0:00:02 > 0:00:06Heir hunters make their living tracing families of people who have died without leaving a will.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10They hand over thousands of pounds to unsuspecting relatives,
0:00:10 > 0:00:12money which would otherwise go to the government.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Could they be knocking at your door?
0:00:33 > 0:00:38On today's show, the team tackle a family story which begins in the Indian Raj
0:00:38 > 0:00:41and reveals the unusual life of the rich and famous.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45If someone's got an occupation like "gentleman" on their marriage certificate
0:00:45 > 0:00:49when they're 20 years old, then someone somewhere is financing them, the idle rich.
0:00:49 > 0:00:55And a man who fled the Russians, fearing his secret life would endanger his family.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59George's family would have been arrested
0:00:59 > 0:01:01and treated as enemies of the state.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08Plus, how you may be entitled to inherit some of the unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10Could thousands of pounds be heading your way?
0:01:14 > 0:01:18Every year in Britain, thousands of people die without leaving a will.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24If no obvious family can be found, their money goes straight to the government,
0:01:24 > 0:01:29who last year made over £18 million from unclaimed estates.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32That's where the heir hunting companies come in.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38Fraser & Fraser is just one of around 30 firms who make it their business
0:01:38 > 0:01:42to trace rightful heirs to unclaimed estates.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47Our job is incredibly exciting. We're tracing family trees, delving back into people's history.
0:01:47 > 0:01:53The company is run by Neil, Charles and Andrew Fraser.
0:01:55 > 0:02:01Fraser & Fraser have handled over £100 million worth of inheritance in the last 10 years alone.
0:02:05 > 0:02:11It's just gone seven o'clock, on the most important day of the week for the heir hunters.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Every Thursday, the Treasury advertises new unclaimed estates.
0:02:19 > 0:02:25Company partner, Charles Fraser is trying to decide which cases on the list the team should start working.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Nothing's looking particularly exciting.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33A lot of cases this morning
0:02:33 > 0:02:38where a lot of the deceased appear to be living in nursing homes,
0:02:38 > 0:02:42so we've got to wait until the nursing home opens, really.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46The team usually begin by establishing if the deceased
0:02:46 > 0:02:50owned their own house, so they can estimate the value of a case.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54None of you have got anything here.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57They have a team of travelling researchers, who can knock on doors
0:02:57 > 0:03:00and find out more about the deceased.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03But today, even this is a problem.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07So the question is do I send Bob Barrett
0:03:07 > 0:03:11- all the way to Wales?- Yeah, might as well, we haven't annoyed him for ages.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20With the office spreading their resources over all these small cases...
0:03:20 > 0:03:24That is a grotty job to start with.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29They were there a couple of months ago. We went into a home from that address...
0:03:30 > 0:03:36Neil takes the opportunity to have a look at a case he's received that's not on the Treasury's list...yet.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41This is a case of a Norma Grace Boilard.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45It's a case which has been given to us by a friend.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48They passed us the information at the same time as the information
0:03:48 > 0:03:51has been handed to the Treasury solicitor. It's great for us.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53It's how we prefer working.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59Because it means we get to spend a decent amount of time on this case, contact all the beneficiaries
0:03:59 > 0:04:05nice and slowly and not really do it at a very rushed and sometimes aggressive sort of way.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07We're going to be able to work this nice and slowly.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12This is a luxury, as there will be no competition
0:04:12 > 0:04:16from other firms until Norma Boilard' estate is advertised.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20But today looks like the perfect opportunity to get it started.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27Our initial look has indicated that there is possibility of missing family.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30The initial inquiry has indicated it's in excess of £30,000.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35So, it's ticked both boxes, which has enabled us to start having a look at it now.
0:04:36 > 0:04:42Norma Grace Boilard passed away on 20th June 2009, aged 79.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45She never married nor had children.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Norma lived alone in her house in Battersea.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53She died a spinster, left no will, but was surrounded by a close circle of friends.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58I always thought
0:04:58 > 0:05:04what a very vibrant, glamorous, elegant lady she was.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08She had that personality to go with it.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10She was just so bubbly.
0:05:10 > 0:05:17Really, you sort of laughed with her and just enjoyed being in her company.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22According to Norma, she didn't have any relatives whatsoever.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26And that's why we treated her
0:05:26 > 0:05:31like a relative more than a friend, because we felt sorry for her.
0:05:34 > 0:05:39In the office, Neil is trying to find out exactly what happened to Norma's family.
0:05:39 > 0:05:45He needs to discover who her parents were and trace the family tree back generation by generation,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48searching for living relatives who can inherit.
0:05:50 > 0:05:56As far as the missing family goes, it looks as though the father of the deceased is born in India.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00That's going to be a missing bit of family, because we're dealing with an Indian family
0:06:00 > 0:06:04who doesn't look like they ever came to the United Kingdom.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06So, we may have research all over the world on this.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11We're going to get on and start working now.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17Norma's birth records reveal she was born in Bournemouth in 1930.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22The only child of Grace Rous and Harcourt Boilard.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25Her father, Harcourt, was born in India.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29But her mother Grace's birth was registered in Battersea.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36The couple met in England after World War I,
0:06:36 > 0:06:42when he was a dashing young soldier and Grace was an opera singer with the Old Vic Opera Company.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47In 1926, Harcourt whisked her away to get married in India.
0:06:47 > 0:06:53Norma was born four years later and both her parents signed the birth certificate.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56But Harcourt returned to India shortly after.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02For this reason, research director Alan believes the maternal side,
0:07:02 > 0:07:06the Rous family, should be a lot easier to find.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10The good information for me on the 1911 census, it tells me that
0:07:10 > 0:07:13the deceased mother's had three children,
0:07:13 > 0:07:18all of which are mentioned on the census, none of them have died.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23The census has details of Norma's mother's entire family.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28Grace was the daughter of John Rous and Jessie Walsh.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33She had two brothers, John and Ernest.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38All their descendants could be heirs to Norma Boilard's estate.
0:07:38 > 0:07:44However, Ernest was born 11 years before John and Jessie's marriage.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47One of the uncles appears to be of the half blood.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50He's certainly born under the wrong surname.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53At the moment, we're not going to research too much on him.
0:07:53 > 0:07:59The other uncle, it looks like had one child, but that child died as a five-year-old.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04So, it look like on the maternal side, we won't find any beneficiaries.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09The only possible heirs on Norma's mother's side
0:08:09 > 0:08:12would be Uncle Ernest's children, if he had any.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17But they'd only inherit if there was no family on Norma's father's side.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22So, Neil is forced to tackle the potentially tricky family in India.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28We got Norma, the deceased. Her father is Harcourt.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33Now, all we know about him is that he married the mother of our deceased out in India.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36He certainly travelled to England
0:08:36 > 0:08:42and he was here in round about 1929 sort of time.
0:08:42 > 0:08:49We know that Grace, the mother, when she originally travelled here travelled by herself.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53It's now Harcourt's records that Neil needs to find.
0:08:53 > 0:09:00They are sending researcher Mike off to the British Library, where most of the colonial records are stored.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05When the British were in India, when it was part of the... when it was a colony,
0:09:05 > 0:09:10because it was such a large British population, they had their own churches.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14In those churches people getting married, buried and christened.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16It's those records that we're using.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21However, with his distinctive name, Harcourt Vernon Boilard,
0:09:21 > 0:09:26Neil's hoping he'll crop up somewhere in the company's own library.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31What's that? The Who's Who, is it?
0:09:31 > 0:09:34- It's got...- Indian Who's Who.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36Boilard... There you go, there's Harcourt.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42Inspector in charge of excise in... Jalpaiguri.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Of the half dozen or so books we've got next door on India,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51we've been able to find the father of the deceased referenced in that
0:09:51 > 0:09:53and one indeed of the uncles of the deceased.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58We've got a reference of him. So, out of half a billion people and 12 books,
0:09:58 > 0:10:04we've found two of our family, which is, you know, an incredibly high strike rate, considering.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09At last, a breakthrough...and against all odds.
0:10:09 > 0:10:16Neil has discovered that Norma's father, Harcourt was born in 1889 in Jamalpur.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20The son of Ernest Boilard and Georgianna Scott.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27Their marriage certificate from 1876 lists Ernest's profession as a private gentleman.
0:10:29 > 0:10:35Could this case be worth more than the £30,000 Neil first thought?
0:10:35 > 0:10:38I assume if someone's got an occupation like "gentleman"
0:10:38 > 0:10:44on their marriage certificate when they're 20 years old, that someone is financing them, the idle rich.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47I tend to assume also that there's going to be money in the family.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50They're not be employed, they're going to be the employers.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56One of the few bits of information they have been able to find
0:10:56 > 0:11:02is a will belonging to Norma's grandfather, Ernest Boilard who died in Calcutta in 1928.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07Everyone else around has gone home.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11Apart from the three of us working this case, which is quite typical.
0:11:12 > 0:11:20But some names which have come up on a will back in 1928,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23they now have started to make sense.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25What we've done is we've identified a lady
0:11:25 > 0:11:32called Gertrude Harriet Boilard in 1883, born in 1883.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34She is an aunt of the deceased.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39Found a marriage for her in 1904 in Bengal. From that, we've got three children.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46Norma's aunt Gertrude married William Webster in 1904 in Bengal.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51The couple had three sons - Glen, Frederick and Arthur.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53While they were all born in India,
0:11:53 > 0:11:58Arthur Webster is recorded to have died in Nottingham in 1993.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Finally, the first sign of the Boilard family in the UK.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05It's a fantastic find.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09What's more, Arthur was a doctor.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14If he practised in England, Alan is hoping he'll appear in a medical directory in the library.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21We've got a cousin of the deceased called Arthur Wright Scott Webster,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24who on his death is described as a medical practitioner.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29I've just checked the medical directory and sure enough, he does come up.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32He's also at the same address that he died at
0:12:32 > 0:12:3640 years later, 30 years later in Nottingham.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43Despite Neil's fears that the Indian family would be hard to crack, after just one day, they are now
0:12:43 > 0:12:50possibly on their way to finding a potential heir to Norma Boilard's estate of at least £30,000.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53This case is really picking up pace.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57But it's past 6 o'clock and far too late to get any further.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05Still to come, Neil and his team hit the road and uncover more intriguing family secrets.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10Glad you went there, because we wouldn't have got that out of the coroner otherwise. Good work.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23When heir hunters investigate cases of people dying without
0:13:23 > 0:13:29leaving a will, they come across fascinating stories, which otherwise would have been left untold.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33George Reminnij was one such case.
0:13:33 > 0:13:39He was a mysterious man without family and whose friends knew nothing about his past.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43I've known George for almost 20 years
0:13:43 > 0:13:46from the very first day he moved in next door.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50We asked him many times where he was from, but he would never mention.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53But his accent, from his accent, we thought he was from Russia.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57George Reminnij had a secret.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02It was only after his death that his friends came to realise
0:14:02 > 0:14:06that this ordinary man had anything but an ordinary past.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10George passed away in January 2008.
0:14:10 > 0:14:16He had lived in Cardiff since the 1950s and worked in a delicatessen.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20He never married or had children.
0:14:22 > 0:14:28George had been in the same house for 20 years and lived a frugal lifestyle.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Because of this, he left a valuable property and cash savings.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38His total estate was worth around £330,000.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44Because George had left no will, his name appeared on the Treasury's list
0:14:44 > 0:14:47of unclaimed estates in November 2008.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54The case was picked up by Peter Birchwood of Celtic Research.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59He runs the company from home in Wales, together with his stepson Hector, who is based in London.
0:14:59 > 0:15:05They will research cases anywhere in the world, but their core team consists
0:15:05 > 0:15:09of regional case managers based in Essex, Liverpool and Cardiff.
0:15:11 > 0:15:17To research a name such as Reminnij, Peter suspected he might need help from one of his foreign agents.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20But first of all, he contacted his company's man in Cardiff.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25As soon as I got the information about the case
0:15:25 > 0:15:33and that it was down around Cardiff, I asked Phil to go over there, do his best to find out anything
0:15:33 > 0:15:38at all about the deceased from the neighbours and the friends
0:15:38 > 0:15:42and also to just pick up a death certificate.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46So we might have an indication when and where the deceased was born.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Phil works for Celtic Research on a case by case basis
0:15:52 > 0:15:55and has set up an office in his shed in his back garden.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00He was only too happy to take on the investigation into George Reminnij's estate.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05Initially with George we didn't know much.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11From the death certificate we knew he'd been a storekeeper, born in the Ukraine and he had died in Cardiff.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16Next, Phil made contact with neighbours and colleagues of the deceased,
0:16:16 > 0:16:20looking for further information about George's background.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24One of the people he found was Asha Makwana,
0:16:24 > 0:16:28who had lived next door to George for over 20 years.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32He was like a father figure to us and a grandfather figure for my children.
0:16:32 > 0:16:38He had his own little world, him and his plants and his house and sometimes he used to grow
0:16:38 > 0:16:43coriander for me in his allotment and bring it over and rosemary and stuff like that.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Growing his own vegetables in a meticulously-kept allotment
0:16:48 > 0:16:52and getting around on his bicycle, George was a self-sufficient man.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55I used to say, "George, when are you going retire?"
0:16:55 > 0:16:58He said, "Oh, I'm retired, but I still like to work." He always liked to work.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01But George's past was a mystery...
0:17:02 > 0:17:08We always asked him about his family, but he never wanted to speak about his family.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12He'd change the subject straight away and just say, "I came here in the war and that's it."
0:17:12 > 0:17:15You know, nothing else from George.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19But that's George all right, because he will only say what he wants to say.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23He wouldn't make anybody else push him with anything.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Delving further, Phil made contact with more of George's neighbours,
0:17:31 > 0:17:36friends and colleagues and started to piece together his history.
0:17:38 > 0:17:44There's no next of kin or any close relatives living anywhere in the country.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48He had served in the war.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53He'd worked as a labourer, but he kept it very private.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59Phil now discovered far from being Russian, George was born in the Ukraine.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03And as he delved into his past, he realised that George's early life
0:18:03 > 0:18:07was dominated by the turmoil of Stalin's Soviet Union.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16George was born in 1924, the same year that Stalin took command
0:18:16 > 0:18:20of the Soviet Union, which most of Ukraine was part of at that time.
0:18:20 > 0:18:26In the 1920s, Ukraine strived and had the desire
0:18:26 > 0:18:29to have its own independent state.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33The Soviet authorities obviously
0:18:33 > 0:18:38appreciated that without Ukraine, the Soviet Union couldn't exist,
0:18:38 > 0:18:43because Ukraine, at that time, was regarded as being the bread basket of Europe.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47The Ukraine was a key asset the Soviet Union could not afford to lose
0:18:47 > 0:18:52and Stalin was determined to crush the independence movement.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56Stalin employed...thugs, for want of a better word,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59who would go round villages
0:18:59 > 0:19:04and ensure that everybody had delivered up all forms of grain
0:19:04 > 0:19:09and then shortly afterwards, all food stuffs were being collected
0:19:09 > 0:19:17and deposited in these grain stores and exported or left there to rot.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23Stalin was denying Ukrainian farmers access to any of their own produce
0:19:23 > 0:19:26and was systematically starving the population.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31It was an act of barbarism, which is known in the Ukraine as the Holodomor
0:19:34 > 0:19:38There were what we regard as hot spots
0:19:38 > 0:19:41of the Holodomor.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44The area where George came from,
0:19:44 > 0:19:49that was extremely badly affected by the Holodomor.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57The Holodomor reached its peak in 1933, when young George would have been eight years old.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02In this year, 25,000 people died every day.
0:20:04 > 0:20:11A large part of the population in central and eastern Ukraine was simply annihilated.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16As many as 7 to 10 million people were simply starved to death.
0:20:16 > 0:20:23And that all happened over a period of approximately 12 to 18 months.
0:20:24 > 0:20:30The horrors of the starvation would have been seen by children like George on a daily basis.
0:20:30 > 0:20:36Maria Volkova, who was just six at the time, lived in the same area as George's family.
0:20:38 > 0:20:44- TRANSLATION:- One time I ask my mother for something to eat and she told me she didn't have anything.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47She said, "You have to go outside and eat the leaves."
0:20:47 > 0:20:49And I did. We couldn't eat them.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51They were so bitter.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58The famine claimed young victims first.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Amongst the school children in George's home town, conditions were desperate.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09- TRANSLATION:- In my village there were 28 children
0:21:09 > 0:21:12that attended school in the spring of 1933.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16Later that year, there were only 12 of my class mate left.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19The rest had all died from famine.
0:21:23 > 0:21:29Memories of such a devastating time would have stayed with George for the rest of his life.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35As the investigation continued, Phil began to unravel George Reminnij's mysterious past
0:21:35 > 0:21:39and why he kept it secret from everyone who knew him.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44It's highly likely that that information
0:21:44 > 0:21:48would have been picked up on by the Soviet Embassy in London,
0:21:48 > 0:21:53quickly passed on to Moscow. And George's family in Ukraine
0:21:53 > 0:21:59would no doubt have been arrested and treated as enemies of the state.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12For every case that's cracked,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16there are still thousands on the Treasury's list that remain a mystery.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21The deceaseds' assets are kept for up to 30 years
0:22:21 > 0:22:26in the hope that eventually someone will remember and come forward to claim their inheritance.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33And with the estates valued as anything from 5,000 to millions
0:22:33 > 0:22:36of pounds, the rightful heirs are out there, somewhere.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43Today, we've got two cases that the heir hunters have been unable to solve so far.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Could you know the answer?
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Maybe you're in line for a payout.
0:22:48 > 0:22:54Anthony Regan died in London on May 16th, 2005. Did you know Anthony?
0:22:54 > 0:22:58Or perhaps you might be part of his estranged family.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Could your information lead to the heirs?
0:23:05 > 0:23:12Doreen Mary Perry, nee Clark, a widow from Maldon in Essex, died on January 30th, 2008.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16So far, all efforts to trace her relatives have drawn a blank.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20Are you a family friend or perhaps believe you could be related?
0:23:20 > 0:23:25Could either of these two estates be meant for you, rather than the government?
0:23:34 > 0:23:39On the case of George Reminnij, Phil from Celtic Research had been making
0:23:39 > 0:23:42inquiries with the deceased's friends and neighbours in Cardiff.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46After just a few days' investigation, he had established that
0:23:46 > 0:23:50heirs to George's estate were most likely to be found in the Ukraine.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53To track them down, Phil would need help.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58At this point I passed the information on to the office
0:23:58 > 0:24:02and they get, as quickly as possible,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06get the information over to our agents in Germany, who cover Europe.
0:24:09 > 0:24:15Thanks to Phil's excellent detective work in Wales, an agent could be sent directly to George's home town.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Without the indication of the town he came from,
0:24:19 > 0:24:25with a name like Reminnij, which is almost as common as Jones in Wales, it would have been almost impossible.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31In the Ukraine, the agent made a surprising discovery.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34It looked as if George might have a sister...
0:24:34 > 0:24:40and if that could be confirmed, she would be the sole heir to £330,000.
0:24:40 > 0:24:47In Ukrainian terms, this would make her the equivalent of a millionaire and could put her in danger.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51The team at Celtic Research had to protect her identity
0:24:51 > 0:24:55and tread very carefully as they proceeded with the case.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02The agent who had been sent to the Ukraine soon reported back to Peter in Wales.
0:25:03 > 0:25:08The research on the Reminnij case did...
0:25:08 > 0:25:15did enable us via our German associate to find the sister of the deceased.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21The agent established that George Reminnij was born in 1924.
0:25:21 > 0:25:28His parents, who originally came from Yugoslavia, had two children - George and his younger sister.
0:25:28 > 0:25:35This confirmed without a doubt that she was the closest living relative and therefore, the only heir.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39This amount of money will completely change her life forever.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49Before the money is paid out, George's sister has asked Celtic Research
0:25:49 > 0:25:51to deal with the estate in the UK on her behalf.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56Phil and his wife are given access to George's house in Cardiff.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59They have taken George's neighbour and friend, Asha, with them.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03- Horrible weather, isn't it? - It is horrible.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06They are looking through George's personal effects,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08searching for items worth sending to the Ukraine.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15- OK, is that George?- It could be George when he was younger.
0:26:15 > 0:26:21- OK.- I knew him when he was a little bit older. You know, he was 61, 62.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23- Right, so there we go.- There we are.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26That's more like George. That's George, yeah, definitely.
0:26:28 > 0:26:34So far, they had only pieced together one part of George's mysterious past.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39They knew he had lived through an atrocious famine in the Ukraine during his childhood.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41But he had a sister who survived it too.
0:26:41 > 0:26:47What could have pulled them apart and led George to start a new life in Wales?
0:26:50 > 0:26:54OK, here he's got a cutting of Stalin...
0:26:54 > 0:26:56- In his coffin.- Lying in state.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00The last view of Stalin as he lies in state.
0:27:01 > 0:27:08The most revealing piece in the puzzle of George's life story was tucked in amongst his papers.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13- That's when he was young, is it? - Yes.- Oh, right.
0:27:15 > 0:27:21It's an army identity card, which shockingly reveals that he served in the German army.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25Is this the secret George was hiding for so long?
0:27:25 > 0:27:30How did his childhood under Stalin lead to his fighting for the Nazis?
0:27:31 > 0:27:34From the documents that we've seen
0:27:34 > 0:27:37that were collected from George's house,
0:27:39 > 0:27:43it's clear that George did fight in German uniform.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50There are many, many ways in which he may have found himself
0:27:50 > 0:27:52in that position.
0:27:56 > 0:28:02There was no love lost between Ukrainians and Stalin in the years running up to World War II.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06After the invasion of the Soviet Union,
0:28:06 > 0:28:10George was one of thousands of Ukrainians to cooperate with the Nazis.
0:28:13 > 0:28:18The Germans obviously understood that Ukrainians were extremely anti-Soviet
0:28:18 > 0:28:26and they utilised that burning desire for Ukrainians to push back
0:28:26 > 0:28:31the, its old adversary if you like, or its old enemy,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35being Stalin and the Communist Soviet Union.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40George was haunted by the memory of his life under Stalin's regime.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45Articles reporting Stalin's death were found amongst his possessions.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48There's probably no doubt in his mind that
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Stalin was responsible for the death of his own family members.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54He probably waited for Stalin to die.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01Fighting Stalin, George was on the losing side of the war.
0:29:01 > 0:29:08In the aftermath, soldiers who had fought for the Germans were persecuted in Soviet Ukraine.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12The mere fact that he fought
0:29:12 > 0:29:15against the Red Army,
0:29:15 > 0:29:20he would have most certainly faced execution.
0:29:20 > 0:29:28George arrived in Wales in 1948 and lodged with the owners of a deli in the city centre, who gave him a job.
0:29:29 > 0:29:35He worked hard, never relying on anyone for help and carefully saving his money.
0:29:36 > 0:29:41For George Reminnij, the former Nazi officer, Wales was a safe haven.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45In Cardiff he completely reinvented himself.
0:29:45 > 0:29:51George made good friends, but most of them didn't even know which country he was from.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56Because when it came to his past, he had no choice but to keep it to himself.
0:30:00 > 0:30:06If he made it public that he fought in German uniform
0:30:06 > 0:30:09during the Second World War
0:30:09 > 0:30:12a local newspaper may have got hold of the story.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14It's highly likely that that information
0:30:14 > 0:30:18would have been picked up on by the Soviet Embassy in London,
0:30:18 > 0:30:23quickly passed on to Moscow and George's family in Ukraine
0:30:23 > 0:30:29would, no doubt, have been arrested and treated as enemies of the state.
0:30:30 > 0:30:35Making the choice to escape the Ukraine for the safety of Wales cannot have been easy.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40To save his life, George had to cut all ties with friends and family.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45And starting afresh in a country that had just gone through the Blitz, he could certainly not risk
0:30:45 > 0:30:48anyone finding out that he had fought for the enemy.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54For Peter Birchwood, this was a fascinating case.
0:30:54 > 0:30:59But a report back from the Ukraine did put another sad twist on George's story.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05The heir to George Reminnij, his sister,
0:31:05 > 0:31:11had thought him dead at the time of the close of the war.
0:31:11 > 0:31:18And was shocked to find that he'd survived and had somehow got himself
0:31:18 > 0:31:25to Wales, where she had never had any idea that he could ever go to.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31George's hard-earned savings will now go to his sister,
0:31:31 > 0:31:38a life-changing sum that might go some way to compensate for the fact she thought he was dead.
0:31:38 > 0:31:44Thanks to Phil's research, George's life story is finally out in the open.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49And more importantly, George's sister can find out all about his life in Cardiff.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56I just wish I actually had met him and knew him, rather than
0:31:56 > 0:32:00me delving into his family afterwards.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05But at least, we're going to be able to pass this sort of thing on to his sister.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09I'm happy we found such a close relative still alive.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26It's day two on the investigation into Norma Boilard's estate.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31In a week when the cases advertised by the Treasury's solicitor offered slim pickings.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33None of you have got anything here.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40The case was referred to Fraser & Fraser by a friend of the deceased.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45And from his research so far, it looks to Neil like it could be worth at least £300,000.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50Possibly a lot more as she comes from a wealthy family.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55I assume that if someone has got an occupation like "gentlemen"
0:32:55 > 0:33:00on their marriage certificate when they're 20 years old, that someone, somewhere is financing them.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04The idle rich. Also there's going to be a bit of money in the family.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07So, they're not going to be the employed, they're employers.
0:33:07 > 0:33:12With the other cases started on Thursday coming to an end, Neil can
0:33:12 > 0:33:16now begin to use some more of the team in tracking down Norma's heirs.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21I've sent out my first traveller and that's Paul.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24Paul has gone to pick up a death certificate
0:33:24 > 0:33:30over here for someone we found late yesterday, an Arthur Webster.
0:33:30 > 0:33:35Arthur was born in India in and around 1910.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38We think he passed away in Nottingham in '93.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42From his base in Birmingham, Paul Matthews is on his way
0:33:42 > 0:33:48to the Nottingham register office to get the death certificate of Norma's cousin Arthur, a doctor.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52OK. That's great. Thank you very much indeed.
0:33:52 > 0:33:59What Neil is hoping for is that the informant on Arthur Webster's death certificate will be a family member
0:33:59 > 0:34:02and potentially the first heir to Norma Boilard's estate.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07Hello? Right, I've got that death.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09It's not all what you wanted, I don't think.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14What he wanted was a good informant on there.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18We haven't got one because there's a coroner's inquest, so there's no informant.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22The reason we travelled to Nottingham
0:34:22 > 0:34:25to pick it up is because we were hoping for a decent informant.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28The informant is what we would describe as nondescript.
0:34:28 > 0:34:35It means his relationship to the deceased is not son, daughter, wife, husband, something like that...
0:34:35 > 0:34:37..instead of it being the coroner.
0:34:37 > 0:34:43The reason the coroner informed on it is because Arthur has unfortunately committed suicide.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48Because someone commits suicide, that gets passed to the coroner.
0:34:48 > 0:34:54He has to do an inquest. It doesn't necessarily mean there's a post-mortem or anything,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57but there's an inquest and the coroner has files for that.
0:34:58 > 0:35:03To get access to a coroner's report, the team might have to wait for up to a week.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07But Paul has already made one journey to Nottingham and wants to make the most of it.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11He gets on the phone to the coroner.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16It doesn't take long before he gets his hands on the report.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20It seems the search for Norma Boilard's heirs is back on track.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25We're not overly concerned with the actual circumstances of how he passed away.
0:35:25 > 0:35:31- Yes.- We're more concerned if there's any mention of any relatives who may have been present or involved.
0:35:31 > 0:35:38Right, well what we find here is the people that gave evidence as witnesses at the inquest.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41- Could I spend just five minutes going through that? - Of course you can.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48Paul's instincts as an ex-policeman are kicking in.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51The inquest report is the team's only lead in Nottingham
0:35:51 > 0:35:56and he wants to leave no stone unturned in his search for relatives of Arthur Webster.
0:36:04 > 0:36:10After just 10 minutes, in amongst the paperwork is exactly what Paul is looking for.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14Details of one of Arthur Webster's children.
0:36:14 > 0:36:19The coroners have rushed this inquest report through
0:36:19 > 0:36:21and whereas they said that there was nothing on there,
0:36:21 > 0:36:25I'm now going through the file and we've found a daughter.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27Oh, you've got a daughter. Great.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31Thanks to Paul's perseverance at the coroner's, the team have got details
0:36:31 > 0:36:35of their first heir to Norma Boilard's estate.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38It's a daughter of Arthur Webster.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42She is in the UK at the time of her father's death in 1993
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and there's every chance she is still at the same address.
0:36:45 > 0:36:50It's the first beneficiary on the Boilard case.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54I'm bloody glad you went there, because we wouldn't have got that out of the coroner otherwise.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58- Good work.- Cheers, mate. Bye. Bye.
0:36:58 > 0:37:03Well, the boss is very happy because we've had a very, very good result.
0:37:03 > 0:37:08When everything else failed, just trying the long shot, coming along here.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12Going through the file, the coroner's department is absolutely superb.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15They're only letting us obviously see what's not sensitive,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19but by reading this file, it's turned up trumps for us, so it's spot on. Very, very good.
0:37:19 > 0:37:25Paul heads back to Birmingham knowing that the information he has given to Neil
0:37:25 > 0:37:29led to a major break on the Boilard case and led them to an heir.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36Neil has dispatched Bob Barrett, the company's man in Surrey, to pay the heir a visit.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42Alan and Neil have also been working hard on the family tree.
0:37:42 > 0:37:48And made further advances on the previously impenetrable Boilard side of the family.
0:37:48 > 0:37:55Alan has uncovered another potential heir - Myra, a cousin once removed from the deceased.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59- There's Myra.- Oh, she got married?
0:37:59 > 0:38:02They obviously like Indian weddings.
0:38:02 > 0:38:07She's got about three middle names. Myra NDM.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11Myra fits into a different stem of the Boilard family.
0:38:11 > 0:38:12That of Norma's aunt, Nesta.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16Nesta had three children.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19Her eldest daughter Phyllis was born in India,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22but travelled back to England after independence.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25And with her, was little Myra, aged 11.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32Neil has been able to trace Myra to Devon and he's got her on the phone.
0:38:34 > 0:38:40Hello, is that Mrs Lang? Hello, I'm terribly sorry to disturb you, I'm trying to speak to a Myra Lang,
0:38:40 > 0:38:45who would've been born around 1935, give or take a few years.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50The daughter of a Phyllis, the maiden name would have been Rogers.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53So I thought, "That's very odd."
0:38:53 > 0:38:56I said, "How do you know my name?"
0:38:56 > 0:38:59He said, "Well you were born in India...
0:38:59 > 0:39:03"and you were 11 when you arrived in England with your mother."
0:39:03 > 0:39:06I thought, "How does he know all this?
0:39:06 > 0:39:08"What's he on about?"
0:39:08 > 0:39:12Let me explain what this is about - We are genealogists and probate researchers and we specialise
0:39:12 > 0:39:17in tracing family trees and locating missing beneficiaries when people die
0:39:17 > 0:39:20without leaving valid wills or known next of kin.
0:39:20 > 0:39:26After the initial shock and a more thorough explanation of the situation,
0:39:26 > 0:39:30Myra's signed an agreement with Frasers.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33And she was very excited to find out more about the case.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39It's not about the money, you know.
0:39:39 > 0:39:46You know, not the inheritance so much, it's getting to know people that I didn't know were there.
0:39:46 > 0:39:52I'd love to see if I could get in touch with family, you know.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55Because my children want to know as well.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58They're excited because on my mother's side I can't tell them anything.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02Their father's side, they know quite a lot.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06Surprisingly, the only person Myra did know well in the family was Harcourt,
0:40:06 > 0:40:09the deceased Norma Boilard's father.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16Harcourt was my grand uncle. My mother's uncle.
0:40:16 > 0:40:24But he was only about 12 years older than her so, that's why they were such friends.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27Harcourt lived in Darjeeling, which was near to Myra's school.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31She would often go with her mother to stay with him for the weekend.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35He had a black spaniel, Nelly.
0:40:35 > 0:40:41And she had puppies once and of course I'd go and try and pick up these puppies
0:40:41 > 0:40:46and he used to say, "Myra, don't because Nelly will snarl at you!"
0:40:46 > 0:40:47And she did, of course!
0:40:49 > 0:40:54But, yes, he was, he was a lovely chap, really.
0:40:54 > 0:40:59Myra had a closer relationship with Harcourt than his own daughter Norma ever did.
0:41:00 > 0:41:06I'm sure that Norma would have liked to have had her mother and father around her all the time.
0:41:06 > 0:41:12But because her father had to stay in India and her mother couldn't stay out with him,
0:41:12 > 0:41:18she was parted from her father, who I believe she had a lot of affection for and he did for her.
0:41:18 > 0:41:26We know that she had lots of Christmas cards sent over the years and lots of letters
0:41:26 > 0:41:31that were very endearing and very affectionate in the way they were written.
0:41:31 > 0:41:37She must have, really, been broken-hearted that they couldn't all be together.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42Myra saw Harcourt regularly in the early 1940s
0:41:42 > 0:41:46at a time when his daughter, Norma, was about 10 and living in England.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53Well, I didn't know the wife or the daughter.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58Because I don't think they were ever with him in India.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01They might have been, but not as far as I know.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06I think he spent a little while in England to start with when they first got married.
0:42:06 > 0:42:13And...then he went to India and I think he stayed there
0:42:13 > 0:42:17most of the time and certainly right through the war, I think.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Neil has yet to discover the true value of this case.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24But the story of the Boilard family has had a poignant end.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32Myra's been able to fill us in with great information really.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36About Harcourt, the deceased's father.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40Myra in later life would have been a very, very good ally to Norma.
0:42:40 > 0:42:46She would have been able to fill her in with a lot more details than could ever be written down on a postcard.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48So, it's just such a shame they never met.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01If you want to know more about genealogy and tracing your family, then visit our website -
0:43:24 > 0:43:27Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:43:27 > 0:43:30E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk