might hold

the key to unlocking this case and returning Clare's estate of £120,000 to the rightful beneficiary.

The Fraser's team are investigating the case of Margaret Porter,

who died in 2008 in Surrey, leaving an estimated estate of £25,000.

Despite leading a quiet life, Margaret had married Harry Porter

after the Second World War, and it was a union that would span over 50 years.

When Harry passed away in 1998, Margaret became increasingly

introverted and shy, and her friend Jack always considered her a reclusive person.

She was just one of these people, I suppose,

who is in her own little world.

Although Margaret lived in her own private world,

the team are uncovering dozens of family members who live close by.

And while they're still in need of a breakthrough on the maternal side

of the tree, the paternal side is growing by the minute.

Minnie. Yeah? Age 22, born Middlesex. Croydon, according to that.

Gareth has found a clue on the census that reveals a sibling who had lain undiscovered until now.

When we found the census of Violet in Ipswich,

she is living as a housemaid,

but she's also living with a Minnie Nye, who's also a housemaid, who's got to be a sister.

I mean, it would be the coincidence of two Nyes living together,

both born in the same sort of area.

So we're guessing that she's a sister that we didn't know about.

So I'm going to see what happens to Minnie.

But yeah, she definitely going to be an aunt of the deceased.

Aisha has some additions for the family tree, too.

She has found a brother on the paternal side who married and had children.

Erm, I can't find Shirley, so I've found her daughter,

married her off and got her up to date on the telephone.

Ernest and his four sisters also had another sister, Alice Minnie,

and a brother, Frederick.

Frederick married Mary and they had a daughter, Shirley.

She later had a child of her own, who stands to inherit.

Alice Minnie had two children, Robert and Violet.

Violet died without kin,

but Robert fathered six children,

who will all be heirs.

-Can you get that?

-'619 for Tony.'

Bob has an update for the team.

He has the death certificate for Margaret's mother.

Might this unlock the maternal side of the tree?

Elizabeth Nye, maiden name Gundry, born 13th January 1900

in Wimbledon. Not Ireland at all.

Even with this new information, Elizabeth Gundry's birth details still can't be found.

Something's not right here.

It's beginning to look like a mistake has been made in the birth records of Margaret's mother.

It's not in Wimbledon at all,

and the son who informed on the death has got it wrong.

The date of birth is wrong,

or there's a wrong spelling on it.

So it's a bit of guesswork at the moment.

The team must solve this puzzle.

Without Elizabeth's correct date of birth, they cannot access her

siblings and cousins Margaret had who could be heirs.

During another check of the 1911 census, they have a breakthrough and find Elizabeth and her siblings.

We were looking for the birth. We haven't found the birth.

What we've found is the 1911 census...

..which in the case we have people born in Wimbledon, born in Dublin,

born back in Wimbledon, and then...around.

So it's just...

It probably should have been found earlier, and would have if we'd been working it fully.

But we got told it was in Ireland from a fairly good source, couldn't find a birth,

believed it was in Ireland, and we've concentrated on the easier bit first,

so we've got to catch up on this side now.

Looks like we've got six children on that,

so we've got five stems to work up.

Elizabeth Gundry was also from a big family.

She had five brothers and sisters -

Margaret, Kathleen, James, Walter and Mary.

If they had any children, they would be heirs to Margaret's estate.

Neil rushes to tell Tony of their breakthrough so he can call another potential heir.

-We're all getting dynamic again, are we? Where are we going?

-Netta.

Well, I think it's a good try-out first off. Yeah.

Hello?

Hello, sorry to trouble you. Is that Mrs Randall?

Although Mrs Randall cannot inherit, her late husband George was a cousin of Margaret's.

This means any children Mrs Randall may have had could be beneficiaries.

And I'm hoping that you did have children.

Oh, three. Oh, that's good. Right, OK.

So your three children would, we think, be entitled to the share

of an estate of somebody who has died quite recently.

It sounds as though the news is pretty good.

The indication is it looks as though we're ahead of the competition, which is great news.

..contact addresses...

We should have found this before lunch, but obviously with no-one looking at it until later,

it's the reason we're slightly behind.

So it's good news. We're catching up.

That's right, I can check all these out. Yeah.

There's a cousin of your husband called Cathy, and she's married to Les and they live in Guildford.

We'll find that and we'll work it backwards.

That's lovely. Thanks ever so much.

Elizabeth's sister Mary married Frederick Randall,

and they had two children, one of whom is living and would be an heir.

Their other child, George, has now passed away but was married

to Netta Randall, and they had three children, who would all be heirs.

Netta has told Tony about a cousin of her husband's, Catherine.

She would also be an heir, so the team are keen to track her down.

Meanwhile, away from the hustle and bustle of the office, Bob has been having a somewhat less dynamic day.

Waiting.

A bit of waiting here and a bit of waiting there.

So, just for a change, I'm doing a bit of waiting.

Waiting for a phone call now from Tony.

While Bob plays the waiting game, the office is in full flow.

Oh, hello. Mrs Voyce?

Still on the phone?

-He's on the other line at the moment, I'm afraid.

-No problem.

1939. Yeah?

Bob is waiting outside the home of a potential heir,

but he needs some details from Tony before he can proceed.

Finally, Gareth gets in touch...

-Would you like the tree, then?

-..and steers him in the right direction.

On the mother's side we would seem to have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,

eight, nine, ten...

Probably ten...

Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen heirs.

And on the other side there's about five or six, I think,

so we could have 15, 16, perhaps more, people entitled in this matter.

So it does take a lot of organising, and, obviously, we've still got a lot to backtrack on,

and it's now ten past five and I'm fed up and I want to go home.

But it's not home time for Bob just yet.

He's still pounding the streets in his hunt for an heir.

It must be further down.

Having found the correct address, will his final throw of today's dice produce an heir he can sign up?

Well, after all that, there's nobody in.

After a day of frustrations and mixed fortunes, Bob goes home

and will pick up his search again tomorrow morning.

It's a new day and a fresh start.

Bob is still chasing down heirs to Margaret Porter's estate.

He's come to see a potential beneficiary, but nobody seems to be at home.

It's one of those jobs where no-one's in.

After confirming with a neighbour that this is the correct address, Bob leaves a note.

I'm off to Camberley now,

to try and see another heir.

I say another heir - this is my third attempt.

With a bit of luck, this chap will be in. I think he's in his 80s, so a good chance he won't be out at work.

-Hello.

-It looks as though Bob has the right address, but has he managed to sign up an heir?

What a smashing old gent.

Signed an agreement with us, so at least I've found someone in,

which is good. I better ring and tell them in the office that I've had some success.

And now his luck's changed, Bob heads to an appointment made by the office

with another possible beneficiary in Kent, Francis Mitchell, and his wife and daughter.

-Francis rather than Frank?

-Francis.

-Francis.

-He always calls himself Frank, but officially it's Francis.

The person that died is in fact a cousin.

Have you heard of an Uncle Ernest?

-Oh, yes.

-It was one of his children who's died.

Oh!

I warn you, one of the things I'm going to ask you is the date of your marriage, and sometimes

the men get in a dreadful position - "She's sitting next to me and I can't remember it!"

What was it, '45?

-No, it was the 16th of March '46.

-Oh.

There we are, you're fired!

And your mother's maiden name?

-Nye.

-Nye.

Could I ask you now about your mother's brothers and sisters,

so aunts and uncles on your mother's side?

Well, there was Ernie, Frederick...

Fred.

..Charlie. He had a boy, a son.

Do you remember his name, Charlie's boy?

-Charlie, he was called.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Do you remember anything else about him?

-Is he the one that only had one leg?

Yes, he only had one leg.

What, did he lose it in the war or something?

No, he lost it playing football.

-Did he?

-Yeah.

Anyone else? Are we done? Ernest, Frederick, Charles, Violet and Ivy.

I think there was about 13 of them altogether!

There was quite a few, wasn't there? Ida.

-Ida, yeah.

-Do you remember Ida?

-Ida.

-Did she marry?

Yes.

-Any idea of a name?

-Mr Yeoman.

That's an unusual one, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Any children?

-No children.

No. And we think there may have been a couple more that died as children, but, erm...

Well, I think you did quite well on that.

It's been a very successful visit for Bob.

Fraser's will help Frank make a claim for part of Margaret's £25,000

estate, and hopefully he won't be the only one in line for a windfall.

Right, take me glasses off, otherwise I'll fall over when I stand up.

Thanks very much.

-Nice to meet you.

-All right. And you.

-Bye.

-All the best.

-Thanks very much.

-Cheerio. Thanks for being here.

-Thank you. Thank you.

And for Tony and the team, it's been a successful case, and it seems all their effort was worth it.

It was rather difficult to get going, but I'm pleased to be able to say

that it now looks as if it will all come together.

We've got, I think, getting on for 30 heirs or so, which isn't a bad number.

It's a manageable number.

They will hopefully all get a reasonable sum of money.

So it's nice to know that we've finally been able to get this one almost wrapped up.

If you would like to find out more

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

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