0:00:02 > 0:00:06Today a team of Heir Hunters are searching for the beneficiaries
0:00:06 > 0:00:10to an unclaimed estate worth a quarter of a million pounds.
0:00:11 > 0:00:17They're looking for long-lost relatives who have no idea they're in line for a windfall.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Could they be knocking at your door?
0:00:39 > 0:00:43- On today's programme...- It's a matter of time then. It's a race.
0:00:43 > 0:00:50The Heir Hunters pull out all the stops to trace the relatives of a decorated military hero.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52He probably saved our lives.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58And the death of a Brighton woman reveals a fascinating tale of immigrant life in London's East End.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03It was a hubbub. People calling out in Yiddish, in broken English.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Really chaotic but I would imagine very, very exciting.
0:01:07 > 0:01:14Plus - how you may be entitled to inherit some of the unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Could thousand of pounds be heading your way?
0:01:21 > 0:01:27Every year in the UK, an estimated 300,000 people die without leaving a will.
0:01:27 > 0:01:34If no relatives are found, then any money that's left behind will go to the Government.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Last year, they made £12 million from unclaimed estates.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42That's where the Heir Hunters come in.
0:01:42 > 0:01:49They make it their business to track down missing relatives and help them claim their rightful inheritance.
0:01:50 > 0:01:56I bring about a change so that the rightful assets
0:01:56 > 0:02:00go to the rightful family members and not to the state.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10This morning, at the offices of Heir Hunters Fraser & Fraser,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14the Treasury's weekly list of unclaimed estates is just in.
0:02:14 > 0:02:20At first glance, there don't seem to be any obvious high-value cases
0:02:20 > 0:02:25but partner Neil Fraser has got a good feeling about an intriguing outsider.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29We're going to have a look at the case of Brian Simon Birch.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34Slightly strange, slightly unusual in that its place of death says Malta.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40Brian Simon Birch died on 21st September 2008
0:02:40 > 0:02:46in hospital on the island of Malta, just off the south coast of Italy.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Brian was known by his middle name, Simon, to his friends.
0:02:50 > 0:02:55Simon was very upright, tall, receding hairline,
0:02:55 > 0:02:57small moustache.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01He never ever made any contact to anybody
0:03:01 > 0:03:06so it wasn't until he actually moved in above our flat
0:03:06 > 0:03:08that we got to know Simon.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11Simon was a very military person.
0:03:11 > 0:03:18Everything about him was organised, everything had to be done under a certain regime.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20Six o'clock every morning,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24the door would open and he'd put his washing on the line on the roof
0:03:24 > 0:03:30and then at 7.20am, he always passed my front door to take his rubbish to the skip.
0:03:30 > 0:03:36I could take you from six in the morning to six at night exactly where he was, each day.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40In the office, Neil starts the investigation
0:03:40 > 0:03:46by asking an independent agent in Malta to get hold of Brian's death certificate.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50This will contain information vital to the search and until it arrives,
0:03:50 > 0:03:57all they can do is start sifting through the scores of Brian Simon Birches that show up on the records.
0:03:59 > 0:04:05The case of Birch, the chap dies I assume on holiday in Valetta in Malta,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08so certainly the death record there.
0:04:08 > 0:04:16There's only one Brian Birch on the telephone or on the electoral roll immediately.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Tony thinks he's found a home number for the deceased in England
0:04:21 > 0:04:25so he gets straight on the phone to see if he can speak to a relative.
0:04:26 > 0:04:27Hello. Sorry to trouble you.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Mr Birch?
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Hello, Mr Birch. Sorry to trouble you so early, sir.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37Tony wasn't expecting Mr Birch himself to pick up the phone.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39Clearly he's got the wrong family.
0:04:39 > 0:04:45And did they explain that they were trying to trace the next of kin of Brian Birch, who's died recently?
0:04:45 > 0:04:52And it seems this Mr Birch has already been contacted by rival heir-hunting firms.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57Like Neil, they must think this could be a valuable case.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02So if Frasers are going to get ahead of the competition, they need to step up a gear.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Case Manager Dave Slee has got his team searching through
0:05:07 > 0:05:12UK birth and marriage records for any mention of a Brian S Birch.
0:05:12 > 0:05:18We know there's three births and we've eliminated one so far.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23Because we've got two possible marriages, Birch to Smith,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27so Emily's working one marriage and me and Jo are working the other.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32On this one, we've got one heir at the moment and I don't know how Emily is getting on
0:05:32 > 0:05:36but one of the two could be right, or neither. We don't know yet.
0:05:36 > 0:05:42It's a frustrating start. So far none of their leads is paying off.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47But senior researcher Alan comes on board and he's seen a case like this before.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52I had a job where the beneficiaries had moved to Malta 20 years ago.
0:05:52 > 0:05:53Have we got a Malta phone book?
0:05:53 > 0:05:58- I had a job in Malta...- Have a look on the internet.- Tony spoke to somebody...
0:05:58 > 0:06:01- He could've been living there for years.- That's what I'm saying.
0:06:02 > 0:06:08If Brian did live on Malta, it's likely he retired there, which means he may have owned a property.
0:06:09 > 0:06:16And on the densely populated islands of Malta and Gozo, the average apartment sells for £200,000.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20Suddenly, this case is looking much more interesting.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22Let's do that in the library.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24See what we can get on that.
0:06:24 > 0:06:31Over their 70-year history, Frasers have built up an amazingly comprehensive library
0:06:31 > 0:06:36of directories, which can make all the difference when it comes to cracking unusual cases.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Everything we've done so far on this Birch case is wrong.
0:06:40 > 0:06:46There's three births in this country of a Brian S and they've all been ruled out.
0:06:46 > 0:06:52What we have got is a single record of a Brian Simon Birch,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Captain Brian Simon Birch
0:06:54 > 0:06:58of the Royal Transport Corps getting an MBE in 1976.
0:06:58 > 0:07:05Could this Brian Simon Birch, who received an MBE, be one and the same as the deceased?
0:07:05 > 0:07:10Alan checks another source to see what other information they can find.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Born on 17th December 1937.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16- Royal Corps for Transport... - Royal Transport. That's him then, isn't it?
0:07:16 > 0:07:23It looks very promising and now they have a birth date to work with. It's the break they needed.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25But there's another reason that Neil's delighted.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30If he is a MBE captain, he will have a reasonable pension.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34This is the first real indication they could be dealing with
0:07:34 > 0:07:39a substantial estate but Neil still doesn't know how much it's actually worth.
0:07:41 > 0:07:48I'm hoping that maybe up to 20, 40, £50,000 of cash asset and then maybe a property on top of that.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51In the meantime, we've ticked the box that says it's worth something.
0:07:51 > 0:07:56We now just have to find the family and worry about how much it's worth at a later date.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03Captain Birch MBE of the Royal Corps for Transport was a qualified skipper
0:08:03 > 0:08:10of Landing Craft Tanks or LCTs, which were used to move troops and heavy equipment to remote places.
0:08:13 > 0:08:20Major Ted Prewer served under Simon in the '70s and remembers him as an exemplary and inspiring leader.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Simon was a very confident and very competent ship's captain
0:08:26 > 0:08:31and everything he did was measured and he did everything very calmly.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Simon's ability to keep a cool head in a crisis
0:08:35 > 0:08:40was seriously tested during a routine voyage from the UK to Norway.
0:08:40 > 0:08:47We left Harwich in October 1974 and the weather forecast was good.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51Unfortunately, the weather changed dramatically.
0:08:54 > 0:08:59We were confronted with 40-foot waves and we were literally chugging up
0:08:59 > 0:09:03to the crest of a wave and down into the trough.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05They were that large.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09And you were in grave danger of capsizing.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14One of the warrant officers cited that it was the first time
0:09:14 > 0:09:19that he'd ever seen a seaman getting down on his knees and praying.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Simon decided to take shelter.
0:09:25 > 0:09:31He manoeuvred the craft at a point that he considered was safe
0:09:31 > 0:09:34to ensure that the vessel didn't broach
0:09:34 > 0:09:41and it was his competence and experience that saved our lives.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48Later that same year, the Ministry of Defence called on Simon
0:09:48 > 0:09:51to help them demonstrate the LCTs to the Iranian navy.
0:09:51 > 0:09:57His expertise led to several being sold and he was duly rewarded with an MBE.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07Back in the office, after a difficult start, case manager Dave Slee
0:10:07 > 0:10:11is now working under the assumption that the deceased is Captain Birch.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18If he is, then they've identified his parents as Samuel Birch and Edith Parfitt.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Hello, good morning. I'm sorry to trouble you. My name's David Slee.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27I'm trying to trace a family in connection with an unclaimed estate.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Early research has thrown up a Raymond Evans from Wales,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34the widower of a possible sister of the deceased.
0:10:34 > 0:10:41Am I right in believing that your wife had a brother called Brian Birch?
0:10:42 > 0:10:43A cousin?
0:10:43 > 0:10:46So she never had a brother called Brian?
0:10:47 > 0:10:50He was in the Army? So...
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Although he'd got the relationship wrong,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55it looks like he's got the right family
0:10:55 > 0:10:59and Raymond is full of information about Captain Birch.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03Apparently he was an only child who had no children of his own
0:11:03 > 0:11:07but his father, Samuel, was one of 13 children.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12However, the important question remains unanswered.
0:11:12 > 0:11:18There's still no hard proof that this Captain Birch is actually the deceased.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25Nothing to link Malta to this captain at the moment.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27I've got another guy to phone. I'll write this tree up.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31It's not 100% sure that this is the right one but...
0:11:31 > 0:11:36Dave has got the number of a possible cousin, who's also in Wales.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38Mr Birch? Sorry to trouble you, Sir.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44If he is Brian's first cousin, then he would also be the first heir.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49You had a cousin called Brian Birch?
0:11:50 > 0:11:52He lived in Gozo?
0:11:53 > 0:11:55In Malta?
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Bingo. All their hunches have come good.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04Time to mobilise the troops.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08Ewart Lindsay is one of the company's senior researchers on the road.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13His job is to get to the heirs and sign them up before the competition does.
0:12:13 > 0:12:21I've got a colleague actually going to be in Wales today trying to see as many family members as possible
0:12:21 > 0:12:28and I'd like to make an appointment for him to pop along and see you and any other family members he can.
0:12:30 > 0:12:36It looks this case will be based around Newport in South Wales and that there will be a lot of heirs,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39so Neil sends Bob Barratt off there as well.
0:12:42 > 0:12:43Good luck, mate.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47It's a bold move because they still don't have much concrete information to go on
0:12:47 > 0:12:51but Neil's determined to stay ahead of the competition on this one.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Dave has managed to confirm that Brian's grandparents,
0:12:54 > 0:12:58William and Mary, did indeed have 13 children.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00They've already found two heirs
0:13:00 > 0:13:03but the chances are, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08A lot of work to do. A massive family.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11I've started bringing more people into this now.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14This is the valuable job we're working this week.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20Neil thinks that with a potential property valued at £200,000 and a healthy pension,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24this estate could be worth up to a quarter of a million pounds.
0:13:24 > 0:13:30Which means it's almost certain that most of their rivals will be onto the case as well.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37He desperately needs to stay ahead and the only way to ensure that
0:13:37 > 0:13:40is to gamble more and more resources and hope it pays off.
0:13:45 > 0:13:46Coming up...
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Oh, no. Why?
0:13:49 > 0:13:54A single act by an independent agent threatens to undo all their hard work.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Agent, don't do this!
0:14:02 > 0:14:05While some investigations unfold very quickly and dramatically,
0:14:05 > 0:14:10others, like the case of Marilyn Kutner, are harder nuts to crack
0:14:10 > 0:14:13and require all the Heir Hunters' skills and tenacity.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17Marilyn's name appeared on the Treasury's list of unclaimed estates
0:14:17 > 0:14:23in July 2008 and was picked up by Celtic Research's Hector Birchwood,
0:14:23 > 0:14:28who set out to see if he could find any rightful heirs to her £12,000 estate.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32We don't really have much to go on.
0:14:32 > 0:14:39As usual, we had a date of death, a place of death and we had some names for the deceased.
0:14:42 > 0:14:48Marilyn Kutner died alone in her Brighton flat, aged just 59.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52She left no will and not even a photograph survives of her.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Friend and neighbour Christine Toms, who lived in a flat beneath Marilyn's,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00knew her for over 20 years and remembers her fondly.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02A happy, cheerful lady.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04She always had a good word for everybody.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07I know she used to like going out a lot with her friends.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12A glamorous woman, Marilyn took great pride in her appearance.
0:15:12 > 0:15:18Oh, she was very attractive. She used to have fair hair with blonde highlights.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Very pretty, very nicely made up. Lovely clothes.
0:15:21 > 0:15:27Marilyn lived in the top-floor flat of the seaside tower block with her mother, Blanche.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34Her and her mother used to sunbathe up on the penthouse all day long
0:15:34 > 0:15:38and they were brown as berries and they absolutely loved it.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42Mother and daughter had an extremely close relationship.
0:15:42 > 0:15:48They were sort of more like sisters than mother and daughter and her mother done everything for her.
0:15:48 > 0:15:55When Blanche died ten years ago, Marilyn found it increasingly difficult to face life on her own.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58She never went out after her mother died.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02Before her mother died, she had her girlfriends and her boyfriends.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05So I don't know, she never went out.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08So sad, to see her go downhill.
0:16:08 > 0:16:14Celtic Research is owned and run by Hector and his father, Peter Birchwood.
0:16:14 > 0:16:20Together, they have over 40 years' experience of tracing the beneficiaries of unclaimed estates.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27But this case would test Hector's heir-hunting powers to the limit.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32The name Kutner indicated to me it would definitely be European,
0:16:32 > 0:16:40possibly Jewish, so my initial impression was that it was going to go to one of our agents in Europe
0:16:40 > 0:16:43and we were probably going to be able to find heirs, if any,
0:16:43 > 0:16:49in Israel, Canada, the US, South Africa, possibly the United Kingdom.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54Like any case, the first goal was to try and identify the birth of the deceased.
0:16:54 > 0:17:02She was born in 1949 and we were able to, from that birth, identify who her parents were.
0:17:02 > 0:17:07Marilyn's parents were Aaron Kutner and Blanche Koenigsberg.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12A little bit of investigation into Blanche's family yielded some unexpected results.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18The deceased's mother was born in the UK, a bit to my surprise.
0:17:18 > 0:17:25On top of that, her parents were also married in the UK
0:17:25 > 0:17:28so her mother, her father, her grandparents,
0:17:28 > 0:17:35all had events occurring here in the United Kingdom and then we found out that she had no other siblings.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39So as far as I was concerned,
0:17:39 > 0:17:44very, very quickly, the maternal side was dead without issue.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48As Marilyn's mother's family wasn't going to supply any heirs,
0:17:48 > 0:17:52Hector turned his attention to the family of her father, Aaron Kutner.
0:17:52 > 0:17:58He found a birth certificate for Aaron that showed he was born in Whitechapel in 1915
0:17:58 > 0:18:02and listed his parents as Emanuel Kutner and Annie Horowitz.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06So Hector went to the 1911 census to see what he could find.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09At first, he drew a blank.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14We weren't able to find the name of Kutner so we assumed that perhaps
0:18:14 > 0:18:19maybe he wasn't in the United Kingdom during the 1911 census.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23But then he made a fascinating discovery.
0:18:23 > 0:18:29Emanuel Kutner in the census is listed as Mandel Kutner, not Emanuel.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33That's an acceptable change in his name.
0:18:33 > 0:18:40Mandel Kutner would've been his Jewish name, to which he's known to God and other Jews.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Emanuel would've been his gentile name.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47Little did Hector know that this was only the first confusion of this kind
0:18:47 > 0:18:49that his investigation would throw up.
0:18:49 > 0:18:56But he did make an important discovery that finally uncovered the origins of the Kutner family.
0:18:57 > 0:19:03Both Mandel and Annie were Russian residents and citizens.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07It seems that Annie Horowitz and Emanuel Kutner
0:19:07 > 0:19:10were part of the massive wave of immigration
0:19:10 > 0:19:14that came over from what is now Lithuania at the end of the 19th century,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17fleeing prejudice and persecution in their own country.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Jews were confined to an area of western Russia
0:19:21 > 0:19:23called the Pale of Settlement.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26Within this area, which stretched from the Black Sea
0:19:26 > 0:19:30to the Baltic Sea, Jews had to live in designated towns.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34They were not allowed to own businesses, land, farms.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37They were largely reduced to destitution.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39This was a deliberate act by the Russian government
0:19:39 > 0:19:43to persecute and punish Jews basically for being Jews.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49Two million Jews left Eastern Europe between 1881 and 1914
0:19:49 > 0:19:53and 120,000 of them settled in the UK.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59But it seems that Annie and Mandel didn't make the journey together.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03She came over separately with a young son from an earlier marriage.
0:20:03 > 0:20:09For immigrants like Marilyn's grandparents, London was a daunting prospect.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14But in the East End, they were lucky to find a safety net
0:20:14 > 0:20:17of organisations, set up by wealthy, established Jewish families.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Behind me is the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor.
0:20:21 > 0:20:27Institutions like this were essential to the welfare of Jewish people and you would come here,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30you'd get a meal, you'd get the basic essentials of life.
0:20:30 > 0:20:36It was like a miniature welfare state that existed in the East End, created by local people.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Many of the immigrants were skilled tailors and dressmakers
0:20:40 > 0:20:44and used these trades to earn a living in their adopted country.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Marilyn's grandmother, Annie Horowitz, spent the few coins that she possessed
0:20:50 > 0:20:54on setting herself up on a stall in the market on Petticoat Lane,
0:20:54 > 0:21:00which by the late-19th century was already an established centre for the rag trade.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Jewish immigrants pour in to here from Eastern Europe
0:21:06 > 0:21:09and they open up their own little businesses and stalls
0:21:09 > 0:21:15in Petticoat Lane, selling clothing, beigels and chola, herrings,
0:21:15 > 0:21:19but it was a hubbub, people calling out in Yiddish, in broken English.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24Really chaotic but I would imagine very, very exciting.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28Within six months of coming to the UK, Annie had met and married
0:21:28 > 0:21:33Aaron's father, Mandel Kutner, a fellow Jewish immigrant and Hebrew teacher.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40But Hector couldn't find any sign of any other children from that marriage.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42They would have been Marilyn's aunts and uncles
0:21:42 > 0:21:46and their children could be the beneficiaries of her £12,000 estate.
0:21:49 > 0:21:56His only option was to compile a list of every Kutner or Horowitz birth in Whitechapel since 1906
0:21:56 > 0:22:00and here, he came up against another challenge.
0:22:02 > 0:22:08How you spell Horovich or Horowitz is a difficult task,
0:22:08 > 0:22:13mainly because Yiddish doesn't have any vowels
0:22:13 > 0:22:17and so when somebody's writing down that name,
0:22:17 > 0:22:21they have to apply our system of using vowels
0:22:21 > 0:22:26to make the same phonetic sound which would be used in Yiddish.
0:22:26 > 0:22:32So we found that the mothers' maiden names given on the index varied quite significantly.
0:22:32 > 0:22:38Coming up, Hector goes searching for a needle in a haystack.
0:22:38 > 0:22:44He changed his name to something similar to Kutner, maybe or Coates or Kutz,
0:22:44 > 0:22:48and he married someone by the name of Jean.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51And the hunt for Brian Birch's heirs hots up.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Keep Bob on the way down there and have three of them.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56Let's bombard it tonight.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Heir Hunters solve thousands of cases a year,
0:23:04 > 0:23:09ensuring that millions of pounds are paid out to rightful heirs.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12But not every case can be cracked.
0:23:12 > 0:23:18The Treasury has a list of over 2,000 estates that have baffled the Heir Hunters and remain unclaimed.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25These estates stay on the list for up to 30 years
0:23:25 > 0:23:30and each one could be worth anything from £5,000 to many millions.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34Today, we're focusing on three names from the list.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Are they relatives of yours?
0:23:36 > 0:23:39Could you be in line for an unexpected windfall?
0:23:42 > 0:23:46Murdoch McRae Urquhart died in Felixstowe
0:23:46 > 0:23:49on 5th January 2004 aged 75.
0:23:49 > 0:23:55The Urquharts are a Scottish clan based round Loch Ness, so he may have come from there.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00If no heirs of his are found, his money will go to the Government.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Did you know Joan Mildred Clare Greenslade,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07who died in Epsom, Surrey aged 86?
0:24:07 > 0:24:11So far, no-one has come forward to claim her estate either.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Or what about Fredrick Thomas Caleb Bache,
0:24:18 > 0:24:24who died on 29th September 2004 in Stourbridge in the West Midlands?
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Fredrik's mother's name was Woolridge
0:24:27 > 0:24:32and Bache, while sounding German, is actually an old English name.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34His estate is also unclaimed.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42If the names Murdoch Urquhart, Joan Greenslade or Thomas Bache mean anything to you,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46or someone you know, you could have a fortune coming your way.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59Back on the case of Marilyn Kutner and her £12,000 estate.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03Heir Hunter Hector Birchwood had been battling against the odds
0:25:03 > 0:25:06to find any siblings for her father, Aaron.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13The problem lay in the variations in the spelling of her grandmother Annie Horowitz's surname.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18But eventually, after an exhaustive search,
0:25:18 > 0:25:23he discovered four potentials - one sister and three brothers.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28While tracing the descendants of one of the brothers, Reuben Kutner, Hector managed to speak
0:25:28 > 0:25:32to some relations who gave him some vital information.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38All they could tell me was that they knew he'd changed his name.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42He changed his name to something similar to Kutner,
0:25:42 > 0:25:48maybe or Coates or Kutz, and he married someone by the name of Jean.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52And they were sure that he had a daughter called Sharon.
0:25:52 > 0:25:53That's all I had to go on.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57Deciding to change your name sounds like a drastic step
0:25:57 > 0:26:03but for many Jews living in England in the early 20th century, it was a necessary decision.
0:26:03 > 0:26:10They would anglicise their names because they didn't want to sound foreign - and they weren't foreign.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13They'd been born in this country, they spoke proper English,
0:26:13 > 0:26:17they were educated, but they didn't want to stand out as foreigners.
0:26:17 > 0:26:24Having faced persecution abroad, the Jews were now confronted with prejudice in their adopted country.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28At the outbreak of the First World War, things got worse.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32A lot of these Jewish immigrants had Germanic sounding names
0:26:32 > 0:26:35and indeed there were riots in the East End of London,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38where English people would throw bricks through windows of shops
0:26:38 > 0:26:44which had German-sounding names, but of course they weren't Germans, they were Jewish.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Hector and his team were now up against their third name-based conundrum on this case.
0:26:52 > 0:26:57This time, he had the nightmarish task of trying to find all the marriages for somebody
0:26:57 > 0:27:03with a surname that sounded a bit like Kutner or Kutz, who had married a Jean.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08We made a particularly long list of these potential marriages
0:27:08 > 0:27:14and then worked those marriages down to see if one of them yielded
0:27:14 > 0:27:17a daughter by the name of Sharon.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22Eventually, by a process of elimination, one of them did.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26Hector found a marriage in the 1940s of a Reginald Irwin Coates
0:27:26 > 0:27:32and a Jean or Jenny Tash, who'd shortened her name from Tashinski.
0:27:32 > 0:27:40All Hector needed now was positive proof that Reginald and Reuben were the same person.
0:27:40 > 0:27:46We found Reginald Erwin's death and his date of birth matched the date of birth that we had
0:27:46 > 0:27:53for Ruben Kutner and once we were able to speak to his daughter, then we knew we had the right man.
0:27:53 > 0:28:00His daughter, Sharon Coates was Marilyn's first cousin and the heir Hector had been looking for.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03My father became Reginald Irwin Coates.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05He did that some time before the Second World War.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10I think it was just really so it sounded more English, to fit in with other people better.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13So it wasn't showing the immigrant status.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Sharon had met her cousin Marilyn a few times when she was a young girl,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20but since then they'd completely lost touch.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23I don't know anything about Marilyn's life, really.
0:28:23 > 0:28:28I suspect she moved to Brighton with her parents but I don't really know that for sure.
0:28:28 > 0:28:33I didn't have very much contact with any of the relations on my father's side very often.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35Just a few family occasions.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39She may well have been there but I don't particularly remember her.
0:28:39 > 0:28:45Sharon turned out to be one of six heirs to Marilyn's £12,000 estate.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50It was very strange, actually, inheriting from someone who I really didn't know existed.
0:28:50 > 0:28:51Very odd indeed.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55But it did have the advantage that I got back in touch with my cousins.
0:28:55 > 0:29:02Being contacted by Hector has given Sharon a chance to reflect on her extraordinary family history.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06I really would like to know more about my father's family.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11It would be quite nice, just because, as I get older, I think more about family.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16Immigrant families like the Kutners were determined to lose their foreigner status.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19But, in the process, they lost touch with each other.
0:29:19 > 0:29:26Marilyn may have died alone but, because of her, this is one family that has been reunited.
0:29:34 > 0:29:39Heir Hunters Fraser & Fraser have been investigating the case
0:29:39 > 0:29:44of Brian Simon Birch MBE, who died aged 71 on the island of Malta.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48His lasting memory will always be, as I say,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51outside St Paul's Bar or the Electro Bar.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54When we some good sessions, good times.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56Simon was very dry.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00He would make something funny out of any serious incident.
0:30:00 > 0:30:06He always could come out with a comment that would make you laugh.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10Before he retired to enjoy ex-pat life, Simon was a captain
0:30:10 > 0:30:16in the British Army whose courage and skill was much admired.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18I was very pleased for Simon,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22because his MBE was thoroughly deserved.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25He had done an outstanding job and he was recognised for it.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29The company have gambled a huge amount of people and resources
0:30:29 > 0:30:34trying to stay ahead of the competition on this case
0:30:34 > 0:30:40because they believe that his estate could be worth up to £250,000.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42I'm pretty pleased with where we are.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45We're certainly in pole position.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49But I think we're quite a long way ahead of the pack, as well.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52Brian's father Sam had 12 brothers and sisters.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57So far, the team have found the heirs from three stems and they just keep on coming.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01She has seven children that's going to be entitled.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05So, a busy old day for the secretary.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07But all that's about to change.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14Neil's received a piece of paper that's shattered their lead
0:31:14 > 0:31:18and handed over their advantage to the competition.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20So, they're going to have that now, aren't they?
0:31:20 > 0:31:25The independent agent in Malta has finally faxed over Brian's death certificate.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28But Fraser's didn't have an exclusive deal with him,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32so he's also sent it to several of their competitors.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Oh, no.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39If the rival companies were struggling to identify
0:31:39 > 0:31:42the right Birch family before, they won't be now.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44Oh, agent, don't do this.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49Any advantage Fraser's had has been wiped out.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52Well, it's a matter of time now, isn't it? It's a race.
0:31:52 > 0:31:58After this setback, Neil and Dave Slee meet for crisis talks in the library.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01The biggest concern is the West Country stuff.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04If that's not being covered, then you've got...
0:32:04 > 0:32:06I've just taken him off Tony.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Then keep Bob on the way down there and have three of them.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14Let's bombard it tonight, get as many people seen tonight in Wales.
0:32:16 > 0:32:21As well as Ewart and Bob Barratt, they're also sending senior researcher Bob Smith down
0:32:21 > 0:32:25to join them, to make sure that as soon as an heir is discovered,
0:32:25 > 0:32:29a Fraser's representative is on their doorstep to sign them up.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34And Neil's taking no chances in the office either.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39I think, pretty much, most of the guys in the company are on this job at the moment.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43While Dave Slee and his team continue to chase down more and more Birch heirs,
0:32:43 > 0:32:48case manager Frances Brett has been brought on to kickstart the maternal Parfitt side of the tree.
0:32:48 > 0:32:53And straight away, she runs into a roadblock.
0:32:53 > 0:32:59I think there's a little bit of a dilemma as to how people fit into the family.
0:32:59 > 0:33:06Allan has been searching through online records and databases for information about the Parfitts.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09The deceased mother had a brother and a sister,
0:33:09 > 0:33:11according to the 1911 census.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14So, obviously, it could be possible there are children born
0:33:14 > 0:33:18after the 1911 census that we haven't identified yet.
0:33:18 > 0:33:23Brian's mother, Edith, had a sister, Elizabeth, and a brother, Frederick.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25Their mother was Annie Parfitt.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29But there's no record of a father, which raises the question of illegitimacy.
0:33:31 > 0:33:37If they are illegitimate, then under English and Welsh law, they would only be half brothers and sisters
0:33:37 > 0:33:41and their descendants would be half-blood nieces and nephews.
0:33:41 > 0:33:47But the Parfitts may still have a stronger claim than Brian's father's family, the Birches,
0:33:47 > 0:33:52because half-blood nieces and nephews have a greater entitlement than full-blood cousins.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58We are going to need some certificates.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01But in the meantime, we will work it out and see what we find out.
0:34:01 > 0:34:08But until those certificates arrive, Frances and her team can't afford to drop the ball.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11They must keep tracking down potential Parfitt heirs
0:34:11 > 0:34:14if they're going to stay ahead of the competition.
0:34:17 > 0:34:24150 miles away in Cwmbran, South Wales, Ewart is gearing up to make a major breakthrough.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30He has taken charge of one particular stem of the Birch family tree,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33the descendants of Fred Birch, Brian's uncle.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37He's about to meet with heirs John and Dawn Evans who, along with their
0:34:37 > 0:34:44brother, Steven, are the children of Raymond Evans and Julie Birch, who was Brian Birch's first cousin.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49Hi, Mr Evans. Ewart Lindsay from Fraser & Fraser. How are you? You're John, aren't you?
0:34:49 > 0:34:51- Yes, I am.- Lovely.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54What's happened is that there is a second cousin who has passed
0:34:54 > 0:34:57on without leaving a will. OK?
0:34:57 > 0:35:02I don't think you probably... You wouldn't know who the deceased is?
0:35:02 > 0:35:05- Not really, no. - I don't think you ever met him.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08- Did you know him?- Yes, yes.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10I met him a few times.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16To his father's funeral, to his mum's funeral.
0:35:16 > 0:35:22Ewart talks them through how they can go about making a claim on their relative's estate.
0:35:22 > 0:35:29Anything your mother would have got from the estate will then get divided up between the three of you.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31- Thank you very much.- Bye-bye.
0:35:31 > 0:35:37After Ewart leaves, the family try to take in the impact of what they've just been told.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39I was a little bit shocked, when I heard.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46- It seems a bit strange. - Never met him at all.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48It's all a little bit surreal.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52Well, it's nice to think that, although we didn't meet him,
0:35:52 > 0:35:55that we are getting some sort of benefit from it.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58But it would have been nicer to have met him, I suppose.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03It's the end of a long day for the Heir Hunters.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07Ewart's had a great result, signing up two heirs in one visit.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10But this is only one stem out of 13.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12There's still a long way to go.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16He heads off to join fellow operatives Bob Barratt
0:36:16 > 0:36:21and Bob Smith at their hotel before starting all over again tomorrow.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34The next day dawns bright and early in Wales.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36The two Bobs are comparing notes on the heirs
0:36:36 > 0:36:40they managed to sign up yesterday and the task ahead of them today.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Morning, guys.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46- Late again?- Yeah.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48I tried ringing you this morning, you know that?
0:36:48 > 0:36:50Yeah, he was out for a run, I expect.
0:36:50 > 0:36:56No, I've been speaking to my heir. I've got a 10:30 appointment this morning.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Back in London, Dave Slee is already hard at work.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05Good man, thanks very much. Bye. Take care. Have a nice weekend. Bye-bye.
0:37:05 > 0:37:11Now it's just a question of tying up the loose ends of the Birch side of the investigation.
0:37:11 > 0:37:13And it's been quite an operation.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17There are at least...
0:37:17 > 0:37:2018 first cousins alive,
0:37:20 > 0:37:24with the possibility of two more, the Australian descendants.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28And 10 cousins once removed.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32Although there's still no sign of any competition,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36the team need to sign up as many heirs as possible on this case.
0:37:36 > 0:37:42Their commission needs to cover the costs of the resources they've spent on it.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46Meanwhile, the question mark hanging over the legitimacy of the maternal
0:37:46 > 0:37:50Parfitt side of the family is still troubling Neil.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55I'm thinking that they're all illegit?
0:37:55 > 0:37:58She was in a relationship, and just didn't married.
0:37:58 > 0:37:59Was there any of them?
0:37:59 > 0:38:04- She just didn't get married and knocked out a whole family.- Yeah.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08So we should do a search between 11 and 21 at least, in the same district.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11If the whole maternal side are illegitimate,
0:38:11 > 0:38:18that means the company won't have to chase around trying to sign them up, which would be great news for Neil.
0:38:21 > 0:38:26At last, the all-important Parfitt birth certificates have arrived.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31We've got the births, they're "no father shown" on there.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34Thomas was the father of the girls that were
0:38:34 > 0:38:39having these illegitimate children, so she's just given grandad's name.
0:38:39 > 0:38:44Sure enough, Edith Parfitt's birth certificate does not show a father,
0:38:44 > 0:38:47which means her parents cannot have been married.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51But on her marriage certificate she puts her grandfather's name,
0:38:51 > 0:38:55Thomas Parfitt, where her father's name should be.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58People didn't want to leave a blank on their marriage certificate
0:38:58 > 0:39:03and quite often, gave the name of their grandfather
0:39:03 > 0:39:06as being that of their dad,
0:39:06 > 0:39:13which is exactly what Edith did when she married Samuel Erasmus Birch in 1937.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15Mr Barrett, Neil.
0:39:15 > 0:39:21Just to tell you, mate, that mother's side is illegit, so it doesn't look like there's going
0:39:21 > 0:39:26to be any beneficiaries on that, so all you've got to do is those trees with the three of you. Bye.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29It's a great result for the heir hunters.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33The maternal side has been discounted.
0:39:33 > 0:39:40The final heirs on the paternal side are being signed up and the competition never even got close.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44Neil took a gamble and it paid off but he's not resting on his laurels.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46This is really just the start.
0:39:46 > 0:39:51We've got people to see, contracts still to get and then obviously all
0:39:51 > 0:39:55the paperwork which goes with them, to put all their case together.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00But really, that's going to take us a month, two months.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02That's still only just the tip of the iceberg.
0:40:02 > 0:40:07The legal system in England and Wales takes about 12 months to conclude.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10In Malta, we've had a warning it's going to be nearer two years.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Certainly, we're going to have done all this work and not get paid for that for about two years or so.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Down in Wales, Ewart has got one final heir to visit.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Hello, Mrs Stevens? Hi. Ewart Lindsay from Fraser & Fraser.
0:40:29 > 0:40:35Lynda Stevens is the only member of the Fred Birch stem that Ewatt hasn't yet seen.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42She's Raymond Evans's sister-in-law, and aunt to John and Dawn.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46Unlike her niece and nephew, she has a clear memory of her cousin.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48Brian was always away in the army.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53- Once he joined the army, you know, then we didn't see a lot of him.- OK.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58I seen him more when I was younger, because my father kept pigeons
0:40:58 > 0:41:05with Uncle Sam and our dad used to take me out to the pigeon loft and that.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10- Brian was there then. - I hope you do get enough to go on a nice cruise.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13A cruise, or some ice cream down the seaside!
0:41:13 > 0:41:14THEY LAUGH
0:41:16 > 0:41:18Nice meeting you.
0:41:19 > 0:41:25Lynda is left behind to mull over the amazing events of the last 24 hours.
0:41:25 > 0:41:32It's a real shocker. It has really opened up cupboards, if you know what I mean. Family history.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36So surprising is the family.
0:41:36 > 0:41:41You know, the size of the family, and you don't even realise that they're there.
0:41:41 > 0:41:47And what of the man who, albeit unwittingly, brought all this about?
0:41:47 > 0:41:50He was quite nice looking. Well, I thought he was anyway.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53He always reminded me of my father.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57You would have thought he would have made a will, but then
0:41:57 > 0:42:01who was he going to leave it to? You know?
0:42:01 > 0:42:04He most probably wouldn't even have thought about it.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09In his military life, Simon showed great courage and expertise.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13In retirement, he was the archetypal Englishman abroad
0:42:13 > 0:42:19and if his funeral was anything to go by, a much-missed friend.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22It was a really, really nice service.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24It was in the open air
0:42:24 > 0:42:28and a very, very good turnout.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33Simon was just a very, very private man.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37Once you got to know him, he'd always be very friendly and very kind to you.
0:42:42 > 0:42:47If you would like advice about building your family tree or making a will, go to...
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