Bennett/Willey Heir Hunters

The Heir Hunters have taken on a mystery case in Birmingham and are on the hunt for some heirs.

Hopefully, all will be revealed. Watch this space.

They're looking for long-lost relatives who have no idea they could be in line for a windfall.

Today on Heir Hunters, the team investigate a former member of the Pioneer Corps

and the mystery of his past life.

He had a picture of his wife and there was a girl of about 10. He couldn't remember who she was.

And how an investigation of a Grimsby family

revealed glamorous origins.

Due to a huge increase in Grimsby's population,

there would have been a big need for actresses and singers.

And plenty of backbone.

They would do anything to harden their hands up, such as soaking them in methylated spirits.

Plus how you could be entitled to unclaimed estates where heirs still need to be found.

Could you be in line for a cash pay-out?

Every year in the UK, it's estimated that over 300,000 people die without leaving a will.

If no relatives are found, any money that's left behind will go to the Government.

Last year, that was a staggering £14 million.

There are over 30 specialist firms competing to stop this happening.

They're the Heir Hunters and they make it their business to track down missing relatives

-and help them claim their rightful inheritance.

-It's about reuniting people with what's theirs.

That's a real good feeling.

It's early doors in London.

7am to be exact. In the offices of Fraser and Fraser,

partner Neil Fraser is going through the Treasury list.

Right. Council...in West Sussex.

Housing Association, Suffolk. Croydon...

He's looking for estates where the deceased owned property in the hope of a higher value,

but it's slim pickings today and they struggle to find anything.

-There's not much on the list.

-Thanks.

-Case manager Dave Slee has taken on a low-value estate.

William James Bennett, the deceased, died in September 2009.

Because the death is a few years old, we have the records.

He was born in West Bromwich in 1923.

William Bennett was 86 when he passed away.

He had been living for some time in this council-funded care home in West Bromwich.

The staff knew him as Bill. Ena Wright was his care assistant and remembers him fondly.

He was very respectful. If there was ladies present, he'd open the door and say, "Where do you want to go?"

"The office is up there," he'd say and they'd toddle off. "I'll be all right now, love."

To Ena, William could be a breath of fresh air.

A lovable person. Black Country through and through.

What you see is what you get. That was it.

"That's mine or that's you'n," he'd say. "That ain't you'n, it's mine." That's the way he was.

He was a real special person in his own little way.

He may have been a charmer, but he had a stubborn streak.

Senior carer Dawn Jones knew his ways.

He did like attention. If you gave him five minutes, he was happy.

And then he would trot off.

'But you would always know if you didn't give him five minutes.'

The staff would say, "Bill's on the floor again." He'd put himself down and pretend he'd passed out.

We got the paramedics out and then we were banned because he'd done it so often!

William was suffering from dementia and didn't appear to have family,

-but he often mentioned a woman's name.

-"That's my Mary." He always referred to her as "my Mary".

That was it. He never did say anything about anybody else.

Just his Mary.

But in all the 10 years he was at the care home, no one ever came to visit him.

It hurts in a way that he didn't have any visitors.

But we don't know the circumstances, we don't know what's happened.

It may have been Bill's choice that he didn't see his family.

As staff at the care home couldn't trace his family when he died, his name went on the Treasury list.

And that's where the Heir Hunters picked up the case.

At this stage, they don't know anything about William, other than his date and place of death.

They suspect there's no property involved, so this could be a low-value estate.

It's possible he had some savings.

The minimum amount to make it onto the Treasury list is £5,000.

So is it worth it or not?

Heir Hunters work on commission, taking a percentage of the money received by each heir they sign.

They need a good-sized estate to cover costs.

It looks like the case of William Bennett could be challenging.

Bennett's an incredibly common surname and we have more than one William J Bennett in West Bromwich

in that time.

Working backwards from the death certificate, Dave has instructed researcher Emily

to draw up a family tree.

-A sub-tree.

-A baby tree?

To Heir Hunters, family trees are vital guides for navigating the sprawling threads

that tie families together.

They follow generations until they uncover the rightful heirs.

I think you picked the right ones.

Emily found that William's parents' last names were Bennett and Jones.

At this stage they don't have their first names.

In order to find them, they have to try to locate the correct records in Birmingham,

but that's not going to be easy.

So here we have the name Bennett. Bad enough in its own right.

With the mother's maiden name Jones.

Especially in the West Midlands, lots of people from Wales moved over there for work.

So you have a lot of people with Welsh surnames in the West Midlands.

We've got a number of Bennetts marrying Jones.

That's the difficulty when we're dealing with common surnames in large urban areas.

While searching for William's parents, Emily has made a significant discovery.

She has found records that prove William was married to a woman called Mary in the '40s and '50s.

Could this be the Mary that he spoke of so fondly in the care home?

According to their research, the couple were divorced, but did they have children?

The Heir Hunters don't think so. They think William's parents and their offspring hold the key.

How many other marriages are there that are Bennett to Jones in West Brom at that time?

But there is another way to locate the parents.

If Dave can find possible siblings, they might find the parents' names from their birth records.

So anything between 1918 and 1923, in theory, has got to be our man.

There are a few options and one leapt out.

We found the birth of a Thirza Bennett, mother's maiden name Jones.

It's a vital lead. Thirza is a very rare name

and, incredibly, this Thirza's mother was also called Thirza.

Same name, same mother's maiden name, same district.

The dates are right, so Dave is willing to take the risk that this may be William's mother and sister.

On that basis, he finds a marriage for Frederick Bennett to a Thirza Jones.

Have they got the right family?

-A good old biblical name.

-Is it?

-Thirza.

The Thirza Bennett they think is William's sister was born in 1919.

She's still alive and researcher Emily has traced a number.

But this could be a difficult call.

Breaking the news that a brother has passed away is never easy

and Dave is hoping that it won't be too much of a shock.

She is in her 90s so...

Oh, well. Let's take the bull by the horns.

If Thirza is in, she could provide the key that unlocks the family tree,

but it seems no one's home.

We'll try her again later on. She might even be able to say, "No, I did have a brother William,

"but it's not your man," and we can eliminate that.

Otherwise, we think this is the sister of the deceased.

While Dave's been on the phone, Emily has found another family name passed down the generations.

We decided to stick to family names and due to the amount of births one of those happens to be Leonard,

who, on the 1911 Census, with Thirza Jones as the mother,

there is also a Leonard Jones.

So...

Uncle of the deceased called Leonard, possible brother of the deceased called Leonard.

Emily is making good progress, but only if her hunch about the family names is right.

They really need to speak to Thirza, the woman they believe is William's sister, to confirm the tree.

I'm flagging.

But after the fourth phone call, Dave's ready to give up.

But once again Emily's saved the day with another number.

We've just found a niece of the deceased.

Dave's just about to speak to her. Very exciting.

The woman they hope to speak to is the daughter of Thirza.

Hello. Good afternoon. Very sorry to trouble you. I'm trying to...

Coincidentally, this woman is also called Thirza. She's not in, but her husband is.

Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Right. Where are we?

Have we got the right family?

-Coming up:

-Don't throw things at me!

-Are the Heir Hunters in for a shock?

This has put the cat amongst the pigeons. It's a bit worrying.

All the work could be for nothing.

And did William have something buried in his past?

His photographs were all we had to go on. Really that is all we had.

He'd cry and get upset if you tried to dig any further.

All families change over time. Family members move about and they lose touch.

With each new generation, connections could be forgotten.

In the hunt for heirs, researchers often uncover family secrets

that have fallen through the cracks of history and bring families back together.

For Hull-based Anna Dunn of DS Researchers, it's a rewarding part of the job.

For me, it's the joy of a family puzzle, fitting all the pieces together.

And when Anna took on the case of Peter Willey, she knew this puzzle would be a challenge.

Peter Wallace Willey died on 28th November, 2008,

in the seaside community of Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire. He was 78 years old.

No photos of Peter survive, but Peter Croft of the bowling club knew him as a talented bowler.

He was a very, very good player. Very quiet. Very soft-spoken.

Loved the game. He was a man of about my build, possibly a little shorter.

And at that time certainly a little lighter.

He was bald and always wore a white hat.

That was his trademark. Wherever he went, he wore that hat.

A great character, great bowler. We loved him.

Peter came to his bowling club as regular as clockwork,

but always kept himself to himself.

But his teammate was able to glean bits and pieces of information.

Peter lived with his aunt. When he was young, he trained as a confectioner.

And then later on he worked for the Docks Board.

After retiring from his work as the foreman in stores on the docks,

Peter lived on a modest income in this rented flat.

When he died, he left an estate of £42,000 in cash, but he hadn't written a will.

Up in Hull, Anna was scanning the Treasury list when his name caught her eye.

The Peter Willey case came from the Bona Vacantia list.

He had died in Cleethorpes, one of the areas that we cover.

Anna and her team focus most of their heir hunts on the northern counties.

And Cleethorpes is close to home, just 40 miles down the road.

The first stage was to identify the correct Peter Willey.

I checked the Electoral Roll but couldn't find him on there.

So I had to look for a birth. And I found a birth in Grimsby,

which is fairly close to Cleethorpes.

This birth record gave Anna the name of Peter's parents.

She then looked for a marriage certificate for them, hoping to work out if they had other children,

Peter's brothers and sisters.

The marriage certificate for Peter's parents, Wallace Willey and Ivy Hall,

showed that they were married in the early part of 1930.

Peter was born later on that year, so one can presume that he was the first born.

I couldn't find any more siblings, so I assume that he must have been the only child.

Anna also found that he had been a bachelor all his life and hadn't had children.

Having ruled out near kin, Anna looked at Peter's mother's side

to see if she had brothers or sisters.

Looking on the maternal side,

I discovered that Ivy Hall's parents were Harry Hall and Mary Ann Hall.

Peter's grandparents, Mary and Harry, lived in Grimsby, a thriving fishing port.

Anna assumed that they would be involved in the industry, but when she checked the 1901 Census

she was in for a surprise.

Harry was listed as a musician and had been throughout.

And her mother was a theatre attendant. On a previous Census, she had been an actress.

In the Grimsby/Cleethorpes area, there were three main theatres.

The Tivoli, the Prince of Wales and the Old Palace.

Every night they were thronged with workers eager to spend their hard-earned cash.

Due to the huge increase in Grimsby's population and the amount of income they had to spend,

there was a need for entertainment. A number of pubs opened, new theatres,

and there was a need for actresses and singers to entertain the masses.

Harry and Mary would have been kept on their toes entertaining audiences,

but they were also busy with their own production - a large Victorian family.

On the Census records I found that Harry and Mary Ann Hall had nine children,

seven girls and two boys.

That was good news for Anna.

With so many uncles and aunts, Anna was convinced that Peter would have cousins who might be heirs.

The chances of eight uncles and aunts having children who then had children

I thought was quite high.

Peter's uncles and aunts were living in Grimsby in the early 1900s,

and at that time Grimsby was one of the largest fishing ports in the world.

Fishing has always been the trade of Grimsby due to our location on the coast.

In the 14th and 15th century, boats were going out into the North Sea,

but until the 18th century we were just a small village with a population of 900.

After then, in the mid-19th century, the industry started to swell.

It wasn't only fishing that fuelled the growth of the town.

Grimsby's industry started kicking off in 1846 when we started construction of the Royal Dock.

Immigrant workers came and stayed and the population began to grow.

Rather than following in their parents' artistic footsteps,

Anna found that Peter's young uncles and aunts were employed in the fishing trade.

Out of the girls, four of them were listed as fish net makers around the docks.

Net making was in high demand so Peter's aunts found themselves employed

in one of the more lucrative jobs.

They used wooden needles like this, which they filled with sisal twine,

and this spool would have measured the size of the mesh.

And working with rough sisal carried its own cost.

It was very hard work on their hands - splinters, blisters -

and they would do anything to harden their hands up, such as soaking them in methylated spirits.

So Peter's aunts would have been made of tough stuff,

but had any of them had children who might be heirs to his £42,000 estate?

Anna was sure that one of the nine would have done so.

I started my search on the aunts and discovered that some had died in their thirties

and had never married.

Those that had married, I couldn't find any children.

I couldn't find any marriages for the uncles.

It seemed to me that the branches had all died off.

It was a massive surprise to Anna. Peter's mother, Ivy, was the only one out of nine to have children.

So Anna knew if she was going to crack the case, she needed to look at Peter's father's side.

Coming up: the family fishing connection continues,

but with no heirs in sight, will Peter's estate of £42,000 end up going to the Treasury?

Heir Hunters solve thousands of cases a year, ensuring millions are paid to rightful heirs,

but not every case can be cracked.

The Treasury has a list of over 2,000 estates that have baffled the Heir Hunters

and remain unclaimed. These stay on the list for up to 30 years

and each one could be worth anything from £5,000 to many millions of pounds.

Today we're focusing on three names from the list.

Are they relatives of yours? Could you be in line for a windfall?

Pechara Diplock died in New Malden, Surrey, on the 16th of December, 2006.

Pechara is an extremely unusual name

and the surname Diplock is an ancient and rare Anglo-Saxon name.

If no heirs are found for her estate, her money will go to the government.

Could you be her heir?

George Twist died in Worcestershire on the 5th of July, 2007.

So far, all efforts to trace any heirs have failed.

George's surname Twist is usually found in the north-west of England.

Could you be a Twist entitled to his cash?

Does the name George Charles Flin have a familiar ring?

George died in February 1997 in Middlesex Hospital.

George's last name Flin is spelt with an I instead of a Y.

Perhaps you knew George.

If the names Pechara Diplock, George Twist or George Charles Flin mean anything to you,

then you could have a fortune coming your way.

Hull-based Heir Hunter Anna Dunn was looking into the case of Peter Willey.

He died in the seaside town of Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire at the age of 78.

Peter had lived in this flat on a modest income and left a large sum of £42,000, but no will.

He was a keen bowler

and club member Peter Croft remembers him.

A very quiet man, very introverted.

Peter was devoted to his club.

Peter painted a picture of the old bowls club as it would have been on any afternoon.

And I personally think it's a wonderful picture.

The heart of Grant Thorold is that picture, yeah.

When Peter died in 2008, he had no known family.

Anna was trying to track down heirs to his estate.

She had already found out about his mother's remarkable and large family,

but despite having eight uncles and aunts, there are no cousins on this side.

It seemed to me that the branches had all died off.

She was hoping to have better luck when she looked at Peter's father, Wallace Willey, and his family.

I moved on to the paternal side which I thought would be fairly easy to search for the name Willey

as it's an unusual name.

Anna turned her attention to Wallace's sister, Peter's aunt Lena.

Lena married Ernest Wilson and had a daughter, Irene Joan.

Irene Joan was Peter's cousin, but she had passed away,

so Anna needed to keep up the search to find an heir.

Perhaps Lena had more children.

When Lena married and had her daughter, she was just 17.

Ernest, Lena's husband and Peter's uncle, was a seaman on the fishing trawlers

and eventually, became a skipper.

It would have been demanding work.

The skipper's role was to bring in the best catch at the best price. That came with a lot of pressure.

He would fish very hard into gale force winds if possible

and it was very difficult conditions for the crew.

They worked long hours.

If they were doing very well with the fishing, they would often work 18-hour shifts.

Perhaps all those hours at sea took their toll because Lena split with Ernest when she was still in her 20s

and she took up with another partner, Harry Howlett.

Although they never married, she went on to have three more children with Harry -

Reginald, a daughter and another son.

They are all Peter's cousins and still living.

They are heirs to Peter's estate.

One of Lena's children was Reginald Howlett

who was Peter's first cousin.

When Reginald first heard from Anna, he didn't know what to think.

When Anna rang me up, I thought somebody on the phone was having a joke with me.

And I just thought, "I'm being wound up here by some of my friends."

Even though they were first cousins and born just two years apart,

Reginald had never heard of Peter Willey.

This is because Reginald's mum Lena was a bit of a mystery.

My parents split up when I was a baby.

I lived with my dad on his own in Grimsby for approximately nine years.

Reginald's mum Lena had travelled up to Nottingham to find work

whilst Reginald and his sister lived with their dad in Grimsby.

My mum used to come over and have days with us.

She used to come over and take us out for the day quite regular.

But in 1941, it was all change for Reginald

when his dad decided he should spend more time with his mum.

I was a bit of a handful down there and my dad, it didn't seem he could cope,

so he had written to my mother to say, "You'll have to have him."

That's when I came over to Nottingham to be with my mother.

But even then he had no idea about his mother's family

and he didn't even know her maiden name because she'd been married before.

I did find out that my mother was married to a sea captain.

I think he was on the trawlers.

His name was Wilson, Ernest Wilson.

Certainly Reginald's mum Lena can't have been conventional.

To have had four children with two partners and then leave them all was unusual in the '20s and '30s.

Reginald never knew why she had done it.

We didn't know why they'd split up.

I can't recall living with my mum and dad as a pair.

Lena's eldest daughter Irene Joan has now passed away.

She was 13 when Reginald was born

and as his half-sister she didn't have much to do with him.

She had a daughter called Patricia, known to her family as Pat,

who is also an heir to Peter Willey's estate.

Reginald is hoping that Pat can tell him more about his mum Lena and her family.

I'm going to meet up with Pat.

And she's going to show me something about the early days.

And it will be interesting to know what happened in them days.

Pat has come armed with photographs...

-Hi.

-Hi.

-Hello. Nice to see you.

..and is looking forward to reminiscing about family history.

I had this tree from Anna. I don't know if she'll send you a copy.

-There's my mum.

-Yeah.

-She was definitely born in Grimsby.

They all seem to come from Grimsby.

The family may have all been born in Grimsby,

but Lena bucked the trend, leaving her family behind to work in Nottingham.

Pat's got something special to tell Reginald about his mum and her time there.

Right, now...

-Do you remember Mama working at the ordnance factory?

-Yes, I do.

-You remember that?

-I do. I used to sleep on my own while she was working.

-She did nights?

-Yeah.

HOOTER SOUNDS

Reginald's mum Lena was playing a vital role in the war effort.

With most men serving in the forces,

women were called upon to take over the jobs traditionally done by men.

Women made weapons and shells used by the British army

and daily risked their lives working with poisonous substances.

Their work was crucial to keeping the engine of war running.

Hard-working women like Lena toiled day and night.

Reginald is surprised to know all this happened while he was sleeping.

-Have you seen this letter?

-I don't know.

-Look at this. You have to be very careful with it, Reg.

-Have you got your glasses on?

-Wait a minute.

-This is 19...

-Wait a minute. I haven't got my glasses. Oh, I have.

Look, 1945.

The war's over.

-Have you seen that?

-No.

-No, I didn't think you had.

It's a letter from the Ministry of Defence.

"I am sure you are very proud to have been a member of this war team

"which has made such a magnificent contribution towards winning the war."

But why would that...

Is that what went to Mother?

Yeah, look, "Dear Mrs Wilson..."

That's what Mama got. Mum kept that for years in her old wallet and then gave it to me.

-And they used to do nights, you see.

-Yeah.

-That's what it's all about.

-Yeah, it's lovely though, eh?

-A lovely letter.

-It is, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

For Reginald, it's the first time that it has hit home how important his mum's role was.

Reading that letter from the Ministry about my mother in the munitions factory,

I felt quite proud that she was amongst the team there.

And for Pat too, sharing memories of times gone by has been uplifting.

It was lovely to see that family tree, it was lovely to look at all the names on it,

go through it with Reg, discuss relations and it was lovely to look at the photos.

He was able to help me out with people I didn't know and I could do it for him. It was really lovely.

Back at her office in Hull, Anna is pleased at how the case turned out.

One of the satisfying aspects of this work

is allowing people like Reginald to get to know more about family

or the family that he never knew through whatever circumstances.

And that's a really good feeling.

In London, the Heir Hunters from Fraser & Fraser are searching for heirs

on the estate of William Bennett.

He died in Birmingham in September 2009.

Right, where are we?

Have we got the right family?

At this stage, they don't know how much his estate is worth,

but it must be at least £5,000.

William lived out the last years of his life at Greenhaven Care Home.

Ena Wright was his carer.

Well, he was a loveable character.

Sometimes he was outgoing, sometimes he wasn't. He changed from day to day.

He'd go out to the park and come back in a good mood if he'd seen something different.

He'd come and tell you all about it.

"OK, cock?" Toddle back down to his bedroom, sit on the bed.

That was it. Push his glasses back up.

He did have a strong character, but senior worker Dawn knew how to sweeten his moods.

When he was being bad, I'd come in. They'd say, "Dawn, come sort him out."

And I'd just say, "Bill, what are you doing again?

"You're not behaving like a gentleman.

"If you can't speak to people properly, go to your room, calm down

"and when you can speak like a gentleman, you can come out again."

He'd say, "All right, cock. I'll do that for you." And that was it.

He didn't speak a lot of the past, but he had been a young man during World War Two.

He had been in the Pioneer Corps.

William Bennett joined quite late in the war and interestingly, he was only 21 years old.

Basically, they are trained soldiers who carried weapons,

but tended to be slightly older

or less fit than the rest.

A very young William was probably there as he failed the medical to get into the infantry.

He might have had bad eyesight or flat feet or something.

The Pioneer Corps were vital in providing support to the main body of troops.

William was stationed at Bicester, a crucial ordnance depot.

At the time he joined, which was late in the war and he served mainly post-war service,

it would have been quite a hectic life

because the army in Europe was drawing down and people were being discharged at the end of the war,

but all the equipment had to be sent back to store in case it's needed again.

William may not have been on front-line duty,

but he played a part in the mechanics of the wind-down of the war.

Not long after this, he met his beloved Mary.

And at the care home, Dawn remembers his room being full of photographs of him and Mary in happy times.

But sometimes his behaviour hinted at a buried sadness.

It was only his photographs mainly we had to go on.

Really, that is all we had to go on because he'd cry and get upset if you tried to dig any further.

What was it that upset him so?

Was there more to his past than his wife Mary?

He did have a picture of his wife who was named Mary,

then there was another girl, about ten, but he couldn't remember who she was.

So I don't know who she was.

The girl in the photograph certainly never visited and neither did any family.

But the search for William's relatives is continuing in the offices in London.

This is annoying me.

Will they discover William's secrets?

Emily and case manager Dave Slee have drawn up a family tree that they are hoping to confirm.

Dave is on the phone to a family member right now.

Yes, very kind of you, sir. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Right...

Have we got the right family? I think we might have.

Emily is chuffed to bits and so is Dave. It's a real boost to know they're working the right tree.

It turns out that Frederick Bennett and Thirza Jones had ten children.

The ones the Heir Hunters have traced so far are Thirza, William's older sister,

and Leonard, his younger brother, and another brother, Raymond.

Although Leonard has passed away, one of his daughters, Carol, is alive and well and she's an heir.

It's time to get a travelling Heir Hunter out to see her.

Hi, Paul.

Birmingham-based Paul Matthews is one of a group of specialised probate researchers -

the human face of the company.

-They chase leads.

-Are you Natalie?

-Interview neighbours.

-Did he live on his own?

-And talk to heirs.

Paul knows that this case has been a tough one.

We've got quite a big family. No value, but in this day and age with no values advertised,

it's all a little bit speculative.

-Good morning.

-Hello.

-Carol?

-Yeah.

Carol is William's niece and she knew him as Uncle Billy.

It's Billy who has passed away. We don't think it's a large estate, but we'll carry on the research,

bring everything to a conclusion. It could be as low as a £5,000 estate.

-Obviously, a lot of brothers and sisters, so it could be nobody gets very much at all.

-OK.

Paul takes Carol through the paperwork.

At this stage, the Heir Hunters assume William had no children.

-Was he married?

-He was married, yeah.

-Who to?

-I don't know. I forget her name.

-Did he have any children?

-Yes.

Carol has dropped a bombshell. If William had children, they will be first in line to inherit.

Mavis and Brenda.

This news has thrown everything in the air. Could Brenda or Mavis be the mystery girl in the photograph?

-Brenda Bennett...

-In the office, Dave is now beside himself.

They have put in many hours of research on what is likely to be a low-value case.

And it might have been all for nothing.

This has put the cat amongst the pigeons because if this is the case,

they'll be entitled in prior claim to the people that we thought were the entitled parties,

i.e, the brothers and sisters and their children.

As Dave and Emily go through the databases with a fine-tooth comb,

in West Bromwich, Paul is making a beeline to see William's brother Raymond.

He's now at home, so we're going to go round there

and hopefully sort out whether these people are entitled

or whether the deceased, Billy, did actually have two children.

If he had two children, it's them that we need to be signing up.

So the hope is, once Paul speaks to William's brother,

the mystery of the missing daughters will be solved.

In London, Dave and his team are waiting with bated breath.

The pressing fact that needs checking is whether it's true that William had children.

In Birmingham, Paul is well aware how much is riding on this.

The chap we're going to see now is a brother of the deceased, so hopefully, all will be revealed.

Watch this space.

-Hello, Mr Bennett. Paul Matthews, Fraser & Fraser.

-Fraser & Fraser, yeah...

-OK?

Raymond Bennett is in his late 70s.

Raymond is 15 years younger than his older brother William.

Will he know for sure about William's family?

The only name I know was Mary.

Any idea of the year and place?

No idea at all.

I've just seen your brother Leonard's daughter

and she thought Billy might have had two children, but is she getting mixed up on that?

Wherever she got them names from, God knows!

Was Billy a man likely to have children?

I don't think our Billy was interested in anything, er...

-..getting up.

-Oh, right.

-So he wouldn't be bothered?

-He wouldn't.

So, definitely Billy, no children?

You can take it from me I've never heard of a Brenda nor a Mavis.

I wonder where Carol created them from then?

I've got no idea, mate.

Well, she's obviously got her wires crossed, got mixed up with somebody else.

Raymond is convinced that William didn't have children.

Although Raymond lived in the same city as his brother, they didn't keep in touch.

He hasn't seen his brother William in decades

and he is philosophical about the news of his death.

I haven't heard from him in such a long time.

You half-expect these things, don't you?

It's the way things are.

Right, thanks a lot for your time.

-OK, cheers.

-Cheerio then.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

In the office, Dave can heave a sigh of relief.

The heirs we thought are entitled, the brothers and sisters, are entitled. There's no closer heirs.

But it's not done my blood pressure any good, doing all this today.

In the end, William's fortune amounted to £6,800

and it will be split between 20 heirs.

But there is still the seaside snap of William and his wife Mary in happier times

with a little girl walking by their side.

And the question remains - who is she?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd