Bernstein/Foster Heir Hunters

'Today the heir hunters face one of their toughest challenges yet.

'They are searching for the beneficiaries

'to an unclaimed estate worth an estimated £400,000.

'Somewhere out there are some long-lost relatives

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

'Could the heir hunters be knocking at your door?'

KNOCK ON DOOR

'On today's programme...'

Can we concentrate on the Bernstein side?

'The Heir Hunters need all their skill to investigate a case that refuses to be cracked.'

This could be a real biggie!

'And the incredible story of a man who grew up in a chocolate box town

'surrounded by family, but died alone.'

It was quite amazing that in all that time,

he'd never ever been mentioned.

'Plus, how you may be entitled to inherit an unclaimed estate 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 left behind will go to the Government.

'Last year, they made £12m 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.'

I love the fact I can put families back together. I can re-unite people.

I tell them secret histories about their family which they don't know about.

'It's Thursday morning in the office of heir hunters, Fraser & Fraser.

'The Treasury has just released its weekly list of unclaimed estates.

'Today, there seem to be several potentially high value cases,

'but one in particular has caught boss Neil Fraser's eye.'

The list is looking fairly big today, good for us. Quite a few valuable cases.

We are going to be concentrating on David Bernstein.

Dies down in Brighton.

Definitely owns his property so guessing it's going to be quite valuable.

Competition wise, it's going to be fierce.

Quite a few firms will be working on this one as well.

'David Bernstein died aged 68 on 8 February 2010 in Brighton.

'He left no will and only one photograph of him survives

'taken when he was five years old.

'Before his parents passed away, David lived with them in this Edwardian terraced house.

'His neighbour, Chris Dawson, knew him for many years.'

David was a gentleman,

he'd always give you the time of day.

Conversations weren't long

but we discussed the house,

the weather and that was about it.

He worked at Gatwick,

very smart fellow with a uniform like an aircraft captain.

'David commuted to Gatwick every day

'where he worked as a ground traffic controller.

'David Slack, an ex-colleague,

'remembers him as a distinctive figure.'

He was about 5 foot 7 tall,

of medium build, and he had shocking red hair.

Of course, he wore heavy-rimmed glasses.

He was quite dour, using the Scottish expression.

Over time, we got to know each other and he would chat,

mainly setting the world to rights.

Didn't talk much about social activities

because he didn't seem to have too much.

'When David retired from his career, he withdrew from society

'and sometimes wouldn't leave his house for days on end.'

I became concerned when I hadn't seen him for about a month.

I got a funny feeling that something wasn't right.

So, I put a note through his door, saying if you're OK,

pop the note back through my door.

Didn't receive the note, so I called the police

and they came, broke in the door at the front,

and then they found his body.

'It turned out that David had been dead for a few weeks.'

I would imagine that as he got older, he couldn't be bothered

to go to the tip and just used the rooms to put things in.

Apparently, they couldn't get the body out,

they had to remove a lot of items before they could get to him.

'It was a sad and lonely end to a life.

'But for Chris, it was not a true picture of the man he knew.'

The smart chap going to work early in the morning

with his pristine suits and his cap and uniform.

That would probably the best way that he'd be remembered.

'In the office, the investigation is already under way,

'with case manager David Pacifico in charge.'

This case of Bernstein, we know, is value to the case.

'The team knows that the deceased owned the house that he died in.

'Property in Brighton can be very expensive.

'So this means this could be a valuable estate.

'Their investigations have already established that David's parents

'were John Bernstein and Gwendoline Chidgey.

'Emily has been working the maternal Chidgey side of the family

'since first thing this morning, and she's done a very impressive job.'

-Which side are we up to date on?

-This side. The Bernstein.

-Is the Chidgey all finished?

-It's up to date, yeah.

'David's mother, Gwendoline,

'was the daughter of James Chidgey and Dora Webb.

'Between them, they had six other children,

'two of whom, Thomas and Edith, have descendants who are eligible to inherit.

'It looks like the family are based in the West Country.

'It's still only 7:30am, but David decides it's time to mobilise the troops.'

Can you aim westwards towards Somerset on a case called Bernstein?

I am getting two people down towards Somerset and Bristol.

'Heir hunters rely on senior researchers on the road

'like Paul Matthews and Bob Barrett to travel all over the country chasing down leads

'and making sure that they reach the heirs before the competition.

'But Paul Matthews has got a long journey ahead of him

'and he knows the stakes are high.'

Obviously, the race is on. We've identified heirs.

So, if there's value and we've identified people already

our rival companies will have done likewise.

Just as I'm heading down to Bristol to see them,

they've probably got somebody also heading down to see them.

So, it's whoever gets there first. Hopefully, us.

'Heir hunters work on commission,

'taking a percentage of the money received by each heir that they sign.

'With a potentially high value case like this one,

'they need to throw a lot of resources at it to make sure they get to the heirs first.'

I've committed two people down, Paul and Dave Hadley.

'As well as sending two travelling heir hunters to the West Country,

'David's also sending Bob Barrett to Brighton

'to size up the deceased's property, and do some detective work with the neighbours.'

She marries, Sep 1939, in Exmoor.

'The maternal side of this job has come together incredibly quickly.

'Now David wants the team to focus on the deceased father's family

'which he thinks will prove to be a lot harder to research.'

Can we concentrate on the Bernstein side?

'Researcher Dominic

'is tasked with cracking the paternal side of this case.

'After scanning the registers of births, marriages and deaths,

'he's discovered that David's father John was one of nine siblings.

'The children of Hyman Bernstein and Fanny Alban.

'Now he needs to identify these children

'and trace their descendants.'

We're struggling a little bit

despite my earlier confidence that we'd be OK.

There's an awful lot of people with the same surnames

in the same areas really.

'But it's not just the surnames that are proving to be an issue.'

One of the brothers is supposedly on the census, Abra Bernstein,

which you'd expect to be a shorter version of Abraham.

Which isn't really good news

because it is not going to be particularly easy to identify.

There's an awful lot of Jewish Abrahams, obviously.

'Even for experienced genealogists like Dominic,

'this is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

'David's father, John Bernstein,

'was born in Whitechapel in the East End of London.

'An area with a large Jewish population

'and hundreds of Bernstein families.

'Looks like he's going to have to try another route.'

One of the important things on this is going to be people's deaths.

With deaths, you've got exact ages so it's a bit easier

and potentially, if they leave things like a will,

they might actually tell you exactly who they married,

who their kids are, etc.

The deaths are going to be really important in this case, I think.

'Death certificates also contain the name of the person

'who informed on the death, who often turns out to be a son, daughter

'or close relative of the deceased.

'Providing the heir hunters with another crucial lead.

'Time for David Pacifico to step in.'

I'm sending somebody from the office to Whitechapel

with regards to the Bernsteins because we need to obtain

a number of certificates, identify the births and so forth.

'Going the certificate route generally takes longer,

'but on a complicated case like this

'it's the only way that the heir hunters can be 100% sure

'they have got the right person.

'David's got a problem with the Bernstein side of this case,

'so he desperately needs the maternal side to run more smoothly.

'Sure enough, travelling heir hunter Paul Matthews

'has arrived in Bristol

'at the address of one of the deceased's maternal relations.

'He's hoping he's about to sign his much-needed first heir on this case.

'But no-one is at home.

'At least the neighbour is in.'

Hello, I'm trying to contact your neighbour.

I don't really know the neighbours, to be honest.

-Is she an elderly lady?

-Yes.

'He tries another house but still no joy.'

Yes, we made the early breakthrough and found the people.

Unfortunately, frustratingly, there is no reply at the door.

There you go.

'This is a real setback for the heir hunters.

'The research on the maternal side of this case

'was carried out super-fast,

'but if they can't meet an heir and get a signature on an agreement,

'it counts for nothing.

'The best Paul can do is post an agreement through the door

'and head off to his next appointment.

'Meanwhile, Bob Barrett has finally arrived in Brighton

'and is looking for the house

'where the deceased, David Bernstein, lived.'

They are really nice properties up here.

Having said that, I haven't found the house I'm looking for yet.

'But it's not long till he spots it.'

It was fairly easy because it's the one with the tree

growing out of the roof.

I'd better see if the neighbours know anything about Mr Bernstein.

'It looks like the upstairs bay roof has fallen in

'and the whole house is in a terrible state.

'Bob goes to see what else he can find out...'

I knew he wasn't very well.

He didn't really leave the house. That's all really.

'..before reporting back to the office.'

Hello, Neil, I've just been making some enquiries.

Very nice property.

It would be if it didn't have a tree growing out of the roof.

It's a three-storey house. I would imagine it's got to be worth,

in good condition, 400,000.

'This is fantastic news for the team

'who are pinning their hopes on this property being worth a lot of money.

'£400,000 is a great result, but high-value cases

'attract a lot of interest.'

One of the neighbours I spoke to got a call at 7:15 this morning.

She didn't know which company it was

and thought perhaps it might have been the police at one stage.

It was obviously some competition.

'Bob has confirmed what the office suspected. The competition

'are hot on their heels.'

Sorry, let me just look at the tree.

'But with no heirs signed on the maternal side

'and the paternal side still completely unsolved,

'David desperately needs a breakthrough.'

We need certificates from Alan Jackson who's gone to Tower Hamlets.

This could be a real biggie.

'Coming up, the search for David Bernstein's heirs hots up.'

We have got this rolling a little bit now.

'But it's going to push David Pacifico to the limit.'

This is a nightmare. This is huge.

'When the heir hunters start investigating

'the life of a lonely recluse,

'they never know where the trail will lead.

'For Gareth Langford of Fraser & Fraser,

'it led him to the doorstep of the nation's favourite confectioner.

'The deceased in this case was Donald Foster.

'He died on 13th October 2008 in Birmingham,

'leaving an estate valued at £150,000.'

We had little information to go on. Just his name and his date of death.

Our first step would be to find his birth certificate.

Basically, we needed to know how old he was.

'Donald Foster was born on 3rd December 1924 in Birmingham.

'Lifelong friend Tom Price remembers him well.'

I met Donald when I'd be about 17,

at the Triplex safety glass works in Kings Norton.

We were on an edge polishing machine

which took the glass after it had been ground

and we put the polished edge on for car windows.

'Donald worked at the glass factory for most of his life

'and earned the respect of his colleagues.'

He was a friendly person. He did a good job at work.

He was popular with the works people.

'In 1943, Donald joined the Army and went off to the war.'

He served in the Royal Armoured Corps, I believe.

He went right through from France, Belgium, Holland to Germany,

to the end of the war.

'But away from his work and his life in the Army,

'Donald was a different character and led a very solitary existence.'

He was a very shy sort of person and I don't think he had a girlfriend.

Not to my knowledge.

'But Donald did have one great passion in his life.'

He was very keen on music.

In the war years, we collected records,

mostly dance band music at the time.

We used to take our records to work to be played over the loudspeakers.

He seemed to go on from that to more classical music, orchestral

and he was very fond of that.

'Over the years, Donald built up an impressive collection

'of rare classical recordings,

'and immersed himself in his music as he became increasingly reclusive.'

Occasionally, probably we'd go to a cinema or a concert

but he kept himself very much to himself outside work

and I didn't see him that often. Yes, he liked his own company.

I think if he was in a crowd, he'd feel lost.

'When Gareth started looking into the case of Donald Foster in 2008,

'the first thing he did was to get hold of his birth certificate

'which told him that Donald's parents

'were Stephen Foster and Amy Pettie.

'His next job was to look for any siblings.'

We quickly discovered that he didn't have any brothers and sisters.

One of the reasons for this, is that his mother,

Amy Foster, died when he was very young. He was two and a half.

'Donald's mother, Amy Foster, died of tuberculosis in 1927

'when she was just 37 years old.

'She passed away in City Hospital, Northfield,

'which by that time was occupied mainly by TB patients.

'During the 1920s, on average, 30,000 people died every year from TB.

'Rates were particularly high

'in large industrialised cities like Birmingham,

'where overcrowded housing encouraged the spread of the disease.'

Amy passed away on 30th June, 1927. She died of TB which at the time,

I guess, was relatively common.

It explains why Donald was an only child and his father went to remarry.

'Gareth looked for any children from this second marriage

'but when he couldn't find any, he moved the search to cousins.

'He started with the maternal side of the family

'and Donald's mother, Amy Pettie.'

The first thing we wanted to do was establish her birth.

She was born in 1889 in the Kings Norton area.

From that, we started to look for the census.

We struggled a little bit because

they kept on changing the spelling of their surname.

'The correct spelling for this family was Pettie,

'although on Donald's mother Amy's birth certificate,

'it was spelt with a Y.'

We typed in the correct spelling and pretty much nothing came up.

As a genealogist, one of the biggest problems we have is name changes.

The reason this occurs, often or not,

is because the people who are registering the certificate,

either the birth, marriage or death certificate,

don't know how to spell their name. They're often illiterate.

'This problem was made worse by the poor handwriting of the clerks

'whose job it was to copy the record.

'Often the names that ended up in the official registers

'bore little resemblance to the actual surnames.'

It was only until we started fiddling around with places of birth

and tweaking bits of information that the rest of the family came up

and all the different variants of the surname.

'Gareth had cracked it.

'His painstaking research paid off

'and revealed that Donald's maternal grandparents

'were John and Elizabeth Pettie.

'They had seven children, including Donald's mother, Amy.

'Donald's paternal family should've been as difficult,

'if not harder to research, because Foster is such a common name,

'but this time, Gareth got lucky.'

If you just have a child called John Foster,

it is going to be very difficult.

If however he has an unusual Christian name for the time -

and Stephen is reasonably good as a Christian name - it makes it easier.

'So Gareth discovered that Stephen Foster, Donald's father,

'had six brothers and sisters. One of whom died in infancy.

'With both sides of the family tree firmly now established,

'all Gareth had to do was trace their lines forward

'and find the living heirs to Donald's £150,000 estate.

'Coming up, Gareth's hard work brings him the sweet smell of success.

'As the search for Donald's heirs

'leads to a chocolate lover's paradise.'

It was just so astonishing to see this thing

where cocoa comes in at one end, there is a mile of conveyor belt

and out come all these wonderful chocolates at the other end.

'Heir hunters track down thousands of rightful beneficiaries

'every year, but many cases are still unsolved,

'so could you be in line for a surprise windfall?

'The Treasury has a list of over 2,000 estates

'that have so far baffled heir hunters and remain unclaimed.

'Estates stay on the list for up to 30 years

'and today we're focusing on three names.

'Are they relatives of yours?

'Could you be about to receive a lump sum of thousands

'or even millions of pounds?

'Aina Austrins died on 22 December 2003, aged 79,

'in Bingley, West Yorkshire.

'In 1998, there were less than 100 people on the electoral register

'with Austrins as a surname.

'Aina is of Scandinavian origin and means "forever".

'Does anyone remember her?

'If no heirs of hers are found, her money will go to the Government.

'George Raymond Jaffrey died on 2nd April 2003 in Manchester.

'The majority of Jaffreys currently live in Scotland

'centred around Aberdeen.

'The surname dates back to the early 13th century.

'George left no will

'and so far, no-one has come forward to claim his estate.

'Joseph Hegedus died on 6th November 2001, aged 89

'in High Heaton, Newcastle.

'Hegedus is a very rare name in England and likely to be

'of Eastern European origin. Someone out there must remember him.

'If the names Aina Austrins, George Jaffrey or Joseph Hegedus

'mean anything to you or someone you know,

'you could have a fortune coming your way.

'Heir hunter Gareth Langford

'was working on the case of Brummie music lover Donald Foster

'and his £150,000 estate.

'Donald was a shy, withdrawn character

'who kept himself to himself.'

He liked his own company,

and I think if he was in a crowd, he'd feel lost.

'Donald lived all his life in the Kings Norton area of Birmingham.

'He grew up in Laurel Road,

'and died just around the corner in Cotteridge Road.

'Donald was an only child,

'and lived with his father and stepmother,

'his mother Amy Pettie having died of TB

'when he was only two years old.

'Gareth's research had uncovered large families

'on both his father's and mother's sides,

'all of whom seemed to have lived in the same part of Birmingham.'

In 1911, the family were living in Laurel Road,

which is the same street as the deceased was living at,

and it looks like the family sort of didn't really migrate

far away from the area.

They all seem to live in the Laurel Road area.

'It turned out there was a good reason for this.

'Many of Donald's relations worked for Cadbury's chocolate.

'Laurel Road is close to the Bournville village,

'built by the company in 1893 to house their workforce.

'In the early 1920s,

'Donald's father Stephen joined the rest of his family

'at the factory, when he took up a job as a chocolate grinder.

'This was a pivotal time for the company.'

They'd had just had success with things like Dairy Milk,

which came out in 1905

and was proving enormously popular,

so what they did was, they embarked on

the largest transformation of the cocoa works at Bournville

since it had been created 50 years before,

and Stephen literally arrived as this was about to happen.

One-storey buildings were all knocked down to make way

for a five-storey cocoa block that covered the best part

of 80 acres, and when they'd finished,

Bournville was voted one of the wonders of England,

and people would come to see it because it was just so astonishing

to see this thing where cocoa comes in at one end,

there's a mile of conveyer belt,

and out come all these wonderful chocolates at the other end.

'But it wasn't always like this.

'The mighty Cadbury's giant came from humble beginnings.'

Cadbury's began with a little tea and cocoa shop

in the centre of Birmingham in Bull Street,

run by John Cadbury, in 1824,

and at that time, cocoa was a real novelty drink

and really something that only very rich people could afford,

but he thought it was a nutritious, exotic new commodity

and it might be possible to introduce it

at prices that everyone could afford.

'But by the time John Cadbury's sons George and Richard

'took over in 1861, Cadbury's was a failing business.

'John had failed to make cocoa the mass market product

'that he dreamed of,

'and the whole industry was looking very precarious.'

At the time, cocoa could be this fatty, oily substance,

and really unscrupulous dealers were adding things

that would make your hair stand on end today -

brick dust to make it red,

animal fats to stretch out the cocoa butter,

so it could actually go rancid,

or even poisons like vermilion or red lead.

'George and Richard's great breakthrough

'was when they discovered a process

'that refined raw cocoa into a lighter, purer product.'

So their new product, cocoa essence, just took off in the late 1860s,

and the Cadbury name was forever associated with purity

and a better quality product as a result.

'This reputation ultimately enabled Cadbury's

'to build a fantastic business,

'but they didn't forget their obligations as an employer.

'The Cadbury brothers were Quakers, and had been very affected

'by the appalling conditions they'd seen in the slums of Birmingham.

'Bournville village, which Donald and his relations

'lived adjacent to, was designed to foster

'a healthy, happy working environment for its employees.

'The houses were well-built,

'and had gardens planted with fruit trees.

'Workers' children would have gone to one of the schools

'that were provided for them,

'along with evening education for the adults.

'There were wonderful sports facilities,

'and even banks where employees were encouraged to hold savings accounts.'

It was aspirational.

It was allowing the workforce for the first time

to start to see how they could improve

the plight of their families,

so it meant a huge amount to people.

'Because so many of Donald's family

'were part of the wider Cadbury's family,

'and had all lived close to Bournville,

'it made Gareth's search for his heirs a lot easier.

'He managed to trace 23 heirs on the paternal side,

'and the mother's side was just as fruitful.'

Four stems went on to have heirs, and in actual fact

we had 21 heirs from those.

'Combined with the 23 beneficiaries from Donald's paternal family,

'that made for a total of 44 heirs,

'many of whom came from the same area as him.

'But as Gareth began to speak to these heirs,

'he made a surprising discovery.'

One of the unusual parts of this case is that

the family stayed, certainly of the deceased's generation,

all stayed in the same area.

In fact, a lot of them stayed in the same road,

and yet they seem to have lost contact.

But the family, his cousins,

were certainly all within walking distance of each other.

'One of these heirs was Carol Evans, Donald's cousin

'and the granddaughter of Amy's brother Harry Pettie.

'Like Donald, Carol had grown up in the Laurel Road area,

'but had never even heard of her long-lost cousin.'

We lived at 35 Laurel Road.

Donald was born at 51.

It was a triangle of roads with quite a close community,

and it was quite amazing that, in all that time,

he'd never, ever been mentioned.

He lived so close to me that I could have seen him

practically from my bedroom window.

It was so cruel, in a way, that he'd died alone.

There were so many people around that could have been with him,

helped him, if he'd have wanted.

'Carol's feelings were shared by Roger Price,

'another of Donald's cousins and heirs,

'and the grandson of his uncle Arthur Pettie.

'Roger was named as executor of Donald's estate.'

We knew Donald had a house

and I wanted to make sure, before it was sold,

that it was properly cleared,

but also, I was interested to find out who he was.

We did find out one or two things.

We found out that he was a music enthusiast and had

over 700 classical records and CDs.

He had very wide-ranging tastes,

and he obviously not only had the records,

but went to concerts as well.

We did take his records to a dealer

to find out if they would have any value,

and although there were some very unusual records there

that would have been worth quite a lot

if they'd been in good condition,

in fact, there were very few that were of any value,

because they'd simply been played to death.

'Amongst his personal possessions,

'Roger found Donald's army discharge papers,

'which came with a glowing reference.'

"Mr Foster has an excellent record of service.

"He is sober and honest

"and I can recommend him to any future employer

"for his ability and his character."

'And what of Donald's £150,000 estate?'

Carol, for one, had no trouble deciding what to do

with her share of the inheritance.

I feel totally guilty about inheriting the money.

I have given some to my children and we're going to put some

in trust for the grandchildren.

We're also going to donate a sum to the Symphony Hall in Birmingham,

just as a small memorial,

because I understand that's where he went a lot to listen to the CBSO.

'Heir hunters Fraser & Fraser have been looking into

'the case of David Bernstein, who died in Brighton aged 68,

'leaving an estimated £400,000 estate.

'Boss Neil Fraser has been assessing the progress of the investigation.'

So the estate now of David Bernstein

has proven to be two totally different sort of families.

Mother's side, we've got a family from the West Country,

and we've got a good surname and we've got multiple middle names.

Quite frankly, it's been quite easy for the research to pan out on that.

The father's family, which is a Jewish family -

totally different.

Exceptionally hard to research.

They have this tiny pool of Christian names.

'It seems there are thousands of potential Bernstein relatives out there,

'but sadly, David died completely alone in the house

'he used to share with his parents.

'But it wasn't always like that.

'As a younger man,

'David had had a very responsible and demanding job

'as a ground traffic controller at Gatwick Airport.'

As a dispatcher,

he had to coordinate lots and lots of activity around the aircraft -

loaders, cleaners, caterers, cabin crew,

flight crew, passenger service staff.

He was absolutely fantastic at his job.

They had this countdown requirement -

the cargo had to be on maybe 30 minutes before, etc.

And he had to make sure it happened,

otherwise the aircraft wasn't going to go on time.

I was a little shocked to hear he'd died, and certainly intestate,

because of his efficiencies.

I would have thought he'd have covered that one.

But clearly he didn't have his countdown right.

'Back in the office, and case manager David Pacifico

'is still struggling with David Bernstein's father's

'side of the family.

'There are hundreds of Bernsteins in East London,

'and it feels like he's spoken to most of them.'

The estate we're looking into would have concerned

one of her brother's children.

In other words, we believe we're talking about

a cousin of your mother's.

'But he just can't seem to make a breakthrough

'with this side of the case.'

The person I was speaking to, if it's right,

is a cousin once removed, but he can't actually tell me

what brothers and sisters his grandmother had.

This is a nightmare.

This is huge.

'But David's concerns aren't limited to the paternal side of this case.

'He's also got a team working on the maternal side,

'and Paul Matthews has just arrived in Watchet, West Somerset,

'hoping to sign his first heir of the day.

'The pressure's on,

'because he knows there are at least 30 other heir hunting companies

'hat could also be working this case.'

-HE KNOCKS

-Come in!

Okey-cokey.

'Diane Everly, born Chidgey, who Paul's about to meet,

'is David's first cousin on his mother's side.'

Finally, Paul gets a chance to talk to an heir face to face.

A cousin of yours has passed away.

-I didn't even know.

-Well, that's not unusual.

'While he's explaining how she would go about claiming

'a share of her inheritance, there's a knock at the door.'

KNOCK

'It looks like the competition

'has finally caught up with Paul Matthews.'

Do you want me to sort them out?

Yeah. Oh, dear.

How do you do? Paul Matthews.

'Despite firms competing for business, etiquette is upheld,

'so it's considered that the first person on the heir's doorstep

'gets first chance to sign them up.'

-We're just going through the process.

-Right, then, we'll move on.

We've just signed a couple, so hopefully...

Well, there's so many companies doing it.

'The rival heir hunter heads off in pursuit of another heir.

'And Diane decides that she's happy to sign with Paul.'

..went off on her trip...

'In return for an agreed percentage,

'the company will now help her claim her share

'of David's estimated £400,000 estate.'

OK, pleasure meeting you, Diane.

All the very best. Cheers. Bye-bye.

'It's a great result for Paul.

'He's finally got his first signed contract on this case,

'beating the competition by a whisker,

'and there's plenty more Chidgey heirs to be visited.

'Back in the office, it's a different story.'

Has he? Oh. I didn't realise that. Has Freddy... Recently, did he die?

'They still haven't identified a single Bernstein heir.

'That means the company could miss out on signing

'that whole side of the family, and lose money in commission.'

He's supposedly a tailor, I think, as so many people in the family are.

'The pressure's on, but all they've been able to do

'is add a few more names to the basic family tree.

'David's father, John Bernstein, had eight siblings,

'several of whom they still can't identify.

'But they have confirmed a couple of sisters, Sarah and Leah,

'and two brothers, Abraham, or Abra,

'and Philip, also known as Woolf.'

If we get that Woolfs' marriage,

at least we'll know we're on the right track.

We need his marriage.

't seems like David's on the verge of a breakthrough,

'provided there aren't too many Philip or Woolf Bernsteins

'who got married in the same area.'

So how many marriages in East London for Philip and Woolf, for example?

-For Philips...five, six, seven Philips.

-Seven Philips?

-Eight Philips.

-And that's, we're talking about round Whitechapel?

East End.

It's all looking very bleak,

but then suddenly, Alan gets a call from a researcher.

Right, OK, then. You've given us some great info.

Thanks for that, mate. Right, cheers.

He's got a Rachel living with that Philip.

'Philip Bernstein has turned up on an old electoral roll,

'and he was living with a Rachel.'

Right, Amy.

Ditch all of the Philip marriages apart from that one.

'Now the race is on to find their descendents.'

And one child. Pearl.

Do you want to give them a call?

Yeah. Could you ring Jacko for me, please?

'The trail is red hot, but Gareth is wary.'

We're almost certainly going to end up back at the same problem.

We're going to have a lot of marriages now for Pearl.

Although not as many as I'd thought.

Got one marriage, Al.

'The team think that Pearl Bernstein

'could be their first heir on this side of the case.'

We've got this rolling a little bit now.

He's had a daughter, Pearl.

'Everything's riding on this new lead, as long as it's correct.

'There's only one way to find out.

'David goes off to make the call.'

The Pearl Bernstein we're trying to locate would have been

the daughter of a Philip Bernstein and Rachel Bernstein.

And your grandmother's maiden name would have been Finkelstein.

Well, I think if your grandmother was Golda,

then I think we're talking about a different family here.

'Sounds like it's a no,

'and it's a crushing disappointment for David.'

Obviously, it's the other Pearl Bernstein we're trying to trace.

'Their best hope yet has come to nothing.

'But this heir hunt has two sides to it, and down in Somerset,

'Paul Matthews is arriving at the house of Karen Dyer,

'another heir on David's mother's side.'

Mrs Dyer? Paul Matthews, Fraser & Fraser.

'Karen is David's first cousin once removed,

'the granddaughter of his aunt Edith.'

-Chidgey side, isn't it?

-That's right.

-She was a Chidgey.

They had the one son,

-and he's passed away in Brighton.

-Oh, right.

Hasn't made a will, so his estate,

it's either going to end up going to the Government,

-or to people like yourselves.

-Oh, right, OK.

And the tree gets bigger.

I know! There's a fair few of us.

I've probably got today and tomorrow

to try and get round as many as we can.

'Karen is also happy to sign an agreement.

'It's been another successful interview for Paul Matthews.'

OK, thanks very much for your time. Nice meeting you.

-Thank you, and you.

-All the very best. Cheers. Bye-bye.

'And the day's not over for him yet.

'There are still plenty more Chidgey heirs to sign up.

'In the office, they're winding down for the day.

'David is downbeat, but despite all the problems they've had,

'he's optimistic that they will crack the Bernstein side of the family.'

We've got as far as we can on the Bernstein family.

We're hoping that tomorrow we might break through on it,

at least on the maternal side.

We've got cousins on that side that were easily identifiable.

See what happens tomorrow.

'Over the next few days,

'the team continue to chip away at the David Bernstein case.

'Slowly, with a lot of hard work,

'the jigsaw begins to fall into place.

'In the end, they find a total of 26 beneficiaries.

'Seven of them are on the Bernstein side of the family.

'One of these is David's first cousin Frances Taylor,

'the daughter of his aunt Sarah Bernstein.'

I used to spend the weekends quite frequently with my aunt and uncle

and David in Brighton, and he just used to be about the place.

Nice young lad. I never thought too much...

I suppose, when you're a 20-year-old,

you don't think too much of a five-year-old.

He went to university and got his degree in geology.

He used to come here with his mother quite frequently.

I'd make them a nice meal. He drove up, she enjoyed herself.

'But after David's mother died,

'he cut himself off from his cousin, and the next thing she heard,

'the Heir Hunters were on her doorstep.'

And to hear the way David died, I was very, very upset.

Upset that nobody had been able to do anything for him,

or had known about it, really.

'Although David died a lonely death,

'that's not how Frances will remember him.'

I found David to be a very, very nice chap.

He was very kind to his mother.

I'd like him to be remembered in that light.

That he was a very kind man.

'For Frances, David will always be the bright, happy young boy

'and the caring, thoughtful son.

'If you would like advice about building your family tree

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

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd