Fawcett/Whelan Heir Hunters

Today the Heir Hunters are in York, desperately trying to contact

the beneficiaries to an unclaimed estate.

Somewhere out there, 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?

On today's programme...

-Come on, Michael.

-..the team's under pressure to come up with the goods.

No reply, no answer phone either.

As they struggle to find heirs to the estate of a mysterious recluse.

He would walk past you, down the drive,

without even acknowledging the fact that you were there.

And the death of a talented artist in Scotland

brings back some long lost childhood memories.

I was born on the 7th November and he was born on the 15th,

so we always said we were twins.

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 that's left behind will go to the government.

Last year, they made £12 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.

I bring about a change so that the rightful assets

go to the rightful family members and not to the state.

It's seven in the morning

at the offices of heir hunters Fraser & Fraser.

And boss Neil Fraser has been scanning

the Treasury's weekly list of unclaimed estates.

One case has caught his eye.

I'm going to have a look at this Fawcett case,

just really got the address.

It looks like it's a possible one

and we may be dealing with an estate of £100-150,000.

Case manager Dave Slee is kick-starting the investigation

and has got hold of one of Ronald Fawcett's neighbours,

Robert Shipley.

We think Mr Fawcett might have been born in Stoke-on-Trent in about 1931.

Would that be about right? That would've made him about 79, 78.

Ronald Fawcett died on the 15th April 2009 in Stoke-on-Trent.

He left no will and not even a photograph survives of him.

Before his parents passed away in the early '90s,

Ronald lived with them in this semi-detached house.

His neighbour Robert Shipley remembers him as a solitary man.

I didn't see anything of him at all while his parents were alive.

He was like a ghostly figure who just...

You very rarely saw anything of him.

I should say he was about...

about six foot two.

Very, very, very gaunt, very bony.

A stooped figure.

He would walk past you, down the drive,

without even acknowledging the fact that you were there.

He was in a world of his own.

Unlike Ronald, his father Albert Fawcett was a colourful character

and well-known in the community as a retired chief inspector

in the Staffordshire police force.

Well, his father, being a police office, was obviously

more used to dealing with the public than his son was.

And he was very open and a nice chap.

His wife, Ron's mother, she was a little, old lady.

You never hardly ever saw anything of her at all.

When his parents passed away and, obviously, he was on his own,

then he became more friendly.

He'd bring us a bottle of wine round at Christmas and things like this.

And we exchanged Christmas cards.

He was a man of few words, he would hardly ever speak.

But that's just how he was, he just wanted to be alone

and spoke very little to anybody.

In the office, the investigation is well under way.

How many years would you have known the family?

Obviously more than the ten because, of course, you knew the father.

Dave has managed to establish the bare bones of Ronald's family tree.

His parents were Albert Fawcett and Mary Edwards.

Ronald was an only child.

This means there will be no brothers or sisters to inherit.

So they will have to start the search for cousins.

Only child, they think.

Father's definitely from Yorkshire, came down to Stoke from Yorkshire.

OK.

They've also found out that Ronald owned the house that he lived in,

which they think is worth about £120,000.

The heir hunters work on commission,

taking a percentage of the amount that's claimed by each heir.

So it's important for them to uncover the high-value cases.

Unfortunately, Neil's discovered that, a few years earlier,

Ronald had done an equity release deal on the property.

Equity release is something I hate to see on houses,

I hate to see on estates because, more often that not,

the actual price that someone's achieved for their property

isn't very good.

So, let's say he got £60,000,

he's then lived for a few years afterwards,

we know he spent a couple of thousand pounds, at least, on a brand new car.

We're looking at an estate which may not be any more than £30,000,

£20-30,000.

Which, when you think he lived in the property which he owned,

which could be worth £120,000 and we're looking at a £30,000 estate,

you can see why I don't like equity release.

Neil's worried that if the estate is less valuable than he thought,

then it will be harder for the company to turn a profit

on this job.

And with 30 rival heir hunting companies

all chasing the same cases, speed is of the essence.

The pressure's on case manager David Pacifico to deliver.

It all seems to be coming out in York,

both sides, both parents were born in York.

Paul Matthews is doing an inquiry around Stoke.

I think I'm going to send him from there to York.

Heir hunting relies heavily on research done in the office.

But it's the senior researchers on the road, like Paul Matthews,

who are the public face of the company.

They're based all over the country and its their job to follow up

any lead and make sure that they get to the heirs

ahead of the competition.

Paul's already been on the road for an hour when he gets a call from HQ.

-Hi, it's me running this job of Fawcett.

-Oh, right, OK, Dave.

Whereabouts are you at the moment?

I am 30 miles from Stoke Registry Office.

Right, well, the bad news for you

is that it all seems to be coming out in York.

-York!

-Yeah, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to go to York.

Right, OK-cokey.

'OK, Dave. I'll send you a Christmas card when I get there.'

DAVID LAUGHS

While Paul heads towards York,

David and researcher Michael start pounding the keyboards.

They're searching through records for births,

marriages and deaths within the UK.

One birth...John.

-John Fawcett.

-John Fawcett.

They're looking for cousins of the deceased,

so they need to come up with family trees for Ronald's father

and mother, Albert Fawcett and Mary Edwards.

The father had at least two siblings.

It may only be two siblings, one of whom we don't know the name,

it's just shown as an unnamed child on the 1911 Census.

Ronald's paternal grandparents were Ernest Fawcett and Lily Dearsley.

They had three children, Ronald's father Albert, a brother John

and another child who the team can't yet identify.

So, on the father's side, there are only two potential stems

which could produce cousins and beneficiaries.

On the maternal side, it looks like the family's even smaller.

Mother had one brother, who we've now identified died in 1990,

who was married and we're checking for the marriage

and to see if there's any children.

Ronald's maternal grandparents were Arthur Edwards and Emily Morris.

His mother Mary was born in 1906

and she had one brother Ernest Jesse, born in 1909.

With the basic family trees in place, the race is now on

to find some living heirs to Ronald's estate

that is now estimated at £30,000.

David hands over the maternal side of the investigation

to researcher Noel.

While Michael will take charge of the paternal side.

Michael should have the easier job

as Fawcett is a more unusual name than Edwards,

so there will be less records to check.

David.

-Where's that?

-York.

-You've got him.

But today, Noel's on fire.

Within minutes, he's come up with a possible Edwards cousin.

-You know something.

-Shall we go for it? I'll get the...

You know, you could make a genealogy chart.

Here you go. Do you want it?

Noel's given me the address of a cousin on the maternal side.

-What have you given me, Michael?

-Come on, Michael.

-Come on, Michael.

Michael's got some catching up to do,

as David heads off to chase up Noel's lead.

It's only 9am and he could already be on his way to his first heir.

No reply and no answer phone either.

Hopefully, he will be home later, unless they're away on holiday.

I will have my guy there later on today.

It's disappointing for David, but straight away, Noel hands him

another chance to make that important early break through.

He's found the number for another maternal cousin.

In that case, let's go and phone them.

Good morning, I'm trying to contact a Mary Lazenby whose maiden name

would be Edwards and I'm hoping the daughter of an Ernest Jesse Edwards.

My name is David Pacifico, thank you very much.

Another phone call and another brick wall.

David desperately needs to speak to an heir,

but, right now, all he's getting is answering machines.

But at least Michael's making some progress

on the paternal side of the case.

Yes, I think you might have something there.

Michael's found a potential first cousin on Ronald's father's side.

Could this be third time lucky for David?

I'm sorry to trouble you,

I'm speaking from Central London,

I represent a company of probate researchers called Fraser & Fraser.

Finally, someone's in to take his call.

Do you much about your father's side of the family?

You don't know whether your father had any brothers at all?

All right, because, unfortunately,

you may not be the correct family after all.

Poor David, he's under so much pressure to deliver,

but he just can't seem to crack this case open.

Back to square one, on the father's side anyway.

Better go and tell the boys.

Coming up...

at last there's a light at the end of the tunnel for David.

One of my colleagues is actually in York as we speak,

would it be possible for you to meet with him?

But he's not out of the woods yet.

-Er, Mr Edwards went away this morning for a weekend break.

-Oh.

Often, when someone dies without leaving a will,

their death will be registered many miles from where they were born.

This can put great distance between heirs

and makes the search for beneficiaries that much harder.

Like the case of Anthony Whelan.

In September 2008, his £18,000 estate

appeared on the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer,

Scotland's register for unclaimed estates.

The case was picked up by Saul Marks

of heir hunting company Celtic Research.

The Whelan case came to me via our Scottish researcher

and, although the deceased had died in Scotland,

he was actually born in Liverpool.

So, being the head of the North-West office, I was given the case.

Anthony Whelan, known as Tony to his friends,

died on the 19th July 2008

on Rothesay on the west coast of Scotland.

Before he moved up there,

Tony worked as a lecturer in theatre design and stage craft

at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

At the time, Alison Clark was a drama student there

and she remembers her former tutor with great affection.

He was very warm, witty and wise.

Er, he liked you to work hard, erm, but he imparted information

with such, he had such a sense of fun about him.

He was a very talented man.

As well as the arts, Alison and Tony shared another great passion -

the sea.

He was a great sailor which I didn't know until, I think,

he'd overheard me saying to one of my pals that I was learning to sail.

And it turned out that he had a little,

a lovely, little boat called Luisa.

And he said, "Well, when you get your ticket,

"you can come and sail on my boat."

And I did. And it was...that was where our friendship really started.

It was a friendship that was to last for the next 30 years.

Tony eventually retired to the Isle of Bute

where he lived aboard his beloved Luisa.

Alison and her husband kept in touch with Tony,

but, even after all those years,

he still remained something of an enigma.

He was a very private man.

It took me years to learn some things about him.

He hated birthdays, he hated celebration of any kind,

he loathed Christmas, he called it humbuggery.

Tony eventually contracted Parkinson's disease

and had to move into a home on Rothesay.

Towards the end, he withdrew into himself.

But death, it seemed, held no fear.

On the mantelpiece were stacked a whole bundle of letters.

With the note, "These are to be posted when I die."

When he did die, I got this letter and it said, "Tony Whelan has died!"

Exclamation mark.

For Alison, it was the end of a remarkable friendship.

He was almost like a mentor.

He would recommend plays, recommend music.

And he had so much knowledge and love of life.

When Saul started investigating Anthony Whelan's £18,000 estate

in September 2008,

he already knew that the deceased had not married and had no children.

So, any heirs would have to be cousins.

But he also knew that the deceased's surname

was not going to make this an easy search.

Obviously, the surname Whelan is very Irish in origin

and Merseyside region has hundreds of thousands of Irish families.

Saul first went to the online birth and marriage indexes

where he established that Tony's parents were Joseph Whelan

and Annie O'Hara, another extremely common name in the Irish community.

There was going to be no way to find out which Joseph Whelan and

which Annie O'Hara they were without getting the marriage certificate.

So I went off to Liverpool Registry Office

to get the marriage certificate of the parents.

But he arrived too late

and the office had closed for the bank holiday weekend.

When we get cases that have just been released,

we need to get on top of them quickly.

It's a very competitive business these days

and there are always competitor companies

who are working the same case.

Four days later, when Saul did get hold of the marriage certificate,

it gave him Joseph and Annie's father's names,

which meant he could start work on their family trees.

We were desperate to get it done as quickly as we could,

in case any other companies had been doing it in the meantime.

Tony's father Joseph was one of five brothers born to John Whelan

and his wife Catherine.

While his mother Annie was one of seven, born to Francis O'Hara

and his wife Catherine.

On the face of it,

two large families like this would normally lead to many heirs.

As it turned out, only two of Tony's paternal uncles had children

and it was the same story in his mother's family.

Six of the seven only produced seven children, I think, between them.

So they were... They didn't have very many children,

it was a much smaller family in the end

than we were originally expecting.

And the number of heirs was, consequently, much, much less.

The smaller the number of heirs, the more difficult life is for Saul.

If there are lots of heirs,

then the chances are, all the companies will get a few each,

but when there are fewer heirs, then the pressure's on.

Coming up...

is it all over for Saul

when he discovers the competition has pipped him to the post?

It's not the done thing in our profession to persuade anyone

to break a contract that they've already signed with someone else.

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 2,000 estates

that have baffled heir hunters and remain unsolved.

Could you be the heir they're searching for?

Could you be 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?

John Mark Frith Blezard died on the 20th April 2009,

aged 56 in Workington, Cumbria.

Mr Blezard was a registrar of births, marriages and deaths

in Workington for over 30 years.

But he left no will and, so far,

no-one has come forward to claim his estate.

Norah Ellen Elleman died on the 12th December 2002, aged 81 in Welland.

Elleman was once a very popular name in Hereford and Worcestershire.

But there are now less than 100 of them in the whole of the UK.

Does anyone remember this one?

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

Vivian Michael Brownray died on the 27th August 2005,

aged 85 in Bangor, Conway.

Vivian is a rare but traditional man's name and,

combined with the unusual surname Brownray,

someone must remember this unique combination.

If the names John Blezard, Norah Elleman or Vivian Brownray

mean anything to you or someone you know,

you could have a fortune coming your way.

At Celtic Research's Liverpool office,

heir hunter Saul Marks was still working the case

of talented artist and old seadog Tony Whelan.

Tony died aged 69 in Rothesay on the west coast of Scotland.

His legacy to me

is that...

..I have continued to be interested in things, new things.

Erm, I listen to music that is sometimes challenging.

Erm, but he always stretched your imagination

and stretched the boundaries.

Tony's artistic tastes were formed in his 30s

when he left Liverpool to go to art school in London.

When he first arrived at the end of the '50s,

rationing had just ended and the War was still a recent memory.

The style of painting being taught reflected this feeling

of sober realism.

Art in this country was really dominated by kitchen sink.

It was people like John Bratby and Derrick Greaves and Ed Middleditch

and others. And they were painting toilets,

they were painting, literally, kitchen sinks.

But, at the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic,

a revolution was taking place in the art world.

Avant-garde art had burst onto the scene

and the American public couldn't get enough of it,

queuing up to get into the first exhibitions.

It wasn't long before this exciting

and experimental new movement came to London.

And, as a student, Tony would have been at the heart of it.

I think the dominant theme of this period,

being an art student around the '50s and '60s,

is a progressive openness to what's going on around you,

the consumer boom.

And the mass media really begun to influence artists.

I think there was a social revolution at this time

and I think there was a corresponding artistic revolution.

There was a thirst for change.

Erm, with greater wealth, with greater financial means,

people wanted to put the past behind them

and they wanted to strike out in new directions.

You want to reflect these things, you want to plug into them

and you want to make an art that is of its time,

a new art engaged with a very dynamic, new, engaging world.

After a slow start,

heir hunter Saul Marks had finally got the information he needed

to crack this case.

On Tony's father Joseph's side, he found three heirs.

While his mother Annie had six brothers and sisters.

Between them, they had eight children.

Sure enough, once we'd established that there were eight heirs

on the maternal side, many of them were here in the Merseyside area,

it was a case of dashing round at high speed

to see as many of them as possible.

So, it was jumping in the car and going from one to the next,

to the next and hoping that none of them had been contacted before.

Saul had known from the beginning

that there would be a lot of interest in this case

from other heir hunting companies.

When he discovered that there were relatively few heirs,

he knew that he would have to act quickly

if he was going to get to them before the competition.

The first heir that he approached was Julie Evans,

Tony's first cousin on his mother's side.

What Saul didn't know was that Julie had already been contacted

the day before by a rival company

who broke the news to her that Tony had died.

A gentleman who rang me to tell me

that my cousin... Did I have a cousin, Anthony Whelan?

So, I said, yes, I did.

But I was very cautious because I don't divulge details easily.

After talking to the other company, Julie agreed

that they should send her a contract by post, which arrived the next day.

She signed it and put it out for posting.

But later that morning, she noticed a car pull into her driveway.

A gentleman gets out, very smartly dressed with a briefcase,

walks up the drive and I think, this looks like a doctor, but I'm not ill.

Came to the door and it turned out to be Saul.

I stated who I was and the situation

and she and her husband, actually, invited me in

and we had a lovely chat.

Saul was able to show Julie and her husband the family tree

that he'd drawn up, showing all Tony's relatives

and explained to her how he had gathered some of his information.

In return, Julie was able to tell Saul about her cousin Tony.

As children, they had been very close.

We used to call each other the twins

because I was born on the 7th November and he was born on the 15th.

So we always said we were twins.

She also had fond memories of Tony's father, Joseph Whelan.

Uncle Joe was so reserved, very gentlemanly,

didn't display his feelings easily.

I think, probably, Tony inherited some of that from his father.

Julie was also able to shed some light on Tony's romantic life.

He was engaged to be married and his fiancee died quite tragically.

And whether that affected him, I think it did, actually,

because I think, maybe, he went more into himself then.

Sadly, the two cousins lost touch when they were in their early 20s.

I went over to Canada to work.

And we just...I'm not sure when his mother died and his father died.

And once that connection was gone, it was gone then.

Because, by that time, he'd gone down to London.

But Julie did have one thing to remind her of her long lost cousin.

He had given her one of his paintings for her 21st birthday.

She was able to go and get this framed painting

and show it to me and it actually had, on the back of it,

his signature and the date when he did it.

Which was great to be able to look at something which he'd done.

It really brought him to life, from my point of view.

But while all this was going on,

there was still the small matter of a signed contract in the hall

that was waiting to be posted to a rival heir hunting company.

It's not the done thing in our profession to persuade anyone

to break a contract that they've already signed with someone else.

So I simply left my contract with them, for them to decide.

It didn't take Julie long to make up her mind.

She came to the conclusion, in the end, that she would,

actually, prefer to sign with us than with the other company.

So she never actually broke that contract,

she just chose to post ours and not theirs.

For Saul, it was a great conclusion to a fascinating investigation.

In the end, he managed to sign up five out of eleven heirs

to Tony Whelan's £18,000 estate.

But, for Julie, it wasn't about the money.

Through Saul, she got in touch with Tony's old friend Alison,

who sent her some more recent photographs of her cousin.

Julie hadn't seen Tony since they were in their 20s,

so the photos took her by surprise.

I would never, ever have associated him with having a beard.

But it does tie in with the mariner aspect, doesn't it?

Absolutely. It makes me feel as though I know him now.

Again. Ha-ha. How strange.

But chatting with Alison brought the old memories flooding back.

What she told me that she knew of him,

it bore out exactly what I knew of him as a child.

That he was quiet and reserved and gentlemanly.

It is nice to find out that he had good friends elsewhere

and that they looked after him.

And Julie knows exactly what she's going to do

with her share of the inheritance.

I love paintings. I'm going to buy a painting in memory.

Because all of the paintings that I have are all memories of people

or places and that will be one of them.

Heir hunters Fraser & Fraser have been investigating the case

of reclusive Ronald Fawcett.

Ronald died aged 79 in Stoke-on-Trent,

leaving an estimated £30,000 estate.

I wouldn't say he was unfriendly,

I would say he was a reserved man, for whatever reason.

I think his dad, erm, dominated proceedings.

For many years, Ronald lived with his parents.

His father Albert was a larger-than-life character,

who had been chief superintendent of Staffordshire police force.

He was an old-fashioned copper.

And he was an enormous man, built like a giant.

Absolutely huge. Police officers used to visit him quite frequently.

They would call him "sir"

and he was obviously well-thought-of in the police force in his day.

Tom Parton served under Albert as a police inspector

and remembers him as an inspirational but imposing figure.

I respected him very much and he had

a terrific sense of fairness and honesty, but he took short shrift

with the criminal fraternity.

Tom recalls one particular incident

when a violent criminal was holed up in a house,

threatening to beat anyone who came near him with an iron crowbar.

Bert arrives on the scene, "What's going on here?"

And they told him.

So he kicked the door down, went up the stairs three at a time,

hit this bloke so hard he nearly went through the wall

into the house next door,

and brought him down by his trouser backside and his collar

and put him in the police van.

And that's what he did, that's the way he worked.

But he solved that problem without any further trouble.

For Ronald, his father must have been a hard act to follow.

It seems that he chose a very different path

by cutting himself off from the outside world.

He'd had no contact with any family of note for a long, long time.

Maybe he didn't even know they existed, I don't know.

It'd be a real good outcome if his family do benefit from this.

I would really be dead chuffed for them.

It's been a difficult start for heir hunter David Pacifico.

Erm, unfortunately, it may not be the correct family after all.

The team have been feeding names of potential heirs.

David.

-Where's that?

-York.

But he just can't get the break through he needs.

No reply and no answer phone either.

On the paternal side of the family, David has been trying to trace

an unnamed sibling of Ronald's father Albert.

He called York Register Office

who have a record of a Henry Fawcett born in 1911,

who sounds like the missing Fawcett brother.

Then, out of the blue,

one of David's answer phone messages pays off.

Many thanks. Thank you. Bye, bye.

Right, I've spoken to a widow of an uncle.

David has just got off the phone with Dorothy Fawcett,

the widow of Henry Fawcett, the missing brother of John and Albert.

She told David that her husband's first wife was Barbara

and that they'd had six children, four girls and two boys.

All of these children stand to inherit

from their cousin Ronald's estimated £30,000 estate.

David's delighted.

He's sorted out the paternal side of the case

and Dorothy had information about Ronald's mother's family as well.

She also knew that the deceased's mother was,

her maiden name was Edwards, and she thought there was a brother

which ties in perfectly with what we've got.

So I think, on the face of it, it looks like we've got one branch

on the mother's side of the family and two on the father's side.

Erm, six, seven, eight. Making in total about ten beneficiaries.

At last, this investigation is up and running.

David knows how many heirs there are.

Now he needs to get on and contact them.

Put that marriage update.

-What was the other child's name? Ruth and...?

-Andrew.

-Andrew.

Two of Ronald's ten heirs are Ruth and Andrew Fawcett,

the adopted children of John Fawcett, Ronald's paternal uncle.

Ruth and Andrew were officially adopted,

so they are as entitled as any biological cousins.

The uncle adopted two children, one of whom we've got an address for,

but no phone number, and the other one, we're still trying to trace her.

David can't afford to wait around

while the team tracks down phone numbers for Ruth and Andrew.

He's got a number for Andrew's neighbour in Devon, so he dives in.

I'm sorry to trouble you,

I'm speaking from London, I'm trying to trace a Mr Fawcett.

I'm hoping he might be a neighbour of yours.

I wondered if I could pass my name and details...

Would you mind doing so, sir?

Thank you very much.

Time for David to check in with Paul Matthews,

who's been on the road now for four hours.

He's just arriving in York,

where he's hoping to meet up with Ronald's two maternal cousins.

If you print off the tree,

you'll see the addresses of the two cousins on the mother's side in York.

Perhaps you could make inquiries there.

Yeah, well, I can at least dash neighbours

or try and track them down.

-Yeah.

-Perhaps the son or daughters are at work or something.

And the other stem where there's six children

and they're dotted all over place.

Because I'm going, obviously, to have to write to one or two people here.

David's also found addresses in Sheffield

for some heirs from Ronald's father's side.

So he wants Paul to go on there after York.

It would mean a long day,

but the pressure's on and they can't afford to wait till tomorrow.

Any sign of competition?

Not as yet, but, you know.

While David's on the phone,

he gets a call-back from Andrew Fawcett in Devon.

Case manager Frances Brett jumps straight on it.

I can see that David is going to be on the phone for quite some time.

I am taking it you are Andrew Fawcett of Ottery St Mary?

They've finally managed to speak to their first heir.

The company's representative in Devon is not available today,

so Frances explains to Andrew that he will be one of the beneficiaries

of his cousin Ronald's £30,000 estate.

Well, thank you very much, Mr Fawcett.

-How have you left it with him?

-I'll write to him.

At last, they're making some headway on this case.

An agreement will be in the post to Mr Fawcett tonight,

but there's still no guarantee

that another heir hunting company won't get to him before it arrives.

What they really need is to get their foot in the door

and meet with some heirs face-to-face.

Which is what Paul Matthews is trying to do in York.

He's just arrived at the address of one of the children

of Ronald's maternal uncle, Ernest Jesse Edwards.

There's plenty of activity going on at the house,

but no sign of the homeowner.

He even tries the neighbours before calling back to the office.

Er, Mr Edwards went away this morning for a weekend break.

Oh.

No joy with the neighbours, all I know is he's back on Tuesday.

OK, what about his sister?

Well, I'm just about to go there now cos it's about ten miles out of York

-and I've got to go back the opposite way to get to the sister.

-OK.

I'll leave a note, Dave,

so he knows at least we've taken the trouble to pay him first a call.

'No, fair enough.'

Paul heads straight round to the other cousin's house.

If she's not at home,

then his whole trip to York will have been a complete waste of time.

-But then, their luck changes.

-Thank you for calling back.

David's speaking to that other heir in York,

Ronald's maternal cousin Mary Lazenby.

She couldn't have called at a better time.

One of my colleagues is actually in York as we speak.

Would it be possible for you to meet with him?

Thank you very much, Mrs Lazenby. Bye, bye.

Dave calls Paul with the good news.

-Paul, hi, listen, Mrs Lazenby's just phoned me.

-Oh, right, nice one.

She's happy to meet with you this afternoon.

I said it could be about 20 minutes.

Yeah, I shall be there in... oh, about five minutes.

So it's not a wasted journey, thank goodness.

While Paul heads off to Mary's address,

David gets busy on the phone.

Yes, this is Fraser & Fraser here.

Henry Fawcett's six children have spread out all over the country.

The fact is, we're trying to contact all members of the Fawcett family

regarding an estate of a cousin of yours that has since passed away.

There's no sign of any competition so far on this case,

but David knows that they can appear at any time.

So he's making every effort to get all these heirs signed up.

I'll be getting a letter in the post to you today

and, no doubt, we'll speak further about this in the near future.

In York, Paul Matthews arrives at Mary Lazenby's address.

Mary is Ronald's first cousin,

the daughter of his mother's brother, Ernest Jesse Edwards.

Paul talks Mary through the details of her cousin Ronald's estate

and how she came to be contacted.

What happens in these cases, invariably, is he's passed away,

-he's kept himself to himself, the neighbours haven't got a clue.

-No.

-The social services get involved.

-Yeah.

-They'll arrange a funeral.

-Yeah.

And then, sooner or later, they look for relatives

and then we get involved and we come and tell people about it.

Yeah. It's quite sad, really.

After hearing what Paul has to say,

Mary decides to sign an agreement there and then.

It's a fantastic result for Paul and the whole company.

Their first signed-up heir on this case.

-OK, thanks very much indeed.

-Bye, bye.

-Bye, bye.

-'Hello?'

-Hello, Dave, Paul. I've seen Mrs Lazenby, very nice lady.

-She's signed up with us.

-She did? Well done.

Her brother gets back on Tuesday. She will tell him about our visit.

But by then, he'll have a letter waiting when he gets back.

Yeah, I'm sending a letter to him today.

Mary and her brother Ernest are the only two heirs

on the maternal side of Ronald's family tree.

But despite being such a small family,

Mary only had very vague contact with her cousin.

Ron was very different. He would never, erm...

Although he was, sort of, family-aware,

he didn't want any more contact.

I think he was just one of these very lone people.

I do think it's really important to keep in contact with family

and, I must admit, I do keep in touch with quite a few other cousins,

but Ron, as I say, was a little bit different.

Meanwhile, Paul is back on the road. His day is far from over.

He's now driving 60 miles south to Sheffield,

where he's booked in to visit at least one more heir.

It's going to be a late finish, I'm afraid.

He's got an appointment to visit Frances,

one of Henry Fawcett's six children

and another of Ronald's first cousins on the paternal side.

When Paul does arrive in Sheffield, he gets an enthusiastic welcome.

DOG WHINES

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Mrs Crabtree?

-It is, yes.

-Hello, Paul Matthews, Fraser & Fraser.

-Oh, hello.

-We were expected?

-Yeah, come in.

-Nice to meet you.

Frances is interested to hear

how Paul has got on with contacting other members of the family.

So, have you had to go to York to find out Auntie Mary's, erm...?

-Yeah.

-..family.

-Yeah. Mary had a brother called Ernest, Ernest Jesse.

Well, I never knew that.

It's been another successful interview for Paul

and another signed agreement for the company.

Nice meeting you.

I hope you get a nice sum of money and all the best for the future.

-Thank you.

-Cheers, bye.

For Frances, this sad news was the first she'd heard

of her cousin for years.

We didn't really know him very well because he was very shy

and quiet and...

We didn't really see a lot of him because they lived in Stoke-on-Trent

and we lived in Sheffield, obviously.

It seems that the shy, young boy grew up to be a reclusive man.

But Ronald Fawcett had a large family

who all benefited from his estate.

So, in death, he won't be forgotten.

In the end, Frasers managed to sign up nine out of the ten heirs

to Ronald Fawcett's estate, which was eventually valued at £13,000,

less than the company had hoped for.

But still an unexpected windfall for the heirs.

Very happy the way this worked together.

The team did very well and worked hard.

We identified about ten people, erm,

and are representing much of the family in this matter.

If you would like advice about building your family tree

or making a will, go to:

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