Glanfield/Saunders Heir Hunters

Today the heir hunters are tested to the max on a case worth an estimated £100,000.

The search may take them to relatives who have no idea they're in line for a windfall.

Could they be knocking at your door?

On today's show -

It's not hers.

The team takes a huge risk.

Still unsure there's any value in this.

Is there a way their gamble will pay off?

The whole of this work may go in the bin.

The heir hunters join forces with a friend of the deceased

to try to contact the rightful heirs.

I don't see why it should go to the government.

It's a hunt which will retrace a journey from 1950s Jamaica.

Plus, how you could be entitled to unclaimed estates

where beneficiaries still need to be found.

Could you be in line for an unexpected windfall?

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 £12 million from unclaimed estates.

But there are over 30 specialist firms competing to stop this happening.

They're called heir hunters.

It's their business to track down missing relatives

and help them claim their rightful inheritance.

I bring about a change, so that the rightful assets go to the rightful family members.

The Treasury's list of unclaimed estates is released at midnight every Thursday.

It's now 7am on Thursday morning, in London.

There are a lot of names on the list.

Staff at heir-hunting company Fraser and Fraser

have come in early to beat the competition.

Got this case of Glanfield coming out in Ipswich.

Turned out to be quite a big family.

So we're just sorting them out.

They've got the beginnings of a family tree,

and even some names of potential heirs,

for a case called Mary Glanfield.

The team's made fast progress researching the deceased.

They've worked out that Mary died in Ipswich in 2007, aged 69.

She may have owned her own property,

something that could make this estate worth working.

Somehow, they need to confirm that Mary was a home owner.

Trying to find phone numbers for any neighbours of the deceased.

Neighbour enquiries can be really invaluable for us.

The Treasury's list doesn't reveal what estates are worth,

so it's up to heir hunters to estimate their value.

As they normally work on commission,

picking the right case can be a real gamble.

The next step is to confirm whether there's any value in this,

and if we should be continuing or stopping our costs now.

Mary Glanfield was born in Ipswich just before the war, in 1938.

She was something of an enigma, and no photos of her can be traced.

But former neighbours do recall

a warm, friendly lady, and her partner, Fred.

She was a very nice person, very bubbly.

Very happy together.

I was invited round for a cup of tea.

Fred and Mary showed me round the place they shared together.

She was a lovely person.

For eight years, the couple lived beside another neighbour, Mr Parsons.

We didn't see them as much as hear them, they were always laughing.

On a Sunday they'd be in the kitchen together, singing hymns, very happily.

Until Fred unfortunately passed away, in his hundreds.

Shortly after that, we believe she moved into a home.

Mary lived in a care home in Ipswich until she was nearly 70,

and sadly passed away in November 2007.

Back at the office,

the team's trying to find out if Mary definitely owned her own property.

Who did you buy your house off? Was it...

You're renting.

Partner Andrew Fraser has contacted the new occupant of Mary's old house.

Will they know if Mary was a home owner?

But he bought it from the Glanfields. Yeah.

OK. Sorry for disturbing you, but thank you very much for the help.

Possible. We're still on a possible.

Her husband died aged 104?

Her husband?

But the only record of a Mary Glanfield they found wasn't married.

She's a spinster.

It looks like the research isn't matching up.

The current resident believes Mary was married.

The Mary Glanfield we've been working

was a spinster birth, ie, she was born as Mary Glanfield.

If this person's right, and she was married,

everything we've done so far is the wrong family.

It's back to the records to double-check their research.

Another database soon throws up a new result.

We've now found out that she lived with a gentleman who did indeed die aged 101.

They're different surnames, so they possibly weren't married.

Some women do keep their own name, so

we need to double-check there is no marriage for them.

They've confirmed that Mary lived with Fred Potter.

If the couple weren't married, did Mary inherit the property?

This was the very reason they decided to work the case.

It's got partner Andrew Fraser worried.

I'm working on the basis that the property, potentially, was owned by Mr Potter.

He leaves a will and leaves it all to this Mary Glanfield.

And it's her estate to which we're working.

There are the assumptions we're making.

If we're wrong on any point of that assumption,

then we could be on a dead-end road.

After such a head start, the uncertainty is a big setback.

At the moment, ten past eight, we're still unsure if there's any value in this.

It's a gamble, but Andrew decides to invest in the case.

He's asked a researcher to go to Ipswich

to make some enquiries at the property.

The company employs a network of regional heir hunters

who are on standby every Thursday.

They provide a vital role making door-to-door enquiries

across the country in the race to find and sign up heirs.

This morning, traveller Ewart Lindsey is being sent from Watford

to travel 94 miles to Ipswich.

Can he find out if the couple were married?

First step is to make an enquiry where the deceased used to live.

You just never know, you see. She may well be a spinster.

But you just never know.

While Ewart tries to get some answers,

the team continue their research into Mary's former property.

They've just heard the house was sold.

Frederick Potter was in on his own, then Mary,

the deceased, moves in.

Just before she dies, she moves into a nursing home.

Her property is sold just before she dies.

Public records don't show whether the property was in Mary's name.

But if it was hers,

the estate could be very valuable.

A house in this location would have sold

for an estimated £150,000.

If it all went to Mary, it makes this case worth working.

So the team goes ahead with the search for heirs to Mary Glanfield's mystery estate.

Mary Glanfield's brother, Roger F Glanfield, died only aged 20, in 1960, in Reading.

There's no marriages before he died, obviously at that age you wouldn't expect it.

So, he's died, probably with no issue.

Researcher Dominic has been building Mary's family tree.

All the stems have revealed themselves very easily.

He's worked out that Mary was born to Frank Glanfield and Ella Hardingham in Ipswich in 1938.

She had a younger brother, Roger, who had no issue,

which in heir-hunting terms, means he had no children.

Her father, Frank, did have five siblings.

But none of them had any children either.

That side looks like it's dead.

One minor, one bachelor and three marriages with no issue.

Which is strange, but I've double-checked.

With no cousins on her father's side,

any heirs to Mary Glanfield's estate are going to come from her mother's side.

Ella Hardingham had seven siblings,

and it looks like they do have descendants.

If it's been this easy for the team to discover the family tree,

the competition may have the same information.

The team rushes to find a contact number for one of Mary's cousins.

This could be their first heir.

Right, this woman here, if she's alive, would be the heir.

Her husband had them in 1999. Daughter and son-in-law.

Case manager David Pacifico calls the possible heir

to try to sign her ahead of the competition.

The opposition are on the phones.

But it's a frustrating situation. Both lines are engaged.

Great! Might as well wait until the opposition speak to them.

If the competition's on the other line, the company may lose the case.

David has to make a quick-fire decision.

PHONE RINGS

-Hello?

-Hello, Ewart. Morning.

-Morning, David.

-Are you on your way to Ipswich?

-I am, yes.

I've got a phone number for somebody in Ipswich.

-Sounds like the opposition are on the phone to her.

-Right.

We've got an address in Ipswich of a daughter... well, a cousin once removed.

What do you want me to do? Go straight there?

At the moment, I'd rather you go there.

Although they haven't established the value of the estate,

Ewart is taken off enquiries at Mary's former property

to approach an heir who also lives in Ipswich.

He's hoping to get there before a rival company signs her up.

Trying to work it out.

If she's speaking to the opposition at this present moment,

I should be there by 9:30-ish.

I hope to pip them to the post.

Charm my way in.

And... get a signature.

Losing the case to a rival company is a real possibility.

Meanwhile, David keeps dialling the number for the heir.

And his persistence soon pays off.

Oh, it's ringing!

Hello, we're trying to trace members of the Hardingham family.

I don't know if anyone else has contacted you, at all?

Right, I thought as much.

We are a different company, that are looking into the same matter.

It's bad news.

It seems the heir has already been spoken to by the competition.

One of my colleagues is actually close to Ipswich.

Would it be possible for him to meet with you?

I was hoping, if it's convenient, this morning.

Not at all, today?

Things aren't going the team's way.

The heir doesn't want to meet anyone from the company.

We can't see her today.

Do we want him in Ipswich? The only other thing would be an enquiry.

The team want to send Ewart back to do the enquiry

at Mary's address, to confirm their research.

But across the office, staff have found another case which has a definite value.

-Ewart can't see the woman.

-I've spoken to the heir.

-Can you send Ewart to Croydon, please?

-Croydon?

As heir hunting is such a gamble,

partner Neil Fraser makes the decision to cut their losses

and send Ewart to the valuable Croydon case instead.

-Hello?

-Ewart, that woman can't be seen today and there's nobody else

-in Ipswich. Can you go to Croydon?

-Croydon. Okey-dokey.

It's a disappointment for the team.

The hunt for Mary Glanfield's heirs

is falling apart at the seams.

They have no idea of the estate's value,

and if they contact relatives, it could be a waste of time.

But Andrew Fraser doesn't give up that easily.

He has a new plan which might put the case back on track.

We're still working blind, in terms of value.

We have to wait until the Probate Office opens at 10 o'clock

before we can have any indication whether she actually owned a property or not.

It's now approaching 9:30.

A researcher is being sent to the Probate Registry

to apply for Fred Potter's will, when the doors open at 10 o'clock.

If they can get it, it will reveal

if Fred left his property to Mary, then it will be all systems go.

But if Mary didn't inherit, this heir hunt could have been a complete waste of time.

Coming up - can this investigation be saved?

I hope there's value there. If not, we'll come a real cropper on this.

While some unclaimed estates lead to relatives a few streets away,

others can cross the globe.

Keith Alexander Saunders died in 2008 without leaving a will.

His unclaimed estate was advertised by the Treasury Solicitor.

When staff at Fraser and Fraser made initial enquiries,

their leads went nowhere.

The case was put on the back burner.

And that's where it would have stayed, unless case manager

Tony Pledger hadn't got a phone call from one of Keith's close friends.

The case of Keith Saunders, otherwise Keith Sanders,

really didn't get going until we received a telephone call from Minette Smith,

with additional information that she had about her good friend.

Seven miles away in south London, Minette Smith had been doing her own amateur heir hunt

to make sure Keith's relatives received his inheritance.

I don't see why it should go to the government.

I just feel that if he's got family, then it should go to them.

Keith became a life-long friend of Minette's family

when he moved from Jamaica in the 1950s.

I met Keith in 1956, when I was 12 years old.

He would come around at whenever, the weekends,

Saturdays, Sundays, and

just be part of the family.

He was a jolly person.

He'd always give me,

when I was a child, and my children, two shillings. Half a crown.

But as he got older, he got a bit tighter. But that was Keith.

Keith spent his life working for British Rail.

When he reached his 80s,

Minette moved him into sheltered housing and took care of his affairs.

Eventually, Keith died in Enfield, at the age of 83.

Minette found out he hadn't left a will and was worried what would happen to his money.

I thought maybe he had made it, even if he had left it to charity or whatever.

I didn't push because I didn't want him to think that I was after what he had.

And of course, as I said, I did not believe that he had,

you know, as much money as it happens he's left.

To Minette's surprise, it seemed Keith had left £90,000.

She was determined to find Keith's long-lost relatives,

and started her own search for heirs back in 2009.

Apparently his mother had just him and his sister, Elaine.

Elaine apparently had children.

Minette didn't have a contact for his sister,

as Keith had lost touch with his sibling.

He did keep in touch with his sister

until about 30 years ago, when he lost trace of her,

sending her a card at Christmas, with a postal order in it,

and it actually came back

and that was the end of their connection.

So Minette placed an advert in a Jamaican newspaper,

looking for information about Keith's sister.

I did it very discreetly, just looking for Elaine,

rather than letting people know that he had died.

The advert didn't produce any results.

Minette had drawn a blank with her research into Keith's missing relatives.

But then she heard about the professional heir hunters,

and decided to contact one of the companies.

The person who took the call was Tony Pledger.

He hoped fresh information about Keith from a friend who'd known him 52 years

could move the investigation forward.

She was able to give us a potential place of birth for the deceased.

She also had some knowledge of the assets of the estate.

And as a friend of the deceased, she had some family information.

Personal knowledge is invaluable to an heir hunt.

The team now knew where Keith was from,

and could hone the research to an island in the Caribbean.

Like so many others, Keith had emigrated from Jamaica to the UK in 1950,

seen to be a home from home for British Caribbean people.

Immigrants from Jamaica would have viewed Britain as the mother country.

They felt an affinity to it.

That they belonged there.

Their education had been essentially a British education.

They felt at one with it,

so theirs would have been, if you like, an idealised view of what they would find.

So 26-year-old Keith would have paid a fare of £28 to board a ship bound for England.

After the Second World War,

Britain was keen to attract migrant workers to its shores.

Britain needed labour after the Second World War.

They needed to replenish, revitalise the economy.

There was obviously loss of male workforce as a result of the war,

and a need to build the economy and get people working,

not necessarily in highly skilled areas, but in more unskilled areas.

So the government passed a law to help people

from its former overseas territories settle in Britain.

In 1948,

Britain passed the Citizen Act.

It went under the Latin title of

Civis Britannicus Sum -

"I am British".

So that, in fact, I think, opened the gate

for the people coming to Britain.

Like many other Jamaicans, Keith settled in the UK,

and began a new career working with British Rail.

The nationalised industries,

like, for instance, British Rail,

London Transport,

did not have a colour bar,

and the union seems to support that.

So that's the reason why most Jamaicans

tried to find a job in one of the nationalised industries.

Keith had arrived in a country which seemed to offer more opportunities than his homeland.

But growing resentment towards immigrants in the UK didn't make life easy.

It was very difficult for the immigrants to find,

one would argue, decent accommodation.

They were forced by landlords to pay excessive rents for very poor-quality housing

and live in very overcrowded conditions.

The new immigrant population began to find solutions to their housing problems,

like at the boarding house in north London, where both Minette's family and Keith had lived.

Early pioneer immigrants bought up properties and re-let them

to more recent arrivals,

sometimes charging excessive rents and sometimes not.

And that created communities as well, a nexus of community,

as the landlords developed their holding on properties.

So that was one way of fighting back or accommodating the needs

of immigrants who were suffering at the hands of local racists.

Keith settled in Britain, and stayed for the rest of his life like many of his countrymen.

But surprisingly, he never once returned to his birthplace of Jamaica.

It could be that he came here and he... the life...

he had made for himself was so different from the one he left,

that he just didn't want to spoil it.

I don't think we seriously thought we'd be back in five years,

but we certainly didn't intend to stay.

Now the search for heirs to Keith's £90,000 estate

was focused on the country he left behind.

Did he have living relatives in Jamaica,

and would the heir hunters be able to find them?

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 has a list of over 2000 estates

which have baffled the heir hunters and are unsolved.

Could you be the heir they've been searching for?

Are you in line for a windfall worth hundreds, thousands or even millions of pounds?

Estates stay on the list for up to 30 years,

and today we're focusing on three names -

are they relatives of yours?

Victor Albert Haber from Edmonton in London

died in August 1992.

If heirs aren't found, his money will go to the government.

Did you know Florence Patricia De Groot,

who died in Brighton on January the 2nd, 1999?

De Groot is a rare surname, originating from Holland.

The last census showed that only one in a million people had this name in England and Wales.

Also on our list is John Richard Kendrick,

who died in July, 2006.

He was from Stratford-Upon-Avon.

All efforts to trace his relatives have drawn a blank.

If the names Victor Haber, Florence De Groot or John Kendrick mean anything to you

or someone you know, you could have an unexpected windfall coming your way.

Sometimes, an heir hunt begins when people are desperate

to find family members of their departed friends.

In 2010, Minette Smith called the heir hunters

and asked them to find the family of her friend Keith Saunders, who'd died without leaving a will.

He had a beautiful smile and he was a jolly person, you'd just have a good laugh.

It seemed Keith had left an estate worth around £90,000,

and Minette was determined it should go to his rightful heirs.

And crucially, she was convinced Keith had a sister called Elaine.

I just feel that if he's got family, it should go to them.

Now the heir hunters had leads on Keith Saunders,

they could make a start.

The first thing that we need to do in any case

is to obtain a copy of the death record of the deceased.

Having got a copy of that, it indicated a date of birth,

and just Jamaica.

The death certificate gave them little to go on.

They needed to know the exact town where Keith was born.

And there was some confusion about Keith's name.

The death cert'

hindered more than helped in as much as all it did was give a potential extra surname.

His surname on the death record is given as Sanders, S-A-N-D-E-R-S.

It's our understanding that it is Saunders, S-A-U-N-D-E-R-S,

which makes a lot of difference when you're searching for a name filed alphabetically.

The team turn to Minette.

Having known Keith for 52 years,

could she shed some light on his name or birthplace?

People that actually knew the decedent quite well are convinced it's Saunders,

so I'd rather go with somebody who actually knew the deceased

rather than somebody who might have only been involved with them after they're deceased

through their own employment.

On Minette's advice that Keith was called Saunders

and born in St Anne parish, Jamaica,

the team began to search for his birth certificate.

But an overseas heir hunt is never easy.

The registration in Jamaica is, I understand, a bit haphazard,

which is why we put it out to a Jamaican agent.

The fact that that agent has been unable to find anything positive and report back to us

doesn't in any way reflect on the agent.

It might be just the poor quality of the records.

A birth record would have given them Keith's parents' name,

but the local heir hunter couldn't find the certificate.

So the team turned to Minette again.

Minette was able to give us the name of a sister,

and she recollected who she thought his mum was.

But to try and find the death of a Ruby Saunders or Sanders...

If you find two or three, which one is the right one, if any?

Minette told them Keith's mother was called Ruby Saunders,

and he had a sister, Elaine.

But nothing in this heir hunt was going to plan.

With regard to the potential sister as Elaine,

Minette thought she was Elaine Stanley.

Whether she was born as Stanley or she married a Mr Stanley,

or she just lived with a Mr Stanley and took on his name,

is something that Minette didn't know and we couldn't establish.

It wasn't clear if Elaine was known by her maiden name or her married name.

But the team urgently needed to find her.

Keith's sister's children would be heirs to his estate.

She would, I think, have been born probably after him, a couple of years,

perhaps about, say, 1926 or so.

That she was a nurse, probably in Allman Town in Kingston,

and that she had, I think, three or four children

who would, of course, be nephews and nieces of the decedent.

Tony got on the phone to call hospitals in Jamaica

to check their former employees for an Elaine Stanley.

Their records

didn't really cover nurses

who would probably have been a nurse in the hospital best part of 30 years ago, perhaps.

The conversations with hospital staff didn't give them any leads,

so they used the Jamaican phonebook to call families named Stanley.

You could easily ring somebody and say, "I'm trying to reach Elaine Stanley."

"Was that somebody in your family?"

They might have had an Elaine Stanley, but is it the right family?

Without concrete details like birth records,

the team had to accept they couldn't find Keith's sister in Jamaica.

There was one last lead to follow.

Minette knew of another possible relative who'd lived in England.

It's our understanding that the decedent came to England in about 1950

to potentially live with an uncle.

That would mean he came over here at about 26,

because he'd be about 86 if he was alive today.

If that uncle had had children,

they would be cousins of the deceased

and as such would have a potential entitlement.

It's thought Keith's uncle had lived in London.

But the team had no name,

so they had no way of finding him or connecting him to Keith.

Short of travelling to Jamaica and visiting every parish, the team was running out of options.

And they had no guarantees the case was worth £90,000.

One doesn't know what's happened to that since he's died.

We can't confirm that that figure is accurate.

We're in a Catch-22 situation. We don't want to invest too much effort

only to find that if we succeed, we don't cover our costs.

Without knowing the exact value,

the team couldn't invest much more time or money researching the estate.

But that doesn't mean the search is over.

What could progress this case is somebody

realising that they either knew Keith or were related to Keith.

If Keith came over in 1950, he could have married.

He could have had children who could be anywhere in the world, but hopefully they're in the UK.

For Minette Smith, Keith's lifelong friend,

it will be a great comfort when heirs are finally found.

I'm just hoping that we

get some answers and find some relatives

and that they can enjoy what he's worked very hard for.

So could you or someone you know be related to Keith Alexander Saunders from Jamaica?

If so, you could be entitled to his unclaimed estate,

estimated at £90,000.

In central London, the heir hunters have been looking into the case of Mary Glanfield.

In no time at all, they've built a large family tree.

It looks like we've got more possible stems out of Ipswich.

Trouble is, they still don't know how much the case is worth

so everything they're doing is a gamble.

If it's a low-value case, the commission will barely pay for the work they've done,

let alone the months of paperwork ahead.

I don't like the look of this, I really don't.

It'll be a low-value case. We're getting into large families here.

Mary Glanfield lived with Fred Potter, a man 30 years her senior,

as neighbours recall.

She was a very nice person. Very bubbly.

And very happy together.

It's been hard to establish if Mary and Fred were married,

and that affects whether she owned the property they lived in.

With all the confusion, partner Neil Fraser has stepped in to nail down some hard facts.

For us it's vital to work out if the estate has some value,

especially when the tree gets this big.

Quite a few staff working on it.

My brother's been looking at some of it this morning trying to work out values.

I've now moved in to give a hand on that and see what else is happening.

What we do know is that Mary had a partner, 101 years old when he died.

This is Frederick Potter.

Neil urgently wants to know what Fred's relationship was to Mary,

and if she was the sole beneficiary to his estate when he died in 2005.

He left a will, that's been registered at First Avenue House.

We've applied for a copy of that.

It will take at least an hour to get that copy.

In the meantime, we know the value of that probate was £109,000.

What we're hoping to find from this probate

is that he left it all to Mary. If he left it to someone else,

then we may be dealing with a very, very small estate

and the whole of this work may go in the bin.

The team has already spent valuable time and effort investigating this case.

...had a brief look at marriages.

Now researcher Noel has discovered some information that could change the picture completely.

-You know this Frederick Potter guy?

-Yeah.

Still haven't got the details of the will back?

He was married.

He's probably got three kids.

And the question is, do they benefit?

Fred and Mary weren't married, and he had three children from a previous marriage

who he might have left his estate to.

This means Mary might not have got much of an inheritance at all.

I'm worried about...

I leave my children the bulk of the estate and leave £5,000 to Mary.

Things are looking bleak for the team.

It's now more important than ever they get Fred's will.

David calls the researcher who's gone to the Probate Office for an update.

Can you really keep an eye on that one?

It's highly important to get that one and phone it through down here.

After an anxious 45-minute wait,

David gets a call back about the details of the will.

It's the moment they've been waiting for. Did Mary inherit the house?

What does he give to Mary?

Sorry, he left his property to Mary, or is it a life...

Until when? Until she dies?

And then what happens if she dies?

It's not looking good.

So it's upon trust for her while she's still using it?

He's not actually given it to her?

Right.

The will contains the exact news they didn't want to hear,

and David rushes to tell Neil.

It's not hers.

It's for use for her.

Free of mortgage for her

until she leaves or dies.

It can't be sold without her consent.

-He's bringing the will back at one o'clock.

-No money in it.

Fred's property was given to Mary until she died.

Then the ownership reverted to his children.

Mary's estate doesn't include the detached bungalow she lived in,

the asset which made this heir hunt worthwhile.

My thought's we got this far, we do it by post,

and we say, "What now?"

The team knows that pressing ahead could be pointless.

Neil's on the verge of pulling the plug on this case.

But could there be one line of enquiry they haven't yet tried?

What if Mary had previously owned any of the houses she had lived in?

See if we've got a previous address for her.

If it's of an age where we can work out if she sold it to move in with him.

If Neil's right, his hunch might just redeem the heir hunt.

If she owned the property, we know there's value.

Shall we continue working until...

Oh, yeah. Keep working.

Even if it's low value, as I said to Neil, we got this far.

Research focuses on Mary's former addresses -

had she owned any of the houses?

Where was she before that, '04?

Can we check previous addresses?

Approve these ones.

Did she own number 1, do you know?

These are not rented properties?

One address starts to look promising.

You've been most helpful, thank you very much.

The results of David's phone call

could be a breakthrough. It looks likely

that Mary owned and sold a house in 1999.

We've found out where

she used to live, and I think she may have owned that property, so

at the end of the day, I think there is value to this estate.

So, if that's the case, then all the people we've chased,

it's certainly been worthwhile to do so.

The heir hunt is back on.

Finally, the team can work

on the basis that there is a sizeable inheritance in the Glanfield estate.

Neil works fast to produce an estimate.

I've got an old address now. David's done a phone enquiry.

We know that property's been sold.

It's been sold twice. I can't tell if she sold it,

but I know it was sold round about when she moved out.

It was sold for £165,000.

Give or take a bit, we're probably still dealing with a £100,000 estate,

but it's from a different asset.

It's a topsy-turvy heir hunt.

It's now one o'clock and they've just established the estate's worth working.

This is what the team would normally make certain of at the start of the day.

And while they've been busy,

a rival firm has spoken to an heir.

They know that five of Mary's seven aunts and uncles had children,

leading to a wide family on her mother's side.

Now they urgently need to contact and sign up the other heirs.

Is there a Mr Hardingham there?

It would have been your mother's cousin.

Does the name Glanfield mean anything to you?

I will be writing to you both today.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

So that stem is complete, right? The Derek stem is complete.

Neil's brainwave has saved the heir hunt,

much to his relief.

What looked like a fairly good day turned into a very bad day,

and has now had a ray of sunshine, so it's a good day after all.

Over the coming weeks, the company signs

several heirs from the 28 relatives who are entitled

to Mary Glanfield's estate,

which Neil estimates is worth £100,000.

One of the heirs is Royce Derek,

who's Mary's first cousin, once removed.

He couldn't contain his surprise when he heard he was in line for a small windfall.

In a word, shocked, well, sad.

My sister, out of the blue, rang me and said,

"This chap has knocked at the door."

And he said we're related...

hopefully related to this Mary,

who we knew nothing about.

Royce didn't know his father's relatives,

but he's grateful to inherit from a mystery cousin.

I shall spend it, and enjoy it.

In recognition of thanks to her.

If you would like advice about building a family tree or making a will, go to bbc.co.uk.

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