0:00:02 > 0:00:03Every year in the UK,
0:00:03 > 0:00:07thousands of people die with no will and no obvious relatives.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10Tracking down their long lost families
0:00:10 > 0:00:14is a job for the heir hunters. Could they be knocking at your door?
0:00:30 > 0:00:35On today's programme, an old inheritance law causes tempers to rise.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41We're British, why haven't we all got the same laws? Why does it have to be different?
0:00:41 > 0:00:46And in tracing the heirs to a £300,000 estate,
0:00:46 > 0:00:51the researchers uncover a woman's glamorous and fascinating past.
0:00:51 > 0:00:52It was exciting.
0:00:52 > 0:00:57You had foreign travel, you had this aura of racehorses and royalty.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02And we'll have details of some of the hundreds of estates still waiting to be claimed.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04Could you be in line for a windfall?
0:01:12 > 0:01:16In the UK, two-thirds of people don't have a valid will
0:01:16 > 0:01:19and therefore no record of their last wishes.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22If they die without having made one and no obvious relatives,
0:01:22 > 0:01:25their money goes to the Government,
0:01:25 > 0:01:30who last year made a staggering £18 million from unclaimed estates.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33- That's where the heir hunters step in.- Pleased to meet you.
0:01:33 > 0:01:39More than 30 heir-hunting companies make it their business to track down long-lost relatives.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42It can be rewarding for the unsuspecting heirs.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47In the last ten years alone, one of the oldest companies in Britain, Fraser and Fraser,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51has enabled a whopping £100 million to be inherited.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02It's Thursday morning, the office's busiest day of the week.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06The Treasury's latest list of people dying without leaving a will
0:02:06 > 0:02:10has just been released, and the office is starting to research cases.
0:02:10 > 0:02:16Company partner Neil Fraser has identified one he would like to investigate further.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19I think what we're going to look at today is an estate called Hall.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24It's Alan Lewis Edmund Hall, dies in Leicester,
0:02:24 > 0:02:30but we think we've identified an address in Oakham, which is Lincolnshire, just on the border.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34It looks as though he owns a property but there's a mortgage on that property
0:02:34 > 0:02:36so I don't know about the value at the moment.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40Hopefully when we get a decent enquiry done, we'll have a better idea.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44Alan owned a house in the village of Whissendine in Rutland
0:02:44 > 0:02:48that is estimated to be worth around £150,000.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56As heir hunters work on commission, it's important for them to establish the value of the estate.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Neil starts the ball rolling by asking case manager David Slee
0:03:00 > 0:03:03to see what he can find out from Alan's neighbours.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06Bye-bye.
0:03:06 > 0:03:12Really, really nice guy, who was a good friend of the deceased
0:03:12 > 0:03:19and the deceased had lots of friends, no family but lots and lots of friends, and really sadly missed.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Alan had lived in the village of Whissendine all his life.
0:03:23 > 0:03:29He was very popular and a regular visitor to the local village pub.
0:03:29 > 0:03:36Alan spent most of his life in the village - he grew up in the village and went to school in the village.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38It's just such a nice place to live
0:03:38 > 0:03:42and Alan was somebody who made it a nice place to live as well.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47Alan had worked in a local factory but after taking early retirement,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50he threw himself into village life.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53He just had this presence of a gentle giant
0:03:53 > 0:03:58because he was quite a tall, big man, but he was so knowledgeable
0:03:58 > 0:04:04and he just loved talking about the day's events, the world events,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07sport, planning where he was next going to travel.
0:04:08 > 0:04:14Alan was obsessed with horse racing and planned to visit every single racetrack in the UK.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18He was only three away from achieving his goal when he was taken ill.
0:04:18 > 0:04:25Alan had just felt a bit unwell, unfortunately, and he'd gone in for some tests and they'd sent him home,
0:04:25 > 0:04:30and then they called him back in about a week later
0:04:30 > 0:04:33and unfortunately it was only a matter of a few days before he passed away
0:04:33 > 0:04:36so he didn't have time to dwell on his illness.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Alan died at the age of just 52.
0:04:40 > 0:04:46Although none of his immediate family was there, his closest friends made sure they gave him a good send-off.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50Alan's funeral was arranged by a group of his close friends from the village,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53organised to have marquees put up here at the back of the pub
0:04:53 > 0:04:56because we knew there'd be so many people coming.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01There was at least 177 people at his funeral and they were all back here
0:05:01 > 0:05:06and celebrated his life with a toast and a drink.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11Alan had died unexpectedly, so hadn't made any provisions for his estate
0:05:11 > 0:05:15that was now destined for the Treasury coffers unless heirs are found.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Believing this estate may be one of value,
0:05:21 > 0:05:28Neil put case manager David Milchard, aka Grimble, onto the case to work alongside David Slee.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Grimble's first task is to draw up a family tree,
0:05:33 > 0:05:39so he seeks out Alan's birth certificate to verify the names of his parents.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41It shows his mother's maiden name was Harrison.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44The marriage, we've got the maiden name as Reames,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48so it's either the wrong birth or it's possible she was married before.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53Grimble's initial research brings up two conflicting maiden names
0:05:53 > 0:05:58for the woman they believe to be Alan's mother - Reames and Harrison.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01Until they can find out which, if either, of them is the right name,
0:06:01 > 0:06:06it's difficult for them to work up the family tree. Neil is equally flummoxed.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11We can't find an Alan LE Hall birth,
0:06:11 > 0:06:16and the best we've got is one which is a year out that puts the mother's maiden name as Harrison.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21Now Harrison is nothing like Reames, so we're not sure where that fits in at the moment.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23If we ignore the birth of the deceased
0:06:23 > 0:06:27and we've possibly found the right parents of the deceased,
0:06:27 > 0:06:32we can shoot away, but it's a bit risky just to ignore the birth of the deceased.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35The office can only speculate at the moment
0:06:35 > 0:06:40and know if they start tracing the wrong Alan Hall, they will lose this case.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45They need hard facts and people on the street to find and talk to people face to face,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48so it's time to call in the cavalry.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Up and down the country, there is a troupe of travelling heir hunters
0:06:55 > 0:06:58just waiting to be dispatched to wherever the case sends them.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01They play an invaluable role in the whole operation -
0:07:01 > 0:07:05picking up records, gathering information from neighbours,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09and once an heir is found, making sure they sign on the dotted line.
0:07:09 > 0:07:16Today, they need someone to confirm who Alan's parents were and to establish the value of the estate.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20Paul Matthews has been tracking down heirs for the past eight years
0:07:20 > 0:07:23and lives close by, so he's assigned the task.
0:07:25 > 0:07:32Today, we're on the estate of an Alan Hall who passed away in Leicester in May 2008.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38We know very little. We've got an address to go and visit in Oakham
0:07:38 > 0:07:41so, yeah, that's all we know so far.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44We don't know the value of the estate -
0:07:44 > 0:07:48provided there's some value to it, we'll be off to the Registry Office.
0:07:50 > 0:07:58Back in the office, the mystery of Alan's birth certificate still rumbles on but Grimble has a theory.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02There's a possibility we may have an adoption here,
0:08:02 > 0:08:08which if it's an adoption, then of course it's the adopted parents whose family we'll be looking for.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14Under English law, once someone is adopted, they are treated in the same way
0:08:14 > 0:08:16as a natural child of the adopted parents.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21This means that it is the adopted family and not the birth parents' family
0:08:21 > 0:08:23that are entitled to a share of the estate.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29But the office still don't know if this is the correct direction they should be going in.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36- And out on the road, Paul has also lost his way. - I've got a blank screen.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42This wasn't in the plan.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45As Paul resorts to using a good old-fashioned map,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49the breakthrough the office has been after also comes from tried and trusted methods.
0:08:49 > 0:08:56David has spent the last hour calling up Alan's neighbours and is finally able to confirm his parentage.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01Deceased bachelor, owned property,
0:09:01 > 0:09:07one sister who died aged 15 or 16, lifelong villager,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11knew that the parents died, those dates are about right, Lewis and Joyce.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16David has found out that Alan wasn't adopted
0:09:16 > 0:09:20and that his parents were Lewis Arthur Hall and Joyce Dora Reames.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22He had a sister called Gillian,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25but tragically she died of a brain haemorrhage
0:09:25 > 0:09:27when she was 17 years old.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30The maiden name Harrison had been a red herring.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33His maiden name is indexed wrongly,
0:09:33 > 0:09:39so it's a problem of computerised records, really.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43In recent years, the office's research team
0:09:43 > 0:09:47has been helped by the emergence of an abundance of genealogy websites.
0:09:49 > 0:09:56But sometimes information can be inputted incorrectly and this can lead heir hunters down blind alleys,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59and unfortunately so can sat navs.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03Yeah, well, the sat nav decided to have a bit of a sulk,
0:10:03 > 0:10:10all the information for where we were disappeared off the screen, no roads or nothing.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14So I've had the map out, turned it back on again,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18and all of a sudden, it can find out where we are again.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24But Paul's sat nav has sent him to a level crossing he can't access,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28so maybe he should have stuck with an old-fashioned map after all.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33Oh, well.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37One of those days.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41Coming up, as Paul gets on the right track,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45back in the office, Grimble makes a shocking confession.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50I'm too lazy to do it, it's just something you keep putting off
0:10:50 > 0:10:53and it's something most of us are guilty of doing.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00Not all cases appear on the Treasury's list -
0:11:00 > 0:11:06sometimes they are referred directly to probate research companies.
0:11:06 > 0:11:13When Kathleen Joy Cundall's family solicitors were unable to settle her £300,000 estate
0:11:13 > 0:11:16because they couldn't locate all of her next of kin,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20they called for specialist help from heir hunting company, Hoopers.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24The company, based in London, is one of the oldest in the United Kingdom
0:11:24 > 0:11:31and they've reunited rightful heirs with millions of pounds.
0:11:31 > 0:11:38Mike Tringham, the company's chairman, took on the task of finding Kathleen's missing beneficiaries.
0:11:38 > 0:11:44Well, the solicitors knew of one or two lawful heirs
0:11:44 > 0:11:49and we had a little bit of information about a skeleton tree
0:11:49 > 0:11:52where potentially there were a number of other relatives,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55and obviously they couldn't ignore that information.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58They couldn't settle and distribute the estate
0:11:58 > 0:12:03without at least making some effort to try and find any other relatives.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12The solicitors also told Mike that Kathleen Joy Cundall,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15who preferred to be known by her middle name Joy,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18died age 83 in a nursing home in Herefordshire.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Before she moved into the home,
0:12:21 > 0:12:26she had been living with her late sister Marjorie, known as Billie to her friends.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29Norma Boddington lived next door to them.
0:12:32 > 0:12:33It was a funny relationship.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38They were hard to live with each other but couldn't manage without.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44They were sweet people but different, very different.
0:12:45 > 0:12:51Sadly, the sisters both became ill with Alzheimer's at around the same time.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56They became unwell both of them, first Billie and ultimately Joy,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59and they really couldn't manage in the house any longer.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02They had nurses there for quite a while looking after them
0:13:02 > 0:13:06and they stayed in their house, which they loved, for as long as they could.
0:13:06 > 0:13:13The sisters also moved into the same nursing home together and ended up dying within months of each other.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Sister Billie died first and her estate,
0:13:16 > 0:13:21which included her home in Herefordshire, was passed on to Joy.
0:13:21 > 0:13:28By the time Joy died a few months later, the sisters' entire estate was valued at £300,000.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34But this money was still in the hands of solicitors
0:13:34 > 0:13:38and would remain there until all of Joy's heirs were identified.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42It now became Hoopers' prime focus to plot her family tree,
0:13:42 > 0:13:49so Mike started to look through the records to see if he could find any clues about Joy's past.
0:13:49 > 0:13:56We discovered that Kathleen was an officer in the RAF for many years,
0:13:56 > 0:14:02which potentially could help us with our enquiries and research.
0:14:02 > 0:14:08Mike had uncovered that Joy, or Kathleen as she was known during her time in the Forces,
0:14:08 > 0:14:12joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, or WAAF as it was commonly known,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15in July 1944, when she was 20 years old.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22The WAAF was formed in 1939 and by the end of the war,
0:14:22 > 0:14:26more than a quarter of a million women had served within its ranks.
0:14:26 > 0:14:31Taking on a huge variety of roles, women like Joy could find themselves
0:14:31 > 0:14:34working as meteorologists or wireless operators,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38taking on intelligence work or even repairing aircraft.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Nina Burls is a curator at the RAF Museum
0:14:43 > 0:14:48and has recently put together an exhibition about the role of these women during the war.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51The WAAF offered women the opportunity
0:14:51 > 0:14:55to do their bit during the war and it also offered them
0:14:55 > 0:14:57an escape from their current life
0:14:57 > 0:15:01and opportunities that they wouldn't necessarily have available to them.
0:15:01 > 0:15:06We know that Kathleen was posted to the Administration and Special Duties branch,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and this may have been really interesting for her
0:15:09 > 0:15:13because this dealt with a lot of the intelligence work which was going on.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Although it's not certain what Joy's special duties involved,
0:15:19 > 0:15:24what is known is that the WAAF played a vital role in the control of aircraft,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28both in the radar stations and as plotters in the operation rooms.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32During the Battle of Britain, they directed fighter aircraft
0:15:32 > 0:15:36against the Luftwaffe, mapping both home and enemy positions.
0:15:36 > 0:15:43Joy's care workers, who'd looked after her in later life, loved learning of her earlier career.
0:15:43 > 0:15:49I could definitely imagine Joy in the RAF,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53organising people and making sure that everything was done right.
0:15:53 > 0:16:00She was just such a great organiser.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09But while living through the war, Joy also suffered her own personal hardship.
0:16:11 > 0:16:18She never married because she said, "You only have one love and I lost my love many years ago."
0:16:18 > 0:16:21She lost him during the war,
0:16:21 > 0:16:27so whether that's when she was in the RAF as well, I don't know.
0:16:27 > 0:16:33Sadly, Joy was one of thousands of women and men who lost loved ones in the war.
0:16:37 > 0:16:44Because of her loss, Joy chose never to marry and as a result she also never had any children.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49Back in the office, this meant that Mike looked to the extended family for heirs.
0:16:49 > 0:16:55His initial enquiries showed that Joy was born in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex
0:16:55 > 0:16:59and was the daughter of Thomas Cundall and Kathleen Coleman.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03She only had one sister, Billie, who didn't have any children either.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08Mike decided to look into Joy's father's side of the family tree first.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Once we'd identified the father's birth record
0:17:12 > 0:17:16and who his parents were, the paternal grandparents,
0:17:16 > 0:17:22we were then, through birth records and census records, able to identify
0:17:22 > 0:17:26that the deceased's father had four siblings.
0:17:28 > 0:17:34Mike's research showed that Joy's father, Thomas Cundall, was the son of Richard Cundall and Ada Pilling.
0:17:34 > 0:17:41As well as Thomas, they had four other children...
0:17:41 > 0:17:45Mike decided to investigate Thomas's siblings further.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49One of the father's siblings was an Alfred Cundall,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53so we thought we'd have a look and see what happened to him
0:17:53 > 0:17:58and we were able to establish that he married and had children,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02including a daughter called Phyllis,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05later Phyllis Seymore.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09Mike discovered that Phyllis, one of Joy's first cousins,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12was the only surviving heir from this stem of the family tree,
0:18:12 > 0:18:17as her elder brother Alfred had died ten years earlier.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20After tracking her down relatively easily,
0:18:20 > 0:18:24he called her with the news most people dream of receiving,
0:18:24 > 0:18:28but didn't get the initial reaction he was expecting.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31I was rather short with Hoopers on the phone
0:18:31 > 0:18:34because I thought it was a cold caller,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37somebody trying to sell me something or find out something.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43But once Mike had convinced her that he wasn't trying to sell her anything,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46her initial frosty reaction turned to one of surprise.
0:18:46 > 0:18:54I'd thought that everyone had long gone because they were at least ten years older than me
0:18:54 > 0:18:58and we hadn't been in touch for many, many years,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00so naturally I was a bit shocked.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05Phyllis remembers meeting her cousins Joy and Billie a long time ago.
0:19:05 > 0:19:11I only met them once when I was about five or six.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15There was a photograph, which I so wish I could find,
0:19:15 > 0:19:19it's somewhere up in the archives, of the two cousins
0:19:19 > 0:19:22and of me about so high.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27I remember I fell that day at the party, grazed my knee,
0:19:27 > 0:19:35so the picture was of me trying to conceal my grazed knee in the photograph.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Phyllis also remembered how her father, Alfred,
0:19:40 > 0:19:44had been close to his brother Thomas, Joy's dad.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47We were all on the telephone
0:19:47 > 0:19:54and, as I say, I think my father used to write to his brother and get news from the family then.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01But after Phyllis's father died when she was ten years old, the families had ended up losing touch,
0:20:01 > 0:20:07so it had come as a shock for Phyllis to be hearing about the cousins now, nearly 70 years later.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14I would be interested to find out what happened to them in their later life,
0:20:14 > 0:20:18where they went, what they did, what sort of jobs they had,
0:20:18 > 0:20:25because I had no contact at all so it would be quite fascinating to know what happened.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27Still to come -
0:20:27 > 0:20:33armed with questions about her father's side of the family, Phyllis visits the heir hunters' offices.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37I would never have dreamt that I was going to see all this today.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40And her cousin's glamorous past is revealed.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43She used to do facials and go around the hotels,
0:20:43 > 0:20:48some of the film stars, I think, and had quite an interesting life at that period.
0:20:57 > 0:21:03For every case that's solved, there are still thousands on the Treasury's list that remain a mystery.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07The deceased's assets are kept for up to 30 years
0:21:07 > 0:21:12in the hope that eventually someone will remember and come forward to claim their inheritance.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19And with estates valued at anything from £5,000 to millions of pounds,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22the rightful heirs are out there somewhere.
0:21:26 > 0:21:32Today, we've got two cases that heir hunters have been unable to crack so far - could you know the answer?
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Maybe you are in line for a windfall.
0:21:34 > 0:21:41Charles Alfred James Mitchell died in Gillingham, Kent on 11 February 2008.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45Do you know him?
0:21:45 > 0:21:46Did he live in your neighbourhood?
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Maybe you are even related to him and one of his beneficiaries.
0:21:53 > 0:21:59Hugh Murray passed away on 18 July 2006 in Dorchester, Dorset.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03So far, every attempt to find his rightful heir has failed.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Could you be entitled to his legacy?
0:22:08 > 0:22:11If no relatives are found for Charles Mitchell or Hugh Murray,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15their money will go to the Government, but could it be meant for you?
0:22:20 > 0:22:25Heir hunters Fraser and Fraser are still investigating the case of Alan Hall.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28He died aged 52 of an unexpected illness,
0:22:28 > 0:22:36leaving behind a mortgaged property worth an estimate £150,000 in Whissendine in Rutland.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42He'd lived in the village all his life and was very much loved by the local community.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48I miss Alan every week now, even though it's over 18 months since he passed away.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51When the boys walk in a Friday night, I'm always looking for Alan
0:22:51 > 0:22:56to walk through after them because he used to be the last one through the door out of the group.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58Alan was very popular.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01Over 170 people attended his funeral,
0:23:01 > 0:23:06but there wasn't a single relative of Alan's amongst them,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09so that's why the heir hunters have stepped in.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11They need to establish who is entitled to his estate,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15otherwise it will end up going into the Government's coffers.
0:23:15 > 0:23:21Jo is one of the team's researchers and she's looking into Alan's father's side of the family.
0:23:21 > 0:23:29We found the paternal grandparents, Edmund Hall and his wife Minnie Birkett,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33and we found a possible two children of that marriage.
0:23:35 > 0:23:42Jo has found out that Alan's father's parents, Edmund Hall and Minnie Birkett, had two other children,
0:23:42 > 0:23:43Edith and Harry,
0:23:43 > 0:23:46but unfortunately Edith died in infancy
0:23:46 > 0:23:49and Harry died a bachelor without having any children.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54With no sign of any heirs in the office,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58is travelling heir hunter Paul Matthews faring any better out on the road?
0:23:59 > 0:24:01Well, I was having my doubts we'd ever get there,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04but I think we've, by doing two different loops,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07put about an extra three-quarters of an hour on my journey,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11I think we're actually nearly there.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15'You have arrived at your destination.'
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Back in the office, case manager Grimble is now focusing his search
0:24:19 > 0:24:23on Alan's mother Joyce's side of the family tree.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28Mum Joyce, it looks like she had one sister, Gwendolyn,
0:24:28 > 0:24:32we're trying to see what happened to her.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35She only needs to have one child and we're home and away, really.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39If she'd died with no children,
0:24:39 > 0:24:46then we're really going back to hoping there's half-blood.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49If they are unable to find any full blood relatives,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53the team will then start to look into half blood relatives.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57This is when a person is related to another by one parent only,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01so if either of Alan's parents had any half-brothers or -sisters,
0:25:01 > 0:25:04they could be entitled to a share of the estate.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12On the road, Paul's door to door enquiries are going well.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14OK to spend five minutes having a chat with me?
0:25:14 > 0:25:22I've spoken to a neighbour of the deceased Alan who knew him well.
0:25:22 > 0:25:23He's been here a few years
0:25:23 > 0:25:27and apparently Alan has always lived his life in this village,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30his parents used to live down the road.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32The property was owned by Alan.
0:25:32 > 0:25:38The gentleman seems to think it's worth about £150,000 but there may well be a mortgage on it.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41But it's an estate that's certainly worthwhile pursuing.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51As Paul has been able to confirm from one of Alan's neighbours that the estate is valuable,
0:25:51 > 0:25:57the search for his next of kin is starting to intensify.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02Researcher Dominic is focusing on finding Alan's aunt Gwendolyn.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06The chances are that the death search,
0:26:06 > 0:26:11which is one of the more slow searches that we do, will turn up that she died a spinster.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15It's the most likely thing but if that does turn up nothing,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19we won't have wasted all this time, really, and in the meantime,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22we might even be able to find something before they do.
0:26:22 > 0:26:27We're trying to do everything, absolutely everything we can on this search at the moment,
0:26:27 > 0:26:29but are getting nowhere very quickly.
0:26:29 > 0:26:35While Dominic perseveres with his hunt, Gareth looks into the deaths of Alan's grandparents.
0:26:35 > 0:26:42He wants to find out if any of them died young and may have been able to have children with another partner.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47We're hoping that there's going to be someone that we haven't accounted for yet,
0:26:47 > 0:26:51maybe another child or something like that,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55and also maybe there'll be some wills to look at as well.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58So if we can establish the deaths of the grandparents...
0:27:00 > 0:27:04..it'll either finish off the case or maybe give us an heir that we didn't know about.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10Meanwhile out on the road, has Paul got the breakthrough they've all been searching for?
0:27:10 > 0:27:15- He calls Grimble.- Hello, Paul. - How are you going, Dave, all right, mate?
0:27:15 > 0:27:16I'm all right, how are you?
0:27:16 > 0:27:19It's been a nightmare but anyway, I got there eventually.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24I've got a name and a phone number for you - Valerie Hutchinson.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28- Yeah.- She did know the deceased, said she was related.
0:27:28 > 0:27:34Finally, a neighbour had given the office a lead to a potential cousin of the deceased.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39Valerie Hutchinson lives in Kirby Muxloe, not too far from Alan's home.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43The last time she spoke to him was ten years ago.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47I lost touch with Alan after his mother died
0:27:47 > 0:27:51and he rang me to say that his mother had passed away
0:27:51 > 0:27:56and that was the last time I spoke to him.
0:27:56 > 0:28:01Valerie was shocked to hear that Alan had died when he was only 52 years old.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07I couldn't believe, because he was such a young lad, that he would die.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10It turned out that Valerie's grandparents
0:28:10 > 0:28:15were Alan's great-grandparents, making her Alan's second cousin.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20Unfortunately, this means that she won't be entitled to a share of Alan's estate
0:28:20 > 0:28:27as the law states that only first cousins can be beneficiaries, not second ones.
0:28:28 > 0:28:33Law Commissioner Professor Elizabeth Cooke is an expert on inheritance law.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39Every legal system makes a choice about how far that range of relationships goes
0:28:39 > 0:28:43and it so happens that a decision was taken back in 1925
0:28:43 > 0:28:47that we would stop with grandparents and their offspring.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51Current legislation means that only first cousins
0:28:51 > 0:28:55or first cousins once, twice, or three times removed
0:28:55 > 0:28:57are entitled to inherit.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01Great-grandparents and any of their descendants have no rights.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05This rules second cousin Valerie out as an heir to Alan's estate,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09so has the office been able to find anyone else?
0:29:11 > 0:29:16Unfortunately, one of the last hopes to find living beneficiaries on this was Gwendolyn,
0:29:16 > 0:29:21she's an aunt of the deceased, the only maternal aunt.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25All indications are it's pretty dead.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30The team have now traced every viable stem of Alan's family tree.
0:29:30 > 0:29:31On his father Lewis's side,
0:29:31 > 0:29:34they found that his aunt Edith died in infancy
0:29:34 > 0:29:38and his uncle Harry died without having children.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40On his mother Joyce's side,
0:29:40 > 0:29:45they have discovered that her only sister Gwendolyn died when she was just eight years old.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49Sadly, their investigations have concluded that there is no-one left alive
0:29:49 > 0:29:52who can put forward a claim on this estate,
0:29:52 > 0:29:54so it will go to the Government.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00So this is the one we lost, the beneficiary's going to be the Government,
0:30:00 > 0:30:04who are going to have Alan's estate, which will probably be over £100,000.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08It doesn't matter much now because there's nothing in it for anybody,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11there's no heirs to find so Mr Treasury's won this one.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15So one up to the Government today, but we do normally win.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19Alan's estate will now go to the Treasury.
0:30:19 > 0:30:25This has frustrated Valerie, Alan's second cousin, as in other countries, she would have qualified to inherit.
0:30:25 > 0:30:32Why the law in this country is different from Northern Ireland and Scotland
0:30:32 > 0:30:39where the second cousins can claim on an estate if there's no will made,
0:30:39 > 0:30:40but not in England?
0:30:40 > 0:30:43And I would like to know why is this.
0:30:43 > 0:30:51Evidently, I have been told, in 1925, this law changed - why? For what reason?
0:30:51 > 0:30:55This is not the first time this question has been asked.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58Law Commissioner Professor Elizabeth Cooke
0:30:58 > 0:31:01has been assessing whether current inheritance laws need to change.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06How many second cousins do we all have?
0:31:06 > 0:31:09We might have hundreds if you count it all up.
0:31:09 > 0:31:16When the current legislation, the 1925 Act, was debated in Parliament way back in the 1920s,
0:31:16 > 0:31:21an example was mentioned of an estate where actually there was a will
0:31:21 > 0:31:24and an estate had been left to second cousins -
0:31:24 > 0:31:26there turned out to be hundreds of them
0:31:26 > 0:31:30and the whole estate was absorbed in the costs of tracing them.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34So I think there's a lot to be said for stopping somewhere.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39I wonder if first cousins, relationships traced through grandparents,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41is the right place to stop.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45So as the law currently stands in England and Wales,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49there is nothing second cousin Valerie can do...or is there?
0:31:52 > 0:31:57If a relative feels that they should have inherited and they haven't done, there are two possibilities.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00One is that if they can show a relationship of dependency,
0:32:00 > 0:32:02that they were a dependant of the deceased,
0:32:02 > 0:32:06then they can apply to court under the Family Provision legislation
0:32:06 > 0:32:09for an order for a rearrangement of the estate.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14If they can't show dependency and if the estate has passed to the Treasury Solicitor
0:32:14 > 0:32:17because there are no family members within the intestacy rules,
0:32:17 > 0:32:22then it is possible to apply to the Treasury Solicitor for a discretionary payment.
0:32:22 > 0:32:28So the only way Valerie could inherit any of Alan's money is to appeal to the Treasury.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31It would have been so much easier if he'd just left a will,
0:32:31 > 0:32:37but Alan is in the majority as two-thirds of people in the UK don't have a valid will,
0:32:37 > 0:32:43and surprisingly that also includes one of Fraser and Fraser's longest serving members of staff.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48I haven't made a will and I should have done,
0:32:48 > 0:32:52the reason being is I'm too lazy to do it.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56It's just something you keep putting off and I think most of us are guilty of that.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58You go, "Oh, yes, I must make a will,
0:32:58 > 0:33:02"and I'll go home and do it tonight," but you never do.
0:33:02 > 0:33:09The only way you can guarantee where your hard-earned money goes after you die is to write a valid will,
0:33:09 > 0:33:11but don't leave it too late.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Alan's friends were surprised that he didn't leave a will
0:33:14 > 0:33:19and put it down to the fact that he died unexpectedly early after a short illness.
0:33:19 > 0:33:24His estate, which includes his house, could be worth in excess of £100,000.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26It may now be going to the Government.
0:33:26 > 0:33:32But Alan will always leave a lasting impression on his friends in the village.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37It'd always be Alan that would come out with a one-liner that would make everybody laugh,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39a kind-hearted, well-liked man.
0:33:39 > 0:33:46Everybody always spoke to Alan and liked Alan, and I miss just his general presence.
0:33:49 > 0:33:55Mike Tringham from Hoopers has been investigating the estate of Kathleen Cundall,
0:33:55 > 0:33:57known as Joy to her friends.
0:33:57 > 0:34:03She died in a nursing home, leaving behind an estate worth £300,000.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08Even though she was in contact with some of her first cousins on the maternal side of the family tree,
0:34:08 > 0:34:14because Joy died without leaving a will, the estate couldn't be settled until all heirs had been found.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19Mike had already found one of her first cousins on her father's side.
0:34:19 > 0:34:25So Phyllis Seymore was the first relative on the paternal side of the family we managed to locate,
0:34:25 > 0:34:27and I contacted her.
0:34:27 > 0:34:34My objective, obviously, apart from informing her of the death of her cousins,
0:34:34 > 0:34:39was to ask her some important questions from our point of view
0:34:39 > 0:34:42as to what she knew about the Cundall family.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44But unfortunately for Mike,
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Phyllis couldn't add to the information Hoopers had already
0:34:48 > 0:34:53as she'd lost touch with that side of the family after her father died when she was ten years old.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59So Mike had to delve deeper into Joy's background.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04Investigation showed that after serving in the Second World War, Joy moved down to London
0:35:04 > 0:35:11and swapped her role in the Forces for a more glamorous career as a sought-after make-up artist.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14She used to do facials and go around the hotels,
0:35:14 > 0:35:16some of the film stars, I think,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19and had quite an interesting life at that period.
0:35:19 > 0:35:26Joy ended up working for one of the most prestigious cosmetic companies at the time, Elizabeth Arden,
0:35:26 > 0:35:29and could even count royalty amongst her clientele.
0:35:29 > 0:35:34At one point, she did make-up for the Queen Mother.
0:35:34 > 0:35:40She was a make-up artist and I just got a feeling she was a career woman.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46When Joy started her career, the beauty industry was just starting to expand.
0:35:46 > 0:35:51Lindy Woodhead, a social historian, had written books about the emergence
0:35:51 > 0:35:55of the make-up business after the Second World War.
0:35:55 > 0:35:581950s London, I think, conjures up visions of,
0:35:58 > 0:36:02"Oh, the war's over, isn't it marvellous?" Great happy feeling.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06In fact, in the early '50s you couldn't have been further from the truth.
0:36:06 > 0:36:131950s London was still a pretty grim place to live, bomb damage was massive,
0:36:13 > 0:36:20urban regeneration hadn't even begun, people still had ID cards, rationing was still in place.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25It's hard now for us to think "rationing",
0:36:25 > 0:36:29but it didn't come off until 1954.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34But from the mid-1950s onwards, women wanted to emulate the stars they saw on the screen,
0:36:34 > 0:36:38so the cosmetic industry started to develop rapidly.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41Around this time, there were two major players.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43The two brand names that really mattered,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47the two women who started this and became, I might add,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51the richest self-made women in the world, were Elizabeth Arden,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54whose real name was Florence Nightingale Graham...
0:36:56 > 0:36:58..and Helena Rubinstein.
0:37:00 > 0:37:06They were pioneers, the only word I can think of to describe them.
0:37:06 > 0:37:12Joy worked for Elizabeth Arden, but getting to be an Arden girl wasn't easy.
0:37:14 > 0:37:15You had to be quite special.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19You very often had to have an introduction
0:37:19 > 0:37:23and if you wanted to train as a beauty therapist, as they were called,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27very often you paid for the treatment,
0:37:27 > 0:37:33the equivalent of an apprenticeship or a bond, so it was highly competitive and very sought after.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Joy often spoke about how much she loved her job.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40This doesn't surprise Lindy.
0:37:40 > 0:37:41It was exciting.
0:37:41 > 0:37:47You had foreign travel, you had all this aura of racehorses and royalty. What more could you want?
0:37:48 > 0:37:55Joy had lived during a glamorous era and even when she was in her 80s, she still liked to look her best.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00Joy was very particular about what clothes she needed to put on,
0:38:00 > 0:38:05and if it didn't match, she would say to you, "I don't want to put that on."
0:38:05 > 0:38:11She always had to comb her hair, make sure her face was clean, her teeth.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15She wouldn't come out of her room unless every detail was done.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19And she wasn't just particular about her own clothes.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23You'd often see her going along and straightening somebody's jumper
0:38:23 > 0:38:27or their collar, just to make sure they had the finishing touches.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30Whereas Joy was a career woman,
0:38:30 > 0:38:35her sister, Billie, settled down to being the wife of a surgeon and lived in Herefordshire.
0:38:35 > 0:38:41It was from her home that the bulk of the £300,000 estate came from,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45but Joy's money couldn't be released until all heirs were found.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49It turned out to be a surprisingly large family tree
0:38:49 > 0:38:54as Phyllis was only the first of many heirs Mike ended up finding.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57In the end, we traced,
0:38:57 > 0:39:04including the heirs already known to the solicitors, a total of 13 beneficiaries,
0:39:04 > 0:39:11and they each will receive a sum of varying amounts,
0:39:11 > 0:39:18ranging from probably about £20,000 up to £50,000 or more.
0:39:18 > 0:39:24On the paternal side of the tree, Mike had found seven heirs in total.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28As well as Phyllis, who was descended from Thomas's brother Alfred,
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Mike discovered that his sisters Emma and Mary both had children,
0:39:32 > 0:39:35so their descendents were also heirs to the estate.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40In the end, Mike's quest for heirs had taken him all over the world.
0:39:40 > 0:39:48This is an interesting case because it illustrates just how far flung a family can be.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54We ended up tracing relatives in Belgium,
0:39:54 > 0:39:56in America,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59in Australia and New Zealand.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03It just shows you that a family can spread far and wide
0:40:03 > 0:40:07and they all have to be found, and it's not always an easy job.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12Having completed their task in finding all the heirs on the Cundall case,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16Mike decided it would be nice to invite Phyllis to his offices in London
0:40:16 > 0:40:21in order to help piece together some more of her family history.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26After all, before this investigation began, Phyllis had always believed
0:40:26 > 0:40:29that she was the last living family member with the Cundall name.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36So this is our paternal tree for Cundalls.
0:40:36 > 0:40:42We'll just spread it out, it's not as big as some of the trees that we have sometimes.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45We've got one on the go at the moment with over 150 beneficiaries.
0:40:45 > 0:40:51Good heavens. How many cousins once removed are there now living?
0:40:51 > 0:40:54- On the paternal side? - On the paternal side, yes.
0:40:54 > 0:40:59- There are one, two, three.- Three?
0:40:59 > 0:41:01- I mean, you're a first cousin.- Yes.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04Am I the only first cousin?
0:41:04 > 0:41:09Actually, yes. On the paternal family, yes, you are the only first cousin surviving.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12Yes. This is really fascinating, Michael.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17I would never have dreamt that I was going to see all this today, especially all these cousins.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22- All these different names. - Different names and different locations around the world,
0:41:22 > 0:41:27I had no idea that I had any living relatives on my father's side at all,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31and certainly not spread around the globe as they are.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33Is it possible that I could have a copy of this?
0:41:33 > 0:41:36- Oh, yes, I think so.- Oh, wonderful.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40Yes, I mean once our job is done,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43this we would just consign to our archives.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46- Quite.- So I'll be more than happy to let you have a copy.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51- Oh, lovely, thank you. And then I can perhaps drop them a line and make their acquaintance.- Yes.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57Phyllis left Hoopers with a spring in her step, armed with the new knowledge about her family.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01For her, the revelations meant as much, if not more,
0:42:01 > 0:42:06than finding out she was set for a windfall, thanks to her cousin Joy.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09It's quite fascinating, really.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11It is fascinating.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15It's always nice to put a name to a face,
0:42:15 > 0:42:21but after so long and thinking that, you know...
0:42:21 > 0:42:25I thought they died long before they did.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30Phyllis now has the chance to get in touch with her living relatives.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34I didn't think any member of the family was alive, I really didn't.
0:42:34 > 0:42:39I thought that I was literally the last member of the Cundall family,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43so to learn that they're scattered around the world is quite incredible.
0:42:43 > 0:42:49So I must drop them a line when I get the family tree and make some sort of contact.
0:42:51 > 0:42:57If you would like advice about building your family tree or making a will, go to...
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