Jones/Rose Heir Hunters

Welcome to Heir Hunters, where we follow investigators

as they search for living family of people who've died without leaving a will.

Today the team are looking for heirs who could be in line for thousands of pounds.

The Heir Hunters uncover a tragic family story

as they track down the heirs to a £40,000 cash estate.

They're looking for long-lost relatives

who have no idea they're in line for a windfall.

Could they be knocking at your door?

Coming up on today's programme:

In the office, the Heir Hunters have got their work cut out

searching for descendants of a man with one of the most

common surnames in the country.

-They knew that Ronald died.

-So this is correct, then?

This is correct.

A straightforward investigation goes global

as they hunt for the beneficiaries of an unsung hero of rock'n'roll.

If you listen to the man, he was born to perform.

And I'll be discovering more about the man and his music

from radio DJ Johnnie Walker.

It's one of those Sixties, you know, things where

-it's lost in the mists of time.

-A hazy memory!

-Yeah!

Plus, how you may be entitled to inherit

some of the unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.

Could thousands of pounds be heading your way?

Every year in the UK,

an estimated 300,000 people die without leaving a will.

If no relatives are found,

then any money that's left behind will go to the Government.

Last year, they made £14 million from unclaimed estates.

That's where the Heir Hunters come in.

They make it their business to track down missing relatives

and help them claim their rightful inheritance.

It is rewarding when one can put people in touch with one another.

First today, the Heir Hunters take a chance

on the case of a man from Essex who died without leaving a will.

It's Thursday morning in central London,

and in the offices of heir hunters Fraser & Fraser,

boss Neil is scanning the Treasury's weekly register of unclaimed estates.

One listing of the popular surname Jones catches his eye.

He's not 100% convinced it's the right case to pursue.

On this case of Jones, I've really got no idea how much it's worth.

Before I commit loads of staff here, or even drop the case,

I've asked Bob Smith to go down there.

He's going to do an enquiry with the neighbours.

He will hopefully find out whether it's worth £5,000 or £500,000.

Until we get an answer, I don't want to commit staff to work it.

Heir hunters work on commission, taking a percentage of the money

received by each heir that they sign.

So before he decides to go ahead with this job,

Neil wants to know that it will be worth his while,

especially because it involves a potentially tricky surname, Jones.

It's still very early in the morning,

but Neil's keen to stay ahead of the competition so he gets straight on the phone to Bob Smith.

Ronald Jones.

All right, OK.

Off we go.

The company employs several travelling heir hunters like Bob,

who are based all over the country.

It's their job to chase up any lead, no matter where it takes them,

and make sure that, if there are heirs to be found,

they're first on the doorstep.

Yeah, our deceased, Ronald Jones, died and, presumably,

would have lived in the Basildon area of Essex.

At this stage we don't know whether he lived in rented accommodation

or he owned his own property.

Before Bob can speak to the neighbours and hopefully find out this information,

he needs to get Ron's address.

First stop is Basildon Register Office

to collect Ron's death certificate.

Ronald Jones died aged 77 in Basildon in Essex.

He left no will,

and not even a photograph survives of him.

Before he died, he lived in this modern terraced house.

His neighbour Lisa Hendy remembers him fondly.

We really got quite close with Ron.

About 10 years ago, we'd been in here for five years,

and we were out in the garden and he'd a nice cold tinny,

as he used to call them, on the go.

He asked my husband if he wanted to join him.

It was basically from there,

talking the old-fashioned way over a garden fence,

having a bit of a gossip, having a laugh.

He was a lovely man.

He liked doing his gardening, meeting people,

going out getting his newspaper, having chats with people,

or going to play bingo.

The way he used to dress was very smart.

Always wore trousers, pair of shoes,

nice, freshly-ironed shirt, very clean shaven,

hair in place all the time.

One day, Ronald had a fall

in his garden, and Lisa called an ambulance and took him to hospital.

He never recovered and passed away a month later.

Before he died, Lisa visited him there on fireworks night.

He was there on 5th November, which was his actual birthday.

We were looking out of the window.

Ron was saying, "Look, they're celebrating me being in here!"

So, even when he really didn't want to be somewhere,

he was still jovial and happy.

In the office,

the team are waiting to hear whether the Jones case is a goer or not.

Before they commit to a full-scale investigation,

they need reassurance that it's sufficiently high value

to be worth their while.

Which is why Bob Smith is in Basildon.

He's been given the job of finding out how much this case is worth,

and he's just picked up Ron Jones's death certificate,

which should contain some vital information

to help him in his research.

It gives his address in Basildon.

So, that's handy.

We'll go there and make enquiries, see if he owned the property,

Any information about his family.

But also, his date of birth.

5th November, Guy Fawkes night.

In Islington.

The date and place of birth are crucial bits of information.

With these key facts,

the team will be able to start the search for Ronald's wider family

But, first things first.

Bob needs to find out what he can by going to Ronald's last known address.

I'm actually making enquiries about next door, Ronald Jones.

Oh, yes.

We're trying to trace his next of kin.

He apparently has left an estate,

whatever that is, money in the bank, whatever,

and obviously the family need to know because they're entitled to it.

-Yeah.

-All right?

-Yeah.

-Number three?

-All right, lovely, thanks.

-Thanks.

-Bye.

Bob moves on to the next house. The office are depending on him

to find out whether Ronald Jones's estate is worth anything

and to come up with some information about family who could inherit.

He's been in this game a long time

and knows that only persistence brings results. Sure enough...

He did have some children, but they were what I call estranged.

Right.

I believe he's got one or two daughters that live in London.

Bingo. Bob has struck gold. According to this neighbour,

Ronald Jones has children living in London.

Apparently they were estranged from their father,

but they would still inherit any money.

Bob also discovers that the estate has some value.

Ronald didn't own his house, but when his property was cleared after his death,

a jaw-dropping discovery was made.

£40,000 in cash.

That's lovely. Thanks very much.

This is a great result for Bob. Thanks to him,

the team now know that Ronald has two estranged daughters

who would be the sole heirs to their father's £40,000 estate.

But where there's money, Bob knows there will probably be competition

from the 30 or so other heir hunting companies.

And he's still dealing with one of the most common surnames in the UK.

There's a long way to go before this case is solved.

Back in the office, the team now have the crucial information

they need to get to work.

The heir hunters now know this is what they call a "near kin case",

meaning that the deceased had children who can inherit.

So the heir hunters know that once they've found them,

it'll be job done.

Researcher Debbie has been online looking for birth records

for Ronald Jones's children.

She's made an interesting discovery.

Apparently, the deceased, Mr Ronald Jones,

had four kids, was married before.

So we're speculatively looking at marriages for them.

According to the information Debbie's found online,

Ronald had four children, not two, like the neighbour said.

London is full of Joneses,

so finding them will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The one lead they have is that they know Ronald was born in Islington,

a fact gleaned from his death certificate,

so it's the best place to start looking for other family members.

Case manager David Pacifico has taken charge of the investigation.

-Did you speak to Bob?

-No, I left a message.

The first thing he does

is to recruit another travelling heir hunter,

Bob Barrett.

'Are you still round Hammersmith?'

No, I'm at Chelsea Bridge now.

'Could you go to Islington?'

-Right.

-'The Register Office.'

Thanks, Bob.

Bob heads off to collect Ron's birth certificate

from Islington Register Office

and to see what other Jones family records he can find there.

While Bob makes his way across London,

David Pacifico is trying to consolidate what they know so far about this case.

Jones. Now, this is a case where we found out from a neighbour

that he had about £40,000 in cash in the house.

A council house, but £40,000, so it's well worth looking at.

I've got Bob Barrett going to Islington

to pick up the birth of the deceased Ronald Jones,

hoping it might give us good information,

and hopefully some decent names of the parents.

But Noel's already working on identifying Ronald's parents,

and amazingly, he strikes lucky.

Out of all the Jones marriages registered in Islington,

the first one he finds is the right family.

The dad's Brinley Jones...

married September 1930.

Islington.

She's Alice Hall.

Ronald's parents were Brinley Jones and Alice Hall.

Brinley and Alice had three children -

Ronald, a son Brinley and a daughter, Doris.

We did a death search of Brinley Jones Junior.

He died in Brentwood in 1998.

His address was in Basildon, same place as the deceased guy.

We've just found out the phone number of his widow.

If she's there now, hopefully we might get a few answers.

This is a great result for the team.

If they can speak to Brinley's widow

she may be able to give them vital information about Ronald's marriage

and the whereabouts of his children. But after all that,

she's not in, so David has to leave a message.

We're trying to trace the descendants

of a Brinley Jones and Alice Jones, formerly Hall,

which I'm hoping were the parents to Brinley Jones,

particularly about a possible brother that he may have had

by the name of Ronald.

Thank you very much.

It's frustrating for the team.

Somewhere out there in London, Ronald Jones's children are entitled

to share their father's estate.

But for the time being, all the heir hunters can do

is keep looking for them.

Coming up:

The team make a breakthrough.

She's either living at this address, or this address.

But for David, it comes at a price.

Never like that. Never like these sort of cases.

Heir hunters solve thousands of cases a year

and millions of pounds are paid out to rightful heirs,

but not every case can be cracked.

The Treasury Solicitor has a list of over 2,000 unclaimed estates online,

known as the Bona Vacantia.

The procedure is that initially the case will come in,

we will make some enquiries ourselves

to see whether we can trace relatives

or a will, and if those initial enquiries don't bring forth anything

we will then advertise.

These unsolved cases could be worth anything from a few hundred pounds

to millions, and they're waiting to be claimed.

If someone thinks they're entitled to an estate we're dealing with

then they need to contact us.

They can do that direct, or via an agent - it's entirely up to them.

We need to have a simple family tree

showing how they think they're related to the deceased person.

Based on that initial evidence, the Bona Vacantia division

will make a decision on the validity of a claim.

If they think it's strong, they'll then ask for further documentation

proving your link to the deceased.

So, are today's featured cases relatives of yours?

Could you be entitled to hundreds, thousands,

or even millions of pounds?

Edmund James Peddie died on 4th January 2009, in Coventry.

Edmund had a wife whose maiden name was thought to be Powell.

Do you share the surname Peddie? Could you be Edmund's heir,

and entitled to his unclaimed estate?

William James Kingdon died on 19th January 2007

in Clapham, London.

Kingdon is an Anglo-Saxon name,

from the parish of Kingsdon near Somerton in Somerset.

The greatest concentrations of Kingdons in the country

live in Exeter.

Do you remember William? Was he a member of your family?

Brenda Gagg died on 24th April 1998,

aged 78, in Radford, Nottingham.

Gagg is a very rare surname in Britain -

only six people in a million have it

and the majority of them live in Torquay.

Brenda left no will and so far, no-one has come forward to claim her estate.

Could you help crack this case? If you think you're related to any of the names today,

you need to show your relationship to the deceased

in order to claim their estate.

People need to prove their entitlement

by producing documentary evidence,

various certificates of birth, death and marriage,

which we will tell them what's required.

And then they will need documents of identity.

Those names again -

Edmund Peddie, William Kingdon and Brenda Gagg.

If any of today's names are relatives of yours,

then you could be entitled to their unclaimed estate.

Next, the investigation into a remarkable man who died alone.

In the hunt for his heirs,

the team's research reveals a remarkable musical legacy.

Most of the time, the heir hunters are looking for the heirs

of people who lived ordinary, everyday lives.

But once in a blue moon, they come across an extraordinary individual

whose legacy touched thousands of people all over the world.

Later, I'll be talking to someone who actually knew this highly talented man,

but first here's how the case began.

When heir hunter Gareth Langford of Fraser & Fraser first started

investigating the estate of Timothy Allan Rose,

the name meant nothing to him. But all that was about to change.

When the case was first advertised,

all the information we had was his name - Timothy Allan Rose.

He died in 2002 in Westminster. From that death,

we knew that he was born in 1940. And then the problems started.

Timothy Allan Rose died on 24th September 2002

in Westminster in London.

But mysteriously, his estate didn't appear on the Treasury's list until eight years later in 2010.

The only other information Gareth had was his date of birth.

He had no idea about the value of the estate

so he didn't even know if the case would be worth pursuing.

The first thing Gareth did was to look around for a birth certificate.

He found one for a Timothy Rose that seemed to fit,

but he couldn't be sure.

The birth that we were looking at was a plain Timothy

and it was in slightly the wrong quarter.

We would've expected him to born in 1940 - we had a birth in 1941.

So he didn't have the second Christian name

and he was in the wrong year.

We basically had a question of do we work the family that we had a birth certificate

that we didn't like, or do we go and get the death certificate?

We decided to do both.

While Dominic went to order the death certificate

from Westminster Register Office, the team got busy researching

the family of this Tim Rose without a middle name.

It wasn't long before they'd made fantastic progress,

even lining up several beneficiaries who would be entitled to inherit.

It looked like this job would be all sewn up in a matter of hours.

But then the death certificate arrived back in the office

and changed everything.

Two main things came from the death certificate.

The first was that the family that we had been working with was wrong,

and we knew that for two reasons - one, the date of birth was wrong,

but also, more importantly, our deceased was born in America.

For Gareth, this was potentially bad news.

If Tim WAS American, then it was likely that his heirs would be

American as well, which means the whole case would have to be

handed over to the company's US associates.

But just when this case was looking like a real non-starter,

another key fact leapt off the page.

The second bit was that he was a singer-songwriter and as Dom was telling me on the phone,

I immediately thought, "We have to look on the Internet for this chap."

If Tim Rose WAS a successful musician,

then Gareth was expecting that there would be some information

about him online that would give this investigation a helping hand.

But what he actually found was much better than

he could ever have hoped for.

There was a wealth of information about him, including biographies,

all of the music that he'd done over the years, and also footage.

It seems that Tim Rose was not your average jobbing musician.

One of the first things that Gareth came across when he looked online

was a clip of Tim on the Jools Holland show in 1997.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr Tim Rose!

APPLAUSE

Tim had been invited onto the programme to perform the song Hey Joe.

This was the track that bought him recognition

and later turned into an international hit for Jimi Hendrix.

# Hey Joe

# Where are you going with that money in your hand? #

The more Gareth read, the more intrigued he became

as he came across tribute after tribute to Tim Rose.

He's a connoisseurs' artist.

He's the sort of person that

if you know a lot about a certain type of music,

you'd go towards Tim Rose.

He was obviously highly regarded by both the critics

-and his fellow musicians.

-Tim was a great performer.

George Harrison wanted him to record With A Little Help From My Friends.

'He had a voice'

which could move through all the emotions -

it could go from tender to hard-edged to rock.

'I'd never heard anything like Tim Rose before.'

There wasn't anything around like Tim Rose.

# Well, I said, I said, hey

# Ah-hey-hey

# Hey Joe!

# Wah-ah-h-h-h-h!

-# Wah! #

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

From everything that he had read online, it was clear to Gareth that

despite being an American, Tim had had most of his success in the UK.

It seemed he moved over here in the late '60s

and started working with professional roadie Martin Hughes.

It was the beginning of a 40-year friendship.

I took Tim down to Hastings for his first gig here that year.

I didn't know what to expect, but when I stood at the side of the stage and he started up,

that did it for me. He grabbed me straight away. He was demanding...

but he was so talented.

Tim's career in the music industry spanned four decades,

but it was anything but consistent.

In the '70s, the gigs dried up and he left London

and went back to the States where he fell on hard times.

He hit the bottle quite strongly for one period of time.

He sold everything -

his car, his home, even some guitars.

Tim eventually pulled himself back from the brink.

Over the next 20 years or so, he did a variety of jobs,

all of them far removed from the music business.

But one day, he picked up his guitar again.

And then the bug got him again

and, you know, one thing led to another and back he came.

Tim moved back to the UK.

He recorded a few albums and went out on the road again,

doing what he loved best -

playing to his loyal fans.

But sadly by the late '90s, he was suffering from cancer and in a lot of pain.

His friends told him to slow down, but he wouldn't.

He just wanted to work. So he was taking everything on.

Ignoring advice from his doctors, Tim went ahead

and had an operation to remove the tumour.

He didn't survive the surgery

and died the day after his 62nd birthday.

He was in the middle of his latest tour.

If you listen to the man or look at any decent footage of him,

he was born to perform. Music was him.

For Gareth, all this information was extremely encouraging.

If Tim Rose was a successful singer-songwriter, it was likely there'd be some value to his estate.

But Gareth still didn't have any leads on Tim's heirs.

For that, the team had to sift through the biographical sections of the websites.

They soon discovered that Tim was born

on 23rd September 1940 in Washington DC.

He was an only child whose parents were Harold and Mary Rose.

Harold was described as an absent father

and Tim was brought up by his mother and an unnamed aunt.

One of the things that we've often found with the Internet is

that some of the information is correct and some is wrong.

However, in this case, I think we are on the right path

because we not only had his own website saying this information, we also had other sources as well,

and they were all saying the same thing.

Gareth was now confident that he had built up an accurate picture of Tim's close family.

He knew that his parents were Harold and Mary

and that he was an only child

so there were no siblings who could inherit.

But the interesting figure in all this was the unidentified aunt who had helped bring Tim up

and was mentioned on so many of the websites.

If this aunt had got married and had children,

her descendants would be Tim Rose's heirs.

Could she be the key to this entire heir hunt?

Tim was a very talented musician and I'm going to meet a fan

who can tell me all about him and the music scene in the '60s.

And that fan is none other than radio legend Johnnie Walker

who had his finger on the pulse of swinging London.

-Hi, Johnnie!

-Hi, Lisa.

-Nice to meet you.

-How are you?

-Good, and you?

Very well, thanks.

When did you first hear about Tim Rose?

Well, 1967, I was on pirate ship Radio Caroline,

two weeks on the ship, a week on shore.

One of the highlights of the day was when our supply boat would come out.

There'd be newspapers, magazines and things,

but the most important thing was new records.

So I'd rush down to the studio and I'd got this record

and it was on CBS.

I mean, Bob Dylan was on CBS, but so was Barbra Streisand.

It wasn't those labels that you just dashed to hear.

But Tim Rose, Morning Dew I thought, "This might be interesting," put it on the turntable.

Also looking at it as a vinyl record,

the power of the music is the depth of the grooves

and you can actually look at the vinyl record, and the beginning

looks very shallow and then it gets really deep, the grooves.

Cos Tim's voice and the power of his voice is just incredible.

So I played this to myself in the studio and thought, "I can't wait to get on the air

"and to play it to the millions listening in."

'I haven't heard the track Johnnie is so enthusiastic about.

-'It's time for a blast from the past.'

-This is Morning Dew.

-One of his best ever.

-GUITAR PLAYS

# Walk me out in the morning dew

# My honey

# Walk me out in the morning dew today

# Can't walk you out in the morning dew, my honey

# Can't walk you out in the morning dew at all... #

What do you think was so special about him?

Tim Rose sang every song,

whether it was making a record or doing a live show,

like it was the last song he was ever going to sing.

Just the intensity. And the songs that he chose, I mean,

he did a recording of Hey Joe

that was just unbelievable.

And then Jimi Hendrix heard it and it was just one of these songs,

nobody could quite know the background of it.

Tim Rose did this arrangement of Hey Joe, Jimi Hendrix heard it and thought,

"I like the sound of that," he did it, had a massive hit, his career rockets off,

poor old Tim Rose, you know, who kind of invented

the arrangement of Hey Joe, just didn't happen for him.

Why do you think it didn't happen for him?

Well, there's lot of reasons. George Harrison wanted to produce him.

He shared a bill with the likes of Stevie Wonder, The Doors,

Simon and Garfunkel, you know,

he was on the beginning of really big things.

But I don't know whether it was a lack of confidence or self-esteem,

and also he liked the drink,

which was maybe his way of dealing with his nerves.

Perhaps he was frightened of becoming really successful,

cos it's hard -

-you get on the top and it's a long way to fall.

-Exactly.

So it's difficult to say whether he was just unlucky, or perhaps he didn't want it badly enough.

Do you think that he was underrated?

Well, he was undiscovered, that was the thing. He just became...

He had a sudden big flash of interest from people

and then that could've grown, but it didn't.

And so there weren't that many people who got to know

about Tim Rose, so he became an underground cult figure,

and then he disappeared to America

and became a stockbroker of all things.

-It's crazy!

-Yeah.

It's amazing to hear first hand the impact Tim Rose had

on everyone who heard his music.

But to go from a budding musical talent in the swinging '60s

to a stockbroker is quite a transformation.

From listening to Johnnie, it sounds like Tim Rose was a talented,

but also troubled man.

Coming up later in the programme, Johnnie Walker shares

yet more memories, about seeing Tim once again after a 30-year absence.

I hear this gruff voice. "Johnnie,

"I think you played my record."

I turn round,

there's this big guy with this mane of grey hair.

Let's return to investigations into the case

of Ronald Jones, who died aged 67, in Essex, without leaving a will.

Can the heir hunters track down living family members entitled to inherit his £40,000 estate?

Despite the team searching hard for his heirs,

the case has got off to a slow start.

Neil wasn't sure that it would be worth enough to justify a full investigation.

On this case of Jones, I've really got no idea about the value

but I don't like turning cases down.

But then travelling heir hunter Bob Smith made a startling discovery.

He heard that after Ronald had died, they'd found £40,000 in cash stashed around his house.

Ronald's friend Lisa was there

when the money was found, and she couldn't believe where he'd hidden it all.

Behind wardrobes, in coat pockets, in suit jackets,

detachable hoods off of coats.

There was a large amount of money that he'd put in there.

I think he probably didn't want to put it

into a bank because he probably felt safer with it

on him, where he could keep an eye on it,

more than bank managers, probably, knowing Ron!

The team are working on the theory that this case involves near kin.

The neighbours said Ronald had some children but they were probably estranged.

Their best hope of tracing these children

is to go back through Ronald's family

and find someone who remembers them or knows of their whereabouts.

The dad is Brinley Jones...

Researcher Noel found a phone number for Ronald's brother

Brinley's widow, but she wasn't in to take the call.

Thank you very much.

But then suddenly he makes another breakthrough.

Hang on.

She is either living at this address or this address.

He's managed to track down Brinley's widow's daughter.

David heads off to try his luck again.

Am I right in saying you're the daughter of a Brinley John Jones?

Brinley's daughter is in, and better still,

her mum is visiting her and is happy to speak to David.

Mrs Jones, I represent a company of probate researchers in London.

We're trying to track down

the closest next of kin of your brother-in-law, Ronald Jones.

The closest ones obviously would be his children.

Jennifer...

What about Kathleen?

Brinley's widow tells David that Ronald's wife was called Lydia

and they had two daughters, Jennifer and Kathleen.

But she also has news about the two other children.

What, when they were very young?

Oh, dear!

David has learnt that the two other children,

Martin and Jacqueline, died when they were infants in a car accident.

Sadly it seems that the stress of this tragedy took its toll

and Ronald and Lydia later divorced.

Worse still, Lydia was recently killed in another road accident.

Well, you've given us a lot of information

and I'm sure we can track them down.

How old would Jennifer and Kathleen be now?

Would they be, sort of...

Thank you very much indeed, Mrs Jones.

David has uncovered the sad story of a family dogged by tragedy.

What's more, it seems that Brinley's widow hasn't seen her nieces in years,

so not only were they estranged from their father,

but from his whole side of the family.

David checks back in with the team.

I spoke to the mother.

They knew that Ronald died.

So this is correct?

This is correct.

Now it's been confirmed that there are only two heirs, it's all systems go for the heir hunters.

David calls travelling researcher Bob Barrett.

He's at Islington register office looking for

birth and marriage certificates for Ronald Jones and his family.

Can you just hold fire a minute?

I think we're going to work a few things out.

So we don't want anything from Islington?

Basically, what we were going to get is probably irrelevant now.

We've got the names of the children,

we've got a married name of one of the daughters.

I think this will come out in North London, by the way,

but I'm not sure where.

No problem, cheers. Bye.

Bob Barrett is standing by, awaiting his next instructions, so David gets back to the task.

He knows he's very close to finding an address

for one of Ronald's daughters,

and sure enough...

This is Kathleen's address.

David gets straight back on the phone.

Bob, David.

'I've got an address in Islington, London N1, for you.'

See if you can get any joy at that address.

We're still plugging away, but that's the closest we've got so far.

-OK, I will go round there now and see how we get on.

-'Thanks.'

It's now over to Bob Barrett.

He's got an address so he can finally swing into action.

But on a case like this one, he knows he needs to tread carefully.

You never quite know what you're walking into

with a relationship as close as this.

Now I don't know whether I'll find Kathleen,

but if I do, I don't know how she's going to react

to the news that her father has died.

'At the T-junction, right turn...'

Near-kin cases are very hard for the heir hunters.

They often involve unhappy stories of estrangement

and the team have to be prepared for the difficult task

of breaking the news that someone's children or parents have died.

On this occasion, it turns out Kathleen isn't at home,

but Bob does manage to speak to her neighbour.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-I've finally found it.

I'm trying to trace Kathleen Hogg at number 14.

I'm from a firm called Fraser & Fraser.

OK, Kathleen Hogg.

She's a friend of mine, I have her phone number.

I'll just go and get it for you.

Does she still live there?

Yes, she does.

Now Bob's got a phone number for Kathleen,

it's time for him to call back to the office.

David Pacifico, please. Thank you.

All right, Bob.

-Kathleen Hogg does still live at that address.

-OK.

I have got a mobile telephone number for Mrs Hogg

and I was wondering if it might be better

if someone from the office rings rather than me on a mobile.

'Sure.'

This will be a difficult phone call for David to make,

but the heir hunters always try to respect the family's feelings.

I'm sorry to trouble you.

I'm sorry, I don't know how to say this, but unfortunately

it's to do with your father.

I'm sorry to say he has since passed away.

We're trying to trace his next of kin,

which it would seem would be yourself and your sister.

What I'm hoping that we could do

is discuss the matter in more detail because

it's obviously difficult over the phone.

Thank you. Bye.

God, I never like that, I never like these sort of cases.

That was Kathleen.

Kathleen was very upset to hear the news of her father's death

but she has agreed to meet with Bob Barrett.

I've mentioned about, obviously, her father's passed away.

'Also mentioned that we've spoken to Ronald's sister-in-law's daughter.'

I had to be totally open about it. I hate these cases.

-I know.

-'Tell somebody their parent has died.'

-It's awful, isn't it?

Bob sets off for Kathleen's son's house where she's been staying.

He's about to meet his first heir on this case,

which is a key moment in any heir hunt.

But he also knows that Kathleen has just heard

that her father has died, so he wants this experience

to be as painless as possible for her.

Bob Barrett from Fraser & Fraser. I think you're expecting me.

-Yes.

-Thanks.

I'm sorry that we had to break the news about your dad.

You hadn't seen him for a while.

I think I was about 29 the last time I saw him.

I was very close to my dad when he was with my mum.

They split up when I was about seven-and-a-half, eight.

Then he moved to Australia so we lost contact.

Bob tells Kathleen about the money

that her and her sister are set to inherit.

I know talking about money is not...

You just learnt that your father's died.

But apparently there is about £40,000 in cash,

I don't know whether David mentioned it to you, that was found in the house.

So whether that was,

presumably that was savings over many years.

He may have won the Lottery the week before, who knows?

He always had money

but I never expected him to have savings.

Do you know what I mean? He was always a free-hearted man.

Kathleen is happy for the company

to help her make her claim for her inheritance

in return for a percentage.

So she signs up there and then.

-Thanks ever so much. Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Goodbye.

Kathleen has given Bob her sister Jennifer's phone number

and address so Bob heads off to see her,

leaving Kathleen to consider the desperately sad news she's just received.

I often thought about him, you know.

I wondered what he was up to.

I thought if he wanted to see me, then he'd contact me.

Do you know what I mean? You sort of let things slide, don't you?

Although Kathleen hasn't seen her dad for many years,

she remembers him as a charismatic figure.

Yeah, when he took us out that time when he came to visit us

when I hadn't seen him for ages

and I was calling him Dad.

"Don't call me Dad. I don't want people to think I'm old!"

He had grandkids, you know! Made me laugh.

He picked me up in his arms when I opened the door.

He picked me up in his arms and swung me round, and it was like...

I did think we'd see each other again.

It's very sad.

Bob's arrived at Kathleen's sister Jennifer's house,

prepared for another emotional meeting.

As before, David Pacifico has called ahead to break the sad news.

Nice to meet you. Bob Barrett.

Like her sister, Kathleen, Jennifer is happy for the company to help

and signs an agreement on the spot.

I'll leave that with you. File these away before I lose them.

What a shock.

Yes. You didn't expect this when you got out of bed this morning.

I would have liked him to be alive

so I could introduce him to my family.

As Bob heads off,

Jennifer is also left to reflect on her long-lost father.

I didn't know him enough, you know.

My mum left him, you see.

And she went to live with my nan,

me and my sister after the car accident.

I didn't see him again till I was about 15. He came up to our house.

It would have been nice to know he'd written a will for me and my sister.

But...

It's not really, you know...

He's not left it to us, has he?

With both heirs signed with the company,

Bob calls into the office to speak to Dave

and reflect on what's been a difficult day for both of them.

'Hello, Bob. I gather you've had another lengthy interview.'

I don't know how much the daughters mentioned.

Did they want to know more about their father?

They both seemed quite upset about not having seen him for so long.

I think they would probably appreciate a bit more information about him.

Isn't it a shame? They're wondering about him...

'And it's too late. Yeah.'

But it seems there IS a chance

for Kathleen and Jennifer to find some comfort amidst their grief.

Ronald's friend and neighbour Lisa has been on the phone to the office,

offering to speak to them.

In his final days, Ronald had asked to see his daughters

but Lisa hadn't known how to find them.

Now she can put that right.

I think it's probably going to be one of his biggest regrets

that he didn't keep in contact with them,

especially as the last few days before he passed

he'd asked to see them.

Ron would want his daughters to have his money because he would probably want to use that

to build the bridge from where it collapsed when they didn't speak to each other for so long.

Whatever Ronald's last wishes actually were, in the end, thanks to the heir hunters,

his money will go to his closest living relatives,

his two daughters, Jennifer and Kathleen.

Here are some more unsolved cases where heirs still need to be found.

The list of unclaimed estates is money that is owed to members of the public,

and new names are added all the time.

The list goes back to 1997, when our case management system came on line.

The idea is to produce a list of all those solvent cases,

so there should be at least a few pounds in there,

possibly many thousands.

And the Bona Vacantia team's mission is a simple one.

Try your hardest to find the heirs to an estate.

My division isn't allowed to make a profit.

We don't make commission, or get bonuses for passing lots of money to the Treasury.

The Treasury's more interested in, are we finding more kin? Which we are.

And are we good value for taxpayers' money? Which we are.

Let's see if we can help find someone's long-lost heirs.

Do these names mean anything to you? Are they relatives of yours?

Frank Garbutt Sherwood Adams died in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire,

on 29th December, 2008.

Perhaps Sherwood was Frank's mother's maiden name.

Could you be related to him?

Raymond Russon died on 25th October 2009

in Walsall in the West Midlands.

Russon is an English medieval name, and was commonly given to

a person living in a place where wild roses grew.

The name is most common in Cornwall and the West Midlands.

Do you share the surname Russon? Was Raymond a member of your family?

Audrey Ronksley died in Sheffield back in July 1998.

I've got Audrey's death certificate here,

which contains more information about her.

It shows that she was born on 1st August 1934 in Sheffield.

As she was born and passed away in Sheffield,

it's likely she was from a local family.

Did you know Audrey? Were you related to her?

The death certificate also shows Audrey's occupation.

It says she was an alterations assistant.

Did you perhaps work with Audrey years ago in a dressmaker's shop?

Can you help solve this case?

Has any of this jogged your memory? Are you related to Audrey?

Remember, you're the person who has to prove the link.

If people put together their cases very well and get their family tree,

and they get all the certificates to fill in, such as birth,

death and marriage, maybe anything to do with adoption,

send that in,

and it's dealt with by someone who's an expert in their field.

They'll be able to see whether the claim is made out or not.

A reminder of those names again.

Frank Adams, Raymond Russon and Audrey Ronksley.

If today's names are relatives of yours,

then you could have a windfall coming your way.

Let's return to investigations

into the case of singer-songwriter Tim Rose.

Later, I'll be exploring his musical legacy.

They were songs that had such power, and when he used to do them live,

you would hear a pin drop.

But first, back to the search for his living family.

Heir hunter Gareth Langford was leading the investigation

to find any beneficiaries.

After quite a bit of research,

he discovered that this gifted musician was an only child,

raised by his mother and a mysterious aunt,

who so far hasn't been named.

Gareth was pinning his hopes

on this aunt having married and had children.

As Tim's cousins, they would be in line to inherit.

But despite all these hours of hard work and amazing discoveries,

sadly for Gareth, it looked like the hunt in England was over.

Once we'd read through all the information on the Internet,

it became apparent quite quickly

there was very little we could do over here.

He didn't marry, he was a bachelor,

so there was no marriage to look for.

He wasn't born over here,

and it doesn't appear any of his family came here either.

So at that stage, we had to hand it over to our American colleagues

and see if they came up with any good leads.

But for the time being, all Gareth could do was wait,

and the chances are he'd have to wait quite a while.

Heir hunting in the US is a very different proposition.

Unlike the UK, they have no centralised record office

for births, marriages and deaths, and each state has its own rules

governing the release of this information.

So, several days went by before Gareth heard anything at all,

and when he did hear back, it wasn't good news.

It appears that maybe the deceased was an only child of parents

who were only children.

This was a real blow to the whole investigation.

That would mean there was no possibility

of finding any heirs on this case.

But Gareth wasn't giving up yet.

Why would so many different sources on the Internet talk about an aunt

if she didn't exist?

The more he read about Tim, the more convinced he became

that there WAS going to be some value in this estate.

The reason why

the case was only very recently advertised is a mystery.

The deceased died in 2002,

but his estate was only advertised on the list in 2010.

I don't know exactly why that's happened,

but one obvious reason is that his albums are selling.

Royalties are due to him, and his estate needs to be settled.

As a published singer-songwriter,

Tim would have been earning royalties from the sale

and performance of his records throughout his life,

and that would have continued for the eight years since his death.

The reality is that, even after you have died,

you can earn money

from your performances and your work for quite some time,

provided they're sold, provided they're played on radio

or TV or in public places, accounts are made,

and by the end of the year,

it all tots up to being, hopefully, a significant sum.

But how many records did Tim Rose sell over his chequered career?

And were they still selling even after his death?

I think Tim is the classic nearly man of rock music.

He was almost there on several occasions.

There were several times

when he nearly had a hit single in this country.

He went on Top of the Pops, he was on the radio a lot,

he was playing live and getting lots of acclaim and good reviews,

but it didn't quite happen.

The highlight of Tim Rose's career was his first solo album,

so he peaked early.

It is a classic of its time, there's no doubt about it.

It's a great album.

One track on that record, Hey Joe,

would prove to be the most important of Tim's career,

but what success he had was soon overshadowed

by another up-and-coming American artist.

Very shortly after Tim did a version of the song,

Jimi Hendrix had a hit single with a slow version of the song.

It sounds very similar to Tim's version, and he felt hard done by.

Hendrix had the big hit with the song,

but Tim had done the arrangement.

Although Tim was disappointed that he never made the big time,

in the end, it was the music and the fans that mattered.

His first London show for nearly 20 years,

at the Half Moon pub in Putney, and it was absolutely packed.

A lot of people who remembered him at the time,

and then a subsequent generation of people who got into him

as his records have been reissued.

You could almost see him being blown away by the response.

Touchingly, I thought, at the end of the show, he stood at the door

and shook hands with every member of the audience as they left.

It was like a vicar saying goodbye to people leaving church.

Only a few years after that sensational comeback,

Tim's fans gathered at the Half Moon again.

But this time, it was for his wake.

Martin still comes here every year to remember his friend.

Today is Tim's birthday. I come up to London to tidy the grave.

I've called in here for a drink at the same time,

and bring back a few memories.

When I play one of his CDs now,

which I did on the way up here in the car,

it always means the same to me.

The man is not dead, he's still with us.

He's left his imprint on life.

We can't get him back, but we can keep the music.

Tim was never in the first rank of rock'n'roll earners,

but his records were still selling

to fans and connoisseurs long after his death.

And with the royalties that accrued over the years, it turns out that

the nearly man of rock may have left a sizable legacy after all.

Mr Tim Rose!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

But after all that,

this heir hunt was still in the hands of the Americans.

Unless they found Tim's missing aunt,

then any money that he had left behind would be going

straight to the Government.

But two weeks later, Fraser has some fantastic news.

Records have turned up in America that prove

the aunt did exist, and what's more, she had living descendants.

We've just heard back from our agents in America.

It's good news, really. It sounds like they've found beneficiaries.

At the moment, I don't know the full extent of the family.

But the agreements have been sent and they've spoken to all of them.

They're aware, we're just waiting for the reports to come through.

For Neil, it's a satisfying end

to a very different kind of investigation.

We've been able to identify a case, a case which we think has got value,

even though initial thoughts indicated

there probably wasn't going to be any value.

We've been able to find the beneficiaries.

We're the first people to find those beneficiaries,

and we've spoken to them. So, we're in a very good position.

Fingers crossed, now, a waiting game, really,

to see if the contracts come back to us.

It was a good result for the heir hunters in the end.

But as well as his estate, whatever its final value,

Tim Rose's real legacy is his music.

I'm back with radio DJ Johnnie Walker, who not only remembers

when Tim arrived on the scene, but also, sadly, when he left it.

After decades, the two men of music's paths finally crossed.

For me, there's a huge gap of about 30 years.

So we go from 1966, pirate radio, I'm in Marylebone,

in a little church hall at a self-help group meeting,

cos I had a bit of a problem with drink and stuff,

and after the meeting, I hear this gruff voice, "Johnnie,

"I think you played my record."

I turn round, there's this big guy with this mane of grey hair.

And I go, "Yeah?" He goes, "Tim Rose."

-And I was completely blown away.

-Yeah.

-I had just no idea.

-And had you met him in the '60s before?

No, I never had. Never had.

I've got a vague recollection, there's this great club

in Margaret Street where all the musicians used to go,

and I've got a vague recollection of him doing a gig there.

But I might be wrong.

It's one of those '60s things where it's lost in the mists of time!

A hazy memory!

Yeah! So I never really did meet him.

So then, here we are in 1999, and he's back,

and he's trying to get his career going again.

And he's been clean and sober, not had a drink for eight years.

So, he's really doing well.

We went to a little cafe and just had a cup of tea

and had a chat about the old times and things like that.

And then he was getting ready to do shows at the Festival Hall.

He went on Later...With Jools Holland,

and so suddenly his light's shining again.

He's in a better place, I think, to handle it.

Through being just completely off drink.

So, great shame, then, that he gets struck with cancer.

Did he ever talk to you about his family, or was it more about music?

Then, at that stage, in those sort of meetings, it was about,

"Jeez, this is hard, isn't it?!"

-Of course.

-It was about getting through a day at a time.

In the most unlikely of places, Johnnie and Tim had finally met.

It's just sad to hear that Tim had finally beaten his addiction

to alcohol to then succumb to cancer.

Talking to Johnnie about the man and his music makes me think

how much I would have loved to have seen him live.

By all accounts, he was a mesmerising performer.

He sang one night at the Speakeasy Club, which was a wonderful club

where you'd have The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix go, and also roadies.

-There was a roadies' bar...

-I wish I'd been around then!

Then you had this wonderful... They called it the Greenhouse.

It was a glassed-in restaurant enclosure,

where some of the big names would go,

and you'd see Ahmet Ertegun, the boss of Atlantic Records,

hanging out with Clapton and Beatles and stuff.

Then they had a music room, and Pink Floyd played there,

and all sorts of people played their first gigs there.

I'm sure Tim Rose sang there.

I've got this recollection of hearing Tim doing Morning Dew.

What do you think his legacy is, then?

Well, I think that he helped Jimi Hendrix become world famous,

through his arrangement of Hey Joe.

Morning Dew is a record that will sound good forever.

And so there's a legacy for his descendants from that,

because it still gets played an awful lot.

So, I think the records that he did make stand the test of time.

And for me, if I made one record in my life

and it was Morning Dew, I'd be happy.

So I think it much better to look at the positive,

he made some great music, rather than, he never really made it big.

-Yeah.

-Perhaps he didn't want to.

You can be almost famous for a long time.

You could be very famous for a very short time.

He had this wonderful intensity,

and he would pick songs like Come Away Melinda, Morning Dew, Hey Joe,

they were songs that had such power.

And when he used to do them live, even in the later years, 2002,

when he was performing, you would hear a pin drop when he performed,

and then at the end, everybody sits back in amazement.

"Wow! I've just seen something really special!"

He was performing again, he was recording again,

and so sad that then health cut his life too short.

They say the brightest stars burn the quickest,

and Tim Rose is an example of pure singing talent.

The heir hunters may have found his long-lost relatives,

who will be entitled to Tim's estate,

but his windfall of wonderful music is out there

for everyone to inherit.

If you would like advice about building your family tree

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

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