Ring/Moore Heir Hunters

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

They hand over thousands of pounds to long-lost relatives

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

Could they be knocking at your door?

On today's programme, the heir hunters' bottom line is at stake as they try to beat the competition.

It's now when we have to speak to the beneficiaries.

Good conversation with one of the managers could mean the difference

between being paid for this case or unfortunately making a big loss.

And an unusual address sparks a search for a much-missed relative.

His address was British Home and Hospital for Incurables.

Plus, how you may be entitled to inherit some of the unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.

Could thousands of pounds be headed your way?

Every year in Britain, thousands of people die without leaving a will.

If no obvious family can be found,

the money goes straight to the Government,

who last year made over £18 million in unclaimed estates.

That's where the heir hunting companies come in.

Fraser and Fraser is one of the largest probate firms in the world.

For over 90 years, a member of the Fraser family has been helping trace

the rightful beneficiaries to thousands of estates.

Our job is incredibly exciting. We are tracing family trees,

delving back into people's history, delving back in time,

looking at the hidden mysteries around people's families.

It's 7am on Thursday in their central London office,

and the Treasury's list of unclaimed estates has just been released.

The team have already scoured the details to establish which ones to investigate,

and company partner, Neil Fraser, has just identified a potentially valuable estate near Newcastle.

We're going to start on this case of Jean Louisa Ring.

Married lady, so her maiden name is Sanderson, which is quite a good name.

Terraced house, probably in the region of £150,000,

so a fair value on that.

Fingers crossed they own it and we can make good progress.

Jean and her husband, Aiden, lived in Newcastle for many years

before moving just up the coast to the seaside town of Seahouses, Northumberland.

Their friend, Joan Archibald, knew them both well.

They moved to Seahouses because they'd always holidayed up there.

For a lot of years, they took a cottage beside the harbour for a holiday.

They had a dog and they used to be able to bring the dog with them.

And they fell in love with the area and they decided to retire there.

They had an extremely strong relationship,

they were a very devoted couple.

They did everything for each other and everything together.

Jean and Aiden were happily married for 55 years.

They never had children.

They were very quiet but she had a wicked sense of humour.

She was very loving, very generous,

just a lovely person to know.

In October 2007, Aiden sadly passed away

and Jean was devastated.

It became very obvious after Aiden died that she was very lonely

and I really believe that because they'd done everything together

for over 50 years, that once he died she didn't have the will to live.

In the office, the team have confirmed

that Jean Ring did own the property and never made a will.

And the estate would be worth at least £150,000.

With such a high value at stake, there will almost certainly be competition on the case,

so there's pressure to get ahead as soon as possible.

Case manager David Slee's first job is to try to speak to neighbours of Mrs Ring.

He's waiting until a reasonable time to call.

But the competition often aren't so considerate.

Here we go. I don't like phoning them too early.

Good morning, I'm very sorry to trouble you so early in the morning.

I'm making some inquiries about a lady who lived at number 104 Main Street.

I am sorry about that.

It's just that we're anxiously trying to trace the next of kin to the lady.

OK, fine, thank you. Bye-bye.

The guy's got information but he won't talk to me.

It's not the start they wanted, as information from neighbours

can prove a fantastic source of quick leads for the heir hunters.

But across the office, Gareth Langford is heading up

the research into the birth, death and marriage records of Jean's family.

Luckily for him, they are available at any time of day and he's made a breakthrough.

Basically, we've found a birth. It's in Newcastle in 1931.

We found also the parents' marriage, Norman and Lilian,

and that's in 1930.

It looks like she's an only child, so we're almost certainly going to have to go to cousins on this.

At the moment, we're trying to find the deaths of Norman and Lilian and then once we've found those,

then we're going to see if we can find out births and hopefully get on to cousins.

If Gareth's research is correct,

Jean is the only child of Norman Sanderson and Lilian O'Neill.

So the closest relation they expect to find will be cousins.

The next step for the researchers is to track down the birth records

of each parent to try to find any uncles and aunts of Jean's.

But Gareth believes that the team will have their work cut out on Jean's mother, Lilian's side.

I'm a bit concerned about the O'Neill side of the family because

O'Neill's one of these surnames that can be chopped and changed around.

It can be spelt several different ways and also there's a question of whether they drop the O.

So, sometimes, O'Neill, it can cause a lot of work for us.

The heir hunters are throwing resources at this tricky £150,000 case to get results.

They have experienced case managers David Slee and Tony Pledger

directing operations as well as researchers both in and out of the office.

They are looking into Jean's family records

to find the crucial certificates.

But news has come in that they don't have the luxury of time

as there are other rival firms also investigating the case.

Now this is a case with a property on it.

It's certainly going to be worth in the region of £150,000.

That's excited people, it's attracted other firms of researchers.

We know of one other firm.

However, I do know that one of the death certificates

was picked up by two people as well, so that makes Frasers and two others.

Despite an earlier rebuke from a neighbour on the phone,

David Slee is under pressure to establish a lead

about Jean's family life.

The team have competition breathing down their necks.

He'll need to call some other neighbours

but will he have better luck?

Hello, good morning. Sorry to trouble you so early in the morning.

I'm making some inquiries about a lady who lived at 104 Main Street until she died in January of 2008.

We think she might have been from the Newcastle area.

Would that tie in? Was she a Geordie?

So she lived at the house for over 20 years?

No children as far as you're aware.

Did she ever give any indication about brothers and sisters or anything like that?

Didn't know her that...? No. Well, I really appreciate your time.

That was my very kind of you. Thank you very much indeed. Take care now. Bye-bye.

Although no new information has come to light,

David's phone call has corroborated Gareth's birth record for Jean,

with a match one of her age and Newcastle birth.

This means that he can now progress on surer footing for the rest of the search.

We've found the deaths and the birth of the parents of the deceased now.

Norman is born in 1908 in Newcastle.

That's good for us, 1908, because we've immediately been able to get to the 1911 census,

from which we know that he's got a few siblings.

So we're working those at the moment.

Basically, on the top line, we've got William, Frederick, Eleanor and Albert.

The Sanderson's side of the tree is flourishing.

Gareth's hit on the census has shown that Norman has four siblings by 1911.

The five children were all reasonably close in age

and the records show that they ran a family business together,

a local butcher shop in Newcastle called Sanderson's.

None of these paternal uncles and aunts are still alive, so the team must try to find their descendants

to establish whether there are any living heirs on the case

and unravel why this once tight-knit family

were not aware of Jean Ring's death.

It's just after 9am and Gareth's team are moving forward quickly.

But Neil is not quite so convinced that they are on the right track.

It's just Norman Sanderson isn't a unique name.

There are more people around with that name.

This just is the best fit and I hope it's the right family.

With other Norman Sandersons born in Newcastle at the same time,

the researchers will have to be careful not to mix up all of their families.

But until they speak to someone who actually is a relative,

they just won't know if the research about the butcher's family is right or wrong.

We've looked at the best name in the Sanderson site, which is Eleanor I.

She's married a Gregory, a chap by the surname of Gregory

and she's had one child, Norma, who we've got up state.

Tony's going to give her a call

and hopefully she's going to be able to confirm that everything that we've been doing is correct.

Although we think we're right, that we've got the right family, we're not 100% sure.

This is make or break time.

Norma could be a paternal first cousin through her mother, Eleanor.

But is she actually an heir or have the team been barking up the wrong family tree?

It all rests on case manager Tony Pledger's next phone call.

Hello. Sorry to bother you. Is that Mrs Reid?

The reason I'm ringing his I'm hoping you're Norma Reid, formerly Gregory,

the daughter of Eleanor, whose maiden name was Sanderson.

Oh, good. I'll cut to the chase here.

I think your mum would have also had a brother Norman.

Any idea what happened to Norman?

No, no, No. It's all a bit of a surprise. That's good.

So Uncle Norman had a daughter, Jean, and she lived in Seahouses. Right, lovely.

So we've definitely got the right family.

It's a success.

With great relief, Tony realises Norma is indeed the first heir

on the estate and they have researched the correct family.

What's more, she knows a lot about her relatives.

She's got good knowledge of the family, she's got lots of certificates.

She's given me an address for her cousin, Albert, who lives in Belgium.

She's given me details of her uncle Fred's children,

her auntie Lily's children and her uncle William's children, she knew the deceased as well.

Speaking to Norma has been a revelation as there are now a wealth of leads to chase.

Despite dying with no obvious family,

it appears that Jean actually had five uncles and aunts on her father's side,

who all had their own children, including Lilian, who had an amazing nine sons and daughters.

Many of these potential heirs have international connections.

But some stayed close to home, too.

So the heir hunters need men on the ground in Newcastle

to help locate and speak to all of the beneficiaries.

Lilian has nine children, so we're going to need someone else up there.

Can someone phone Paul, get him up to Newcastle?

Fraser & Fraser's network of travelling heir hunters

make door-to-door inquiries, speaking to people who knew the deceased.

Is that George? OK, cheers.

Thank you.

-As well as picking up records.

-Lovely.

Thank you very much.

All in the race to find and sign up heirs.

Paul Matthews' beat is normally Birmingham and the West Country

but today he's needed a little further afield than usual.

Company partner, Charles Fraser, has to deliver the good news.

Hello, Paul. It's Charles.

Yeah, not too bad, and you?

Can I ask you to go to Newcastle please?

Yeah, OK, that should be all right.

All right? Cheers. Bye.

Just leaving Birmingham. I'm on the M42.

I've got a 230-mile drive

and the M42 is like a car-park.

So, the start of the journey is not good.

Paul might be going nowhere fast, but in the office, they are now swamped with information.

Tony has a lengthy list of heirs' phone numbers,

but he actually needs to speak to them to have a chance of signing them up.

I'm trying to ring up the cousin of the cousin that I've just spoken to.

Basically, it's another paternal heir.

LINE ENGAGED

Right, so she's engaged.

Obviously, being phoned up by the opposition, I would imagine.

With Tony and Paul seemingly at the back of a queue,

could the competition be one step ahead of the team on this £150,000 estate?

This is absolute critical time for us now.

It's now when we actually try and get paid as a firm.

We've spent a huge amount of money so far on the research,

we have to speak to the beneficiaries.

It's no good just finding the beneficiaries,

we actually have to take our contract a bit further, so absolute critical time for us.

A good conversation with one of the managers could mean the difference

between being paid for this case or unfortunately making a big loss.

Still to come: Jean Ring's estate becomes even more of an uphill struggle

for the heir hunters as they locate heirs across the globe.

It's becoming a real international family.

If we don't have anybody to talk to,

then it makes it very difficult for us.

Some estates demand that the heir hunters travel across the world to find beneficiaries,

whilst other need more local research, as was the case of Michael Moore.

When a name appears on the Treasury's list,

all that the heir hunters have to go on initially is the date and place of death.

It's their job to use their investigative skills to come up with more information.

Fraser & Fraser's senior case manager David Milchard,

known as Grimble to his colleagues, was assigned the case.

The name Moore is an extremely common name, and of course there's

variations on the name as well, which complicates it even further.

So it is, from a research point of view,

quite a difficult name up to research into.

The team had very little to go on,

but they knew for the case to be on the Treasury's list in the first place

the estate had to be valued at a minimum of £5,000, so decided to delve deeper.

Michael Moore was born in London in 1948.

He was 60 years old when he passed away in Croydon in July 2009.

Sheila Scott met Michael in the 1990s and got to know him well.

I just thought he was such... a nice man.

He was very pleasant, never rude,

very considerate, always put other people's needs first.

He wasn't selfish, which you find... some people are.

I mean, everybody is selfish, but he wasn't selfish.

Michael had no known next of kin, and as he didn't leave a will,

his money was destined to go into the Government's coffers unless his rightful heirs were found.

The initial searches brought up no sign of Michael on any records in the office,

so Grimble enlisted the help of travelling heir hunter Bob Barrett

to see if he could assist with this puzzling case.

Bob headed straight to the register office to see what he could find out.

I'm at Croydon Registry Office, so hopefully they'll be able to help

and produce us some certificates while I wait.

Birth, death and marriage certificates are available

and can often provide the team with the vital leads they need to progress with the case.

Bob was able to get hold of Michael's death certificate

and called Grimble with the news.

Michael Moore, er...

died 23rd July 2009, Mayday Hospital.

-Yeah.

-'Born 3rd November 1948...'

-Yeah.

-'And his address was British Home and Hospital for Incurables.'

Bob's inquiry uncovered that at the time of his death,

Michael Moore had been a resident at the British Home and Hospital for Incurables,

now called the British Home.

This is an independent charity

that provides specialised nursing and social care

for people with long-term medical conditions and severe disabilities.

Its forerunner was founded as the Royal Hospital for Incurables

in 1861 by a group of philanthropists

inspired by the work of Charles Dickens.

Although originally sited in Clapham,

by 1894 a new building was established in nearby Streatham.

Grimble started investigating further and discovered that Michael had been born with Down's syndrome,

a condition that affects 600 babies every year

and occurs when a baby inherits an extra chromosome.

About one in a thousand babies are born with Down's syndrome,

and it can affect them in various different ways

depending on the severity.

Some it will be very mild, but it will still have some impact

on some of the things they want to do, like reading and writing.

Others will need help with all the activities of daily living,

washing, dressing.

That is quite a challenge for the families,

and the families need support.

For Michael and any sufferers of Down's syndrome,

charitable institutions offered invaluable help,

but the office's further investigations showed that Michael hadn't always lived at the home.

He had also lived with his parents until his mother died in 1992.

Angela Wood was a neighbour and a regular visitor to the house.

Well, I met Michael when I was in the early years of senior school.

He was living with his mum and dad, being cared for by them, cos he needed that little bit of extra help.

So there was quite a bit of an age difference between us,

but Michael being Michael, being that much younger in his mind, he enjoyed the things I enjoyed doing,

and it was like two children together playing.

I think Michael's parents didn't see him any different to any other child that they had.

He was treated exactly the same.

They were proud of him, and they wanted the world to see their son.

At the time when Michael was born in 1948, many families

put Down's syndrome children into long-term institutions.

However, a ground-breaking project called the Brooklands Experience,

run by Mencap in 1958,

proved that children brought up in family-type environments progressed far better than those in hospitals.

By looking after Michael at home,

his parents had been ahead of their time.

It's great that Michael's parents were not embarrassed.

In the '40s, '50s and probably '60s, many parents were embarrassed,

partly cos of the negative reaction they were getting from friends, family and neighbours.

I'm not saying that's all totally disappeared, it hasn't, but it has got a lot, lot better,

so the way they looked on Michael in those days was pretty enlightened.

People with Down's syndrome have the same right to live as everybody else,

and they do make very good friends and companions and what have you,

and people shouldn't shun them and shouldn't feel,

"Why are they here?" They should treat them like they do everybody else.

Michael lived until he was 60 years old.

As he outlived both of his parents,

he spent his last few years in a home.

With only the nursing home as an address, it was hard for the team to know whether Michael had inherited

any property from his parents and therefore whether there was any value to the estate.

Grimble could only speculate.

Michael's estate would most probably have been built up

by perhaps any benefits that he may have received,

or it could be that he could have had an allowance when he was younger,

perhaps made by family,

and of course any money that he derived from that and hasn't spent,

that's just built up a bit.

Once they got hold of the death certificate, the team could start to investigate further.

So their next line of inquiry was to call the nursing home.

It proved to be a fruitful call,

as Grimble found out that Michael had a niece.

Although the home didn't have any details, as she didn't visit him,

it was a good lead, as it meant that Michael would have had to have at least one sibling.

Could the heir hunters be close to solving the case?

As they didn't know who Michael's parents were,

researcher Gareth started to look at birth records

around the time that Michael was born to see if there was anyone else with the same surname.

And he was in luck. Just under two years before

Michael Moore was born, there was a Valerie Moore born in the same area.

It was a bit of a stab in the dark, because basically we had two births and no marriage to go with them.

So we had a Michael and a Valerie born in the same sort of area,

but no connecting parents to tie them together.

Gareth had two names, but were they actually siblings, as he hoped?

He cross-checked all the records at his disposal and was finally able

to prove what he'd suspected, that Michael and Valerie were related.

His investigations showed that they shared the same parents,

Alfred Moore and Phyllis Wilkinson.

But with every breakthrough the team made, there seemed to be a setback.

Well, once we established that he had a sister, erm...

of course we made every effort to try to contact or find her.

We then got a bit of disappointment,

because we then established that she had died.

So you're beginning to think, "Oh, you know, perhaps there isn't anybody."

With Michael's only sister already passed away, Grimble wasn't

too hopeful there would be any living heirs left on this estate.

But the researchers still had a good lead left,

the unknown niece who had been mentioned by the care home, if she was still alive.

Coming up, with the whereabouts of Michael's heirs still unknown,

could travelling heir hunter Bob Smith be heading out on a wild goose chase?

I've been asked by the office to go and see a niece of the deceased.

The only information I have is the surname is Moore.

For every case that's solved,

there are still thousands on the Treasury's list that remain a mystery.

The deceased's assets are kept for up to 30 years in the hope that eventually someone will remember

and come forward to claim their inheritance.

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

the rightful heirs are out there somewhere.

Could you know the answer? Maybe you are in line for a windfall?

Marjorie Hyslop passed away in Stockwell south London

on 4th April 1997.

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

Does her name sound familiar to you?

Could you be entitled to her legacy?

Phyllis Claire Isaacs died in Exeter, Devon, on 16th November 2004. Do you know her?

Was she a neighbour of yours?

If no relatives are found for either Phyllis or Marjorie, their money will go to the Government.

But could it be meant for you?

Still to come - with competition closing in on Jean Ring's £150,000 estate,

Paul needs to get his skates on if he is to make his appointment in Newcastle.

The race is on. I need a time machine.

Fraser & Fraser had been investigating the case of Michael Moore who lived in

the British Home for Incurables for the later part of his life.

They had established that he may have had a living relative in the form of a niece,

but didn't know who she was of if she was even alive.

They needed more information.

When they looked back into the records, they discovered that

Michael's sister, Valerie, had indeed married and with a stroke of luck,

her husband had an unusual surname, Uffindell.

It's certainly not a name that I'd come across before.

She married an Uffindell and then the marriages of her children were always

going to be the right marriages, because there aren't many Uffindells around.

With such a good name to go on, they quickly found Valerie's two daughters.

They would be Michael's heirs.

Once we knew who the daughters were,

it was just a matter of finding out where they were.

The case looked close to being solved

and Grimble identified a possible address for one of them,

so dispatched travelling heir hunter Bob Smith in that direction

whilst he verified the details to find out whether she was indeed still living there.

I've been asked by the office to go and see two nieces of the deceased.

The only information I have about the name of the deceased is that the surname is Moore.

The team are trying to find out the full story,

but the person who knew the most about Michael was Sheila Scott.

She was the assistant manager at one of the day centres

Michael used to visit when he was living with his parents, before his move to a permanent care home.

Michael was very contented because he had the love of his family,

and also he had the day centres to go to.

He just got on with life and he enjoyed every part of life.

Michael was very comfortable living at home with his parents,

whilst attending a day centre, but the arrangement couldn't continue indefinitely.

His father, Alfred, died in 1984, followed by his mother, Phyllis, in 1992.

And dealing with the upheaval of parents' deaths is becoming

more and more of a consideration as people with Down's syndrome have begun to live longer lives.

When Michael was born in 1948, very often people with Down's syndrome didn't live beyond their thirties.

That was a fact, they died of all sorts of things.

The most crucial change has come in terms of giving them

the necessary heart treatment much earlier, particularly when they're very young.

Now many people with Down's syndrome live into their 60s and some live into their 70s and 80s.

There's a much greater life expectancy.

That of itself creates problems because their parents will often die before they do.

This was the case for Michael.

When his parents died, his sister, Valerie, looked after him for the next five years,

until she, too, passed away.

It soon became evident that he was in need of more specialist care

at this time and Sheila, his friend as well as his carer, helped him on his next move,

to a permanent residential care home in south London.

We had a look round the home and everything, which was really nice.

And he loved it, he loved the people.

He just mixed so well.

He didn't have a problem mixing, he wasn't shy.

He was very friendly, so he never had no problems.

Moving into permanent carer coincided with Michael losing touch

with his remaining family, still living in Kent.

Michael was eventually cared for in the British Home for Incurables

in Streatham, where he was living when he passed away.

And as he didn't leave a will, it was now down to the heir hunters to find any living blood relatives.

Over the last hour, traveller Bob Smith has made his way to Kent, to a possible address of a niece.

During that time, Grimble managed to confirm that the person living

at this address was indeed the Barbara they had been looking for.

Hello, Mrs Pooley, its Robert Smith, Fraser & Fraser.

Barbara had lost touch with her uncle.

She had known Michael when he lived in Kent with her grandparents and her mother, Valerie.

Once he'd moved to London, and she'd got married, they unfortunately drifted apart.

Your uncle, Michael, unfortunately he's died without making a will.

I wasn't shocked, but I was still sad to receive it.

He was a really lovely guy, very sweet-natured, very loving, and just really nice.

We used to always take him photos and little bits

that he used to like to colour and stuff and all different things.

But he was really lovely. It's really sad.

Michael's estate has finally been solved

and Grimble was pleased with the result and that he'd found the right people.

The value of his estate at this time was still unknown.

Whatever money he had, it was his.

It's a nice thought that we were able to trace relatives,

for them to benefit from his money, and certainly not the Government.

The final value turned out to be £6,000, which was split between the two nieces.

Barbara had no hesitation about what to do with her share of the cash.

Probably whatever he's left I will donate to Mencap so that

they can make some use of it, like they helped him when he was alive.

I'd rather his money go back to help somebody else.

Michael's legacy, as well as Fraser's fees, will now be passed on to the charity who helped him most.

They used to go there for the day and they used to do lots of different things,

they used to go on outings to places, make things, all the general things that he loved doing, really.

He used to look forward to going there. He made lots of friends there

as well, and the staff and everyone were all very nice, very helpful.

And he really enjoyed doing that, really enjoyed that.

Michael's parents refused to view him any differently from any other child

and he grew up feeling secure and happy.

He left a lasting impression on everyone who met him.

He was always laughing, always ready for a hug, always wanted to give you a hug.

Very friendly, very loving, just full of laughter, really.

He was always happy. Never think of him as anything else, really, just always being happy.

Whilst some cases are relatively easy to solve for the heir hunters,

other cases, like the estate of Jean Ring, involve chasing families

across the world in a bid to get to the heirs before rival firms.

The team have made rapid progress, and senior researcher Paul Matthews

is making his way from his home in Birmingham up to Newcastle

so he's in the right area to sign up the beneficiaries.

After speaking to his first heir early this morning, case manager Tony

has finally managed to speak to another heir, Olga Brennan.

She's the daughter of one of Jean Ring's uncles, Frederick Sanderson,

and is still based in Newcastle.

What I was hoping was that I can make an arrangement for one of our

researchers, possibly Paul Matthews, to visit you later on today.

There are at least two other heir hunting firms on the case,

so Tony's booked Paul in for a 2.30 appointment to meet her.

Unfortunately, progress has been painfully slow.

It's already 12.30pm and he's still 100 miles away.

So will he make it in time and will be competition already have visited her?

One of our rival companies, researching the same estate, just as we're doing,

they're going round contacting relatives.

So, yeah, the race is on.

I need a time machine.

In the office, Gareth is looking into Olga's brother Frederick's family.

He passed away in 1995 but they know that he had children,

who will be heirs, if they can find them.

I'm just seeing if I can track down the children of Frederick Sanderson.

We know he was in the RAF, so he was having children all over the country

which is making him slightly difficult to track down.

Jean's cousin, Frederick, joined the RAF straight after World War II, aged 17.

He worked as a mechanic in the MT section before graduating to a Chief Tech Engineer.

His job took him to live in bases across the UK

as well as Malta, Gibraltar, the Maldives and Singapore where his eldest daughter was born.

This colourful history can be a challenge to the hunters if they have to rely on certificates alone.

It's becoming a real international family

which, as long as we're talking to people, that's fine, and they're giving us that information.

If we don't have anybody to talk to, then it makes it very difficult for us.

Jean Ring's father's family were all born and bred in Newcastle

and worked in the same family butcher shop.

But much of the next generation seems to have travelled much wider and Gareth has a theory as to why.

We've got one stem in the RAF, that we know was in the RAF,

and then we've got other stems that are going all over the world.

That, to me, means maybe that they're in the aviation business.

It's a complete guess at this stage, but I've got a gut feeling. I might be right.

Gareth might be right, but the heir hunters need to keep speaking to people who know about the family

or the research could start to slow down.

A little closer to home and it has taken Paul nearly five hours to drive the 230 miles to Newcastle

in a bid to meet cousin Olga Brennan before the opposition.

Three minutes early.

I don't know how I've timed it so well, but there you go.

With such a large and spread out family,

Paul will not only need to sign Olga up

but also establish as many facts as he can

if the office stands any chance of getting to the other heirs before the competition.

Fortunately, he has managed to get to Olga

before any other heir hunters so they are already one step ahead.

What I've got to do now is ask you a few questions about yourself.

It proves you're the right person.

Then I'll ask you what you know about the family which will help us

with our research because we've got a very big family tree and lots of people to trace.

So, right, OK. What's your full name, please?

-Olga Eleanor Brennan.

-And your maiden name?

-Sanderson.

-Good start.

So you've got one sibling.

Did Frederick have children?

Yes, he had six.

A lot of writing today then!

Keep you occupied.

-Who's the oldest of the children?

-David.

-Do you know when David was born?

-1952, in this house.

-Oh, right.

-Is David married?

-He is divorced.

-We've got Stephen, does that ring a bell?

-That rings a bell, yes.

Olga's June 16th.

You're very good on dates, aren't you? I ought to come and see you every week.

Well, I try to.

Paul has hit the jackpot as Olga has a wealth of information

about her extended family and can answer all his questions.

Unfortunately, he may be there some time.

Blimey. Now up to page 5.

We're doing very well.

Olga's signed up and proven the key to discovering the whereabouts to the children of her brother,

Frederick, as well as some of the international parts of the family.

And the case is now looking up in the office.

The whole matter is coming together and, as I said, of the sort of 26 or so heirs that there are,

we've probably contacted the best part of 15 of them by now by today.

So the others, you know, we will be writing to and still trying to contact on the phone.

So it's coming together quite well, so we're fairly positive that it's going to be successful.

The investigation into Jean Ring's estate is looking good for the heir hunters.

There are no heirs on Jean's mother's side of the family and presently 26 heirs on her father's.

With Olga's help, Gareth has finally tracked down all six children of

Frederick Sanderson, the cousin who travelled the world in the RAF.

They will all be heirs, but his guess about the rest of the family

has proven to be wide of the mark.

I thought maybe they were involved in the aviation business.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

It turns out that only Frederick, the son of Frederick, born in 1929, was actually in the RAF.

The rest of the family appear to be sort of more linked

to the butcher's family, which isn't quite as well travelled.

If the family hadn't lost touch with Jean through distance,

then why did they grow apart and not know about her when she died?

The heir hunters spoke to Frederick's eldest daughter, Olga,

later that day and for her, the call came totally out of the blue.

I was quite surprised, I was just shocked,

just didn't know what to say.

Disbelief, really.

Didn't think that anything like that would happen to me.

When I was told it was a lady called Jean Ring,

the name didn't mean anything to me

so I had to get in contact with my mother to find out who she was.

From what I've been told, there was a family butchers in Newcastle.

I think it was called Sanderson's but I'm not sure cos I've never been there.

And it was run by my grandfather

and Jean's father

and there were two other brothers.

The Sanderson's family butcher's business was passed down

through the generations.

It thrived through the 1930s and '40s as the four brothers

expanded it into two shops to serve the locals of Newcastle.

But by the late 1950s, the shops had shut down.

There was a disagreement between Norman and his other brothers.

Norman left the butchers and they all went their separate ways.

I was never told anything about her father, Norman, or her.

Whilst the details of the family dispute might have gone to the brothers' graves,

it's unfortunate for Olga that it kept her away from Jean and her husband, Aiden, for all those years.

I would like to have known a little bit more about Jean

and more of her side of the family,

and it's sad, really,

that there was somebody that

I was going to inherit money from that I knew nothing about.

If you would like advice about building your family tree

or making a will, go to bbc.co.uk.

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