Couzens/Malhotra Heir Hunters

'Heir hunters specialise in tracking down people

'who are entitled to money from someone who has died.

'They hand over thousands of pounds

'to relatives who have no idea they were in line to inherit.'

He said one and a half million pounds had been left.

'Their work involves painstaking investigation.'

These kids could all be right, all be wrong or half and half.

'But it can shed new light on the past.'

Finding out all about Mary, someone in my family I didn't really know.

'But most of all, the work is about giving people news of an unexpected windfall.

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

'Coming up, heir hunters veer off course in the hunt for relatives...'

And it's the wrong family!

'..the Belfast woman who headed abroad and came back with a fortune...'

Irish people did very well in the United States. There was a lot of upward social mobility.

'..plus, how you could be entitled

'to inherit money sat in unclaimed estates.

'Could a fortune be heading your way?'

'It's Friday morning in Liverpool.

'Heir hunter Saul Marks is getting stuck into his second day on a new case.'

This lady was called Mary Elizabeth Couzens.

She was born in 1951 in London.

As far as we're aware, she had no children and no siblings.

'Saul is a case manager for Celtic Research,

'which is run by father and son, Peter and Hector Birchwood.

'They spotted Mary's case on the Bona Vacantia list of unclaimed estates,

'which is released every Thursday.

'As rival heir hunting firms could be working this case as well,

'it's important that Saul acts fast to track down Mary's heirs.'

Right, OK. That's the deceased's line sorted out.

'He's already managed to make contact

'with a number of people he thinks could be heirs to Mary's estate.

'To confirm his research, Saul needs to get his hands on a vital document.'

We're going to Southport in a few minutes.

The purpose of going is to get the marriage certificate of the parents of the deceased.

This is going to be very important for this case.

If it's the right family, it's going to be a great relief,

cos we won't have wasted our time yesterday tracing the wrong family.

If it is the wrong family, we'll have to start again with a new Couzens family.

'Mary Couzens died on 1 August 2011, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

'She was just 59 years old.

'Although she'd been poorly for some time,

'the news still came as a shock to her friend, Jim Oram.'

I thought she was not in a sort of life-threatening state.

But I think she had a whole litany of things wrong with her, medically.

I counted them up once. It was probably about 15.

On top of that, she had diabetes and her body just gave up, really.

Which was sad.

'Because of her health problems, Mary spent the last few years

'in sheltered accommodation in her home town of Watford.

'According to support worker Agnes Connolly, she was a popular resident.'

Mary was very fun-loving, bubbly, out-going.

Quite happy to talk to just anyone, make anybody welcome.

Didn't matter who was in the communion lounge, she was always the first one to say hello.

'Mary was a very generous woman who loved to cook.

'Every day, she'd spend time and money making an evening meal for a group of friends.'

I think she did it because she used to say she didn't like being in here

on her own at night cos it was lonely.

And so she invited a group of us around,

to give her a social life at night.

She practised a very practical and radical form of Christianity...

..in that she really helped others.

For instance, someone here had his pocket picked,

and she, um...

..the next day, quietly passed him a brown envelope

with replacement money in.

'Mary died without making a will.

'Because she had no children and no brothers or sisters to inherit,

'heir hunter Saul must now look for aunts, uncles and cousins.

'Mary's parents were Frederick Couzens and Mary Wells.

'According to Saul's research,

'Frederick's father, Mary's grandfather, was Ernest Couzens.

'Saul has identified seven brothers and sisters for Frederick,

'and has even spoken to some of their children and grandchildren.

'He believes that they are Mary's cousins

'and potential heirs to her estate.

'But before he can go any further, he needs documentary proof.

'So he's on his way to Southport Register Office

'to pick up a copy of Mary's parents' marriage certificate.

'This entire job hangs on whether the information he finds in it

'matches the research he's done so far.'

What we're looking for is it to prove

that the work we've done on the paternal side of the family is the right family.

The key to this is that the groom's father's name is Ernest.

If it's Ernest, we can all breathe a sigh of relief,

and we know we've got the right family.

If it's not Ernest, then we have to go back to the drawing board.

'The certificate will also tell Saul the age of Mary's mother

'and the name of her father,

'so he can start to open up the maternal side of the family.'

We've arrived at the general registry office in Southport.

It's 10.04, which is almost exactly the time they open.

We're going to get the certificate and hope it says what we want it to say.

'As the company works for a pre-agreed percentage of the estate,

'they will only get paid if Saul signs up heirs.

'Because the value of the estates isn't published on the unclaimed list,

'he doesn't know at this point whether the work he's putting in

'will turn out to be worthwhile.

'He's already gambled a full day's research on this case,

'and he's about to find out if it's paid off.'

OK, great service, as always.

One certificate.

Right, let's see what this says.

This is what it's all about.

And it's the wrong family.

Frederick Couzens, 52 years old, bachelor.

Father's name, William Couzens, deceased brickmaker.

SIGHS

'The news comes as a blow.

'The Frederick Couzens on whom Saul has based his tree

'is not Mary's father.

'A whole day's work will have to be scrapped.

'With the competition likely to be circling,

'it's time Saul can ill afford to waste.'

With great regret, I'll have to go back to the people I spoke to

and say, "This is the wrong family. We're awfully sorry."

And we're going to have to start again on the paternal side.

'It's back to the office and back to the drawing board.

'But it's not ALL bad news for Saul.'

The second role of that certificate

was to allow us to open up the maternal side, which it has done.

It might be all to play for yet today.

We might have exciting times in the office when I get back.

'From the marriage certificate he's just collected,

'Saul has established that Mary's mother was Mary Emily Wells,

'and was 40 years old when she married in 1951.

'Her father, Mary's grandfather,

'was a master greengrocer named William James Wells.

'Back in the office, Saul is using this new information

'to try to build up the maternal side of the family tree.'

She would have died under the name Mary Emily Couzens.

So we're going to look for her death...

..and see what we can find.

'Since 1969, death records in England and Wales

'have included a date and place of birth.

'They're invaluable documents for heir hunters.'

Born 9 November 1910,

which is great cos she was born before the 1911 census.

So we can look her up and find her as a child with her family.

'By studying census records from 1911 and 1901,

'Saul is able to establish that Mary's mother, Mary Emily Wells,

'had five brothers and sisters,

'four of whom survived into adulthood.'

We've got Henry William,

Ellen Elizabeth, Dorothy and Frederick,

and they are the aunts and uncles of the deceased

on the maternal side.

So now we're going to look for their marriages and children.

'Keen to make up lost time after his initial mistake,

'Saul starts trawling through marriage and birth records,

'in the hope of finding Mary's first cousins.

'But it's not his lucky day.'

Well, this is now becoming very frustrating.

The eldest brother looks like he died without issue.

So that line's dead.

Ellen, otherwise Nellie, Wells later Hall,

has at least one son, who is dead.

His wife is dead.

They may have had a daughter. Not sure what happened to her.

The aunt of the deceased, Dorothy, probably Dorothy Bailey,

has one son with a very unusual name,

who died without leaving any issue, so his line's dead.

What we're left with is plain Frederick Wells, of which there are millions!

Very, very frustrating.

I want me lunch.

'Faced with a brick wall on Mary's mother's side,

'Saul starts again with her father's side of the family.'

I'm hoping that this is going to be a bit more fruitful,

have some nice unusual names, perhaps, and see where we get to.

'The road to Mary's heirs has, so far, been strewn with obstacles.

'With time ticking on, this could be Saul's last chance to get to them before the competition.'

Hello? Oh.

I think he's hung up.

'In 2009, work began on the case of a lady called Elizabeth Malhotra,

'who died at a care home in London.

'Although she led a modest and intensely private life,

'Elizabeth turned out to be worth a fortune.

'Because she didn't leave a will, her name appeared on the Bona Vacantia list,

'where the case was picked up by heir hunting team Fraser & Fraser.

'Senior case manager David Milchard was at the helm.'

The case came with a list of other cases and we just run through each one,

try to identify whether there's any possibility of value.

It indicated that she and her husband owned the house she lived in.

If there's property, it's reasonable to assume there's going to be some value.

So that's why we looked into it.

'Elizabeth Malhotra passed away on 22 October 2009.

'She was 89 years old.

'Sister Margaret Coyne provided her with care and companionship

'for the last four years of her life.'

In the mornings, I got her up, gave her personal care,

prepared her breakfast, prompted her medication.

Generally made her comfortable and spoke to her.

In the beginning, she was wary of me going in.

But as she saw I was harmless and just there to help her,

she was more open and responded - really more trusting.

'Elizabeth was a quiet and secretive lady,

'but over time, she revealed her love of music.'

I bought her a cassette player, gave it to her and she really loved it.

She liked hymns and old songs,

so I picked up any I could and made copies of them.

'Elizabeth's husband Mohan died 20 months before her.

'The loss hit her hard.'

Sometimes she told me that during the night she was speaking to Mohan.

She used to say he'd appear to her at night to talk to her.

I think her whole life revolved round Mohan.

'Elizabeth didn't have many possessions

'and lived a very simple life.'

I always was of the opinion that she was poor.

I'd say she had enough to go and buy it now,

but I really felt that she didn't have much money or any riches.

'Elizabeth's frugality belied the fact that she owned a home in London's Belgravia,

'one of the wealthiest districts in the world.

'It was an indication for case manager David Milchard

'that her estate was likely to be of high value.'

We thought originally the estate would be minimum of about 300,000,

primarily based on what we thought the value of the property was.

'The team were working for a percentage of the estate,

'so when the true value was eventually revealed,

'they were in for a very pleasant surprise.'

The value we were given by the Treasury solicitor

when we got the claim through was £1.7 million.

Which is very good!

'An estate this large would attract a lot of competition from rival heir hunting firms,

'so it was crucial that the team acted fast.

'Straight away, David dispatched a researcher to Elizabeth's address,

'in the hope of finding out more about her from neighbours.'

We basically learned that the deceased and her husband

hadn't lived in England for very long.

Prior to coming here, they spent most of their time in America.

'Having established that Elizabeth didn't have children,

'the next step was to get hold of a death certificate,

'which would provide the company with more vital clues.'

It told us her date and place of birth, which was in Belfast.

It also told us that her maiden name was Grogan,

and that she was a widow of Mr Malhotra,

who was described as an airline executive.

'To find out the names of her parents, the team needed Elizabeth's birth certificate.

'They concentrated their efforts in Northern Ireland, but progress was slow.'

A tricky thing with Northern Ireland records, as opposed to England,

is that you can't do a lot of work on spec.

You've got to apply, in most cases, for the certificates

to know you're going in the right direction.

'It took several days for the birth certificate to reach David.

'It was a tense wait.'

Because it was taking a bit of time to get the research sorted out,

at the back of my mind there was always a worry that some other company was also looking at it.

Biggest fear was that there would be a local company in Belfast on the case.

They're on the ground. They've got local knowledge.

'Once the certificate finally arrived,

'the team could start to build Elizabeth's family tree.

'Her parents, James Grogan and Annie McKnight, married in 1906.

'Records show that they had four other children...'

Once we established the names of the brothers,

we then searched to see what happened to them.

We eventually found that they died without any children.

'With no nieces or nephews to inherit her fortune,

'the search was on for Elizabeth's aunts, uncles and cousins.

'But even in her home town,

'information about Elizabeth was hard to come by.

'Death records show that both her parents passed away when she was a young girl.

'It's thought that Elizabeth may have lived with relatives,

'but after about 1950, there is no trace of her in Northern Ireland.

'As her neighbour told the team she'd lived in America,

'it seems likely she'd become one of the millions of Irish nationals

'to emigrate there in search of a better life.'

Migration's been a feature of Irish society for hundreds of years.

People would be familiar with the large 19th-century migration,

particularly after the famine in the 1840s.

Actually, up until the 1950s and indeed until the 1980s,

there was large-scale migration out of Ireland.

'Census data shows that between 1951 and 1961,

'half a million people left Ireland.

'That's one-seventh of the entire population.'

Migration is a complex process.

The reasons why people migrate are varied.

The main one would be economic.

People are moving for jobs, for different opportunities

and lifestyles for them and their families.

There are also social reasons why people might migrate.

If we think about what Irish society was like in the 1950s.

It was very conservative, a very religiously traditional society.

For young people there was perhaps the opportunity to move elsewhere,

where they could have more freedom, a better lifestyle,

maybe a sense of adventure as well, informing their migration choices.

'Most of these migrants went to Britain,

'where postwar reconstruction meant work was plentiful.

'But many, like Elizabeth Grogan, headed west.'

America in the 1950s was booming.

In Irish culture, there's this figure, the "return Yank".

This is somebody who's lived in America, an Irish migrant,

who's done well, come back on holiday.

They're usually seen as very glamorous, very exciting characters.

They would have this strange language, this vocabulary,

talking about refrigerators and vacuum cleaners,

really typifying the consumer boom of 1950s America.

For a lot of young people, this sold them an image

of an American lifestyle that they wanted to emulate.

'It's not known where in America Elizabeth Grogan went,

'or what she did when she first got there.

'But as she was worth £1.7 million by the time she died,

'it seems likely that America was kind to her.'

In general, Irish people did very well in the United States.

There was a lot of upwards social mobility,

so that within a generation,

Irish families had progressed enormously and gone from working class to middle class.

'As the search for Elizabeth's missing relatives continues,

'a picture continues to emerge of her exciting American lifestyle.'

The wife of a dispatcher would have enjoyed a certain...

feeling of opportunity, glamour if you like.

'Heir hunters use specialist skills

'to track down thousands of rightful beneficiaries every year.

'But not all cases can be cracked

'and there are thousands of estates that remain unclaimed.'

Cases will stay on the unclaimed list for 12 years

from the date that the administration has been completed.

That's the period of time that people still can come forward and claim the estate.

'Today, we're focusing on two cases

'that have so far eluded the heir hunters.

'Could you be the beneficiary they've been looking for?

'Heir hunters have struggled to find out any more information

'about Janet or her family.

'Could you be related to Janet?

'Could you be in line to inherit a share of her estate?

'As he died in Scotland, his case was published

'by the Queen and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer,

'and was valued at £9,000.

'Did you know Charles? Could you be due a share of his £9,000 legacy?

'Here are those names once again.

'If you're one of their long-lost relatives,

'you could have a windfall coming your way.'

'Friday afternoon in Liverpool and Saul Marks

'of heir hunting firm Celtic Research

'is searching for relatives of a Watford woman called Mary Couzens.'

Oh, dear!

'So far, it's been a bumpy ride.

'A mistake in tracing Mary's father's family

'has cost Saul a whole day's work.

'And research on her mother's side has come to a grinding halt.

'But on the paternal side, things are looking more promising.'

We established that the deceased's father, Frederick Couzens,

was the fourth of eight children.

We've got two aunts on this family, who each married gentlemen

with very unusual names and failed to have children.

So we are making progress and things are a lot better than they were.

'Mary Couzens was an only child

'who spent her younger years caring for her parents,

'who both suffered from ill health.'

She lived with her mother and father up in Bushey

for most of her early life.

Well into her 30s and 40s, I think.

Her father was invalided out of the war.

She looked after him and her mother.

'Mary had green fingers and took charge of the shared garden

'in the sheltered accommodation where she lived.'

If she could ever get the chance of anyone taking her out in the car

she would buttonhole them to take her to a garden centre.

She would spend loads and loads of money on buying plants.

Mary's routine, especially in the summer, was gardening.

You can look in the garden and all the shrubs, pots, belong to Mary.

She spent hours and hours, lots of money out there.

So it's all hers. That's definitely her legacy.

It's good to remember her.

Cos I didn't know that... I'd feel so...

emotive about it.

But she brought a lot of life to this place

and...it's gone.

'In the office, heir hunter Saul is looking for Mary's aunts and uncles.

'Their living descendents would be beneficiaries to her estate.

'A search of census, marriage and birth records

'revealed that Mary's father Frederick

'was the fourth of eight children.

'The eldest, William, died at an unusually early age.

'When the First World War broke out in the summer of 1914,

'the British army consisted of just 200,000 men -

'tiny in comparison to the military power of other European nations.'

Virtually every other country had conscription.

On day one of the First World War,

the Germans, the French could put millions of men into the field.

It certainly wasn't equal, by any means.

'Both the British public and the government

'were at this point opposed to conscription.

'In order to swell the army's numbers,

'the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener,

'had to launch a hard-hitting recruitment campaign.'

Kitchener's campaign is hugely successful.

He asked for 100,000 volunteers.

In no time at all, over a million men turn up.

'Mary Couzens' uncle William was one of them.

'A baker by trade, he gave up his job

'to join the Queen's West Surrey Regiment in September 1914.'

A lot of it was not so much about patriotism, King and country.

A lot of people saw it as a massive adventure,

the chance to have new clothes, new boots on your feet,

be properly fed and to have exercise and fresh air -

and go on a great European adventure.

That was quite a draw to a lot of people.

'Most Kitchener volunteers had at least six months' training

'before they were sent to fight in France.

'Service records show that William went to the front in December 1914,

'just three months after he joined up.'

They must have seen good soldier material in him.

The regular battalions who'd been out since the beginning

had taken a real battering.

They needed to make up the numbers,

so William's amongst the Kitchener men

who are sent to a regular battalion to make the numbers up.

'Sadly, William's career as a soldier was not to last for long.

'In May 1915, he lost his life at the Battle of Festubert

'in northern France.'

Festubert's a follow-on from the Battle of Aubers Ridge,

which had been a complete disaster, no ground gained whatsoever.

At about quarter to four in the morning they come under

very heavy German machine gun fire, then heavy artillery barrage.

It's pretty likely that's the point William Couzens is killed in action.

'Just 23 years old when he passed away,

'Mary's uncle William never married, nor had children.

'So his stem is a dead end for Saul.

'But he's made a breakthrough with one of her father's other siblings.

'He's learned that Frank had two children who, if still alive,

'would be Mary's first cousins.

'Saul has found a number for one of them.

'He's hoping he's about to speak to his first heir on this tricky case.'

We're working a case today

that we think may relate to your cousin, Mary Couzens.

Does that sound familiar to you at all?

'It's good news. Saul has found his first heir.'

Mary has died, sadly, and she didn't leave a will.

So you would be one of the heirs because you're one of the cousins.

You'd be entitled to a portion of what she had.

'But just when he thinks his luck's about to change, another upset.'

No, no. Who was that from?

'A rival heir hunting firm has beaten Saul to it.'

Is that right?

Hello?

Oh. I think he's hung up.

'The initial wrong turn in tracing Mary's father's family

'means he's now playing catch-up.'

He's invited me to send him stuff,

but I don't know who we're facing competition-wise

and what they might have offered him.

'As the afternoon rumbles on and he contacts more heirs,

'Saul finds he's constantly one step behind the competition.'

It wouldn't surprise me.

There's quite a few companies who do this work.

'Undeterred, Saul battles on.

'It's vital he tries to sign up as many heirs as possible,

'to cover his company's costs and, hopefully, make a small profit.

'Just before four o'clock, he gets the break he's been hoping for -

'an heir who hasn't yet been contacted by the competition.'

..You heard from us first.

Any questions you've got, feel free to give me a ring.

'Mary's father had four sisters.

'One of them, Harriet, had a son called Roy, Mary's first cousin.

'Roy has now passed away,

'so his son Tim will be in line to inherit.

'The news has come as a big surprise.'

Finding out all about Mary,

someone in my family I didn't really know.

'Tim is Mary's first cousin once removed,

'but can't remember ever meeting her.'

Finding out that Mary died...

It's a surreal feeling when you don't know somebody

but they're part of your family and they've passed away.

'Tim doesn't yet know how much money he's in line to inherit,

'but whatever there is will be put to good use.'

If there's some inheritance,

I've got two daughters who'd like to be getting married in the next couple of years.

Something will be going towards that.

It'll be a good party.

'In the office, things are looking up for Saul.'

That's a relief to speak to someone

who hasn't been contacted by the competition on this case.

Furthermore, Timothy, because the way the family has panned out,

he would get one whole branch of this.

If the others sign with the other company and we get just Timothy,

we'll have one branch at least - hoping for a bit more, though.

'One more phone call - to the granddaughter of Mary's aunt Ellen -

'lifts Saul's spirits further.'

She was really pleased that I explained exactly what the situation was,

who it was who had died and the general situation from here.

She's very happy to receive a contract from us, so I'm going to send her one.

'By the end of the day, Saul has identified nine heirs on Mary's father's side

'and has managed to speak to most of them.

'Even though in some cases the competition got there before him,

'he's going to send out contracts to all of them,

'in the hope that they choose to sign with him.

'It's now a race against time to catch the last post.'

After a pretty rocky start, having had the marriage certificate

prove to us that we'd traced the wrong family yesterday,

we've rectified it today.

We've contacted a load of paternal heirs

and we're just on the way to post the contracts.

Always a bit tight. Always get there at the last minute.

But they always seem to get there.

Someone upstairs likes us and looks out for us.

'A few weeks later, having found out her estate is worth around £11,000,

'Saul is able to bring the tricky case of Mary Couzens to a close.'

In total, there are ten heirs on the paternal side.

We've not signed everybody but we've signed quite a few of them.

We're fairly happy that we will at least cover our costs on this case.

There's a number of people who are very happy for us to represent them,

particularly to represent them, despite competition from other companies.

They've chosen us over others, so that's a relief.

It's welcome and we can move forward from there.

'In London, the team at heir hunting firm Fraser & Fraser

'were trying to track down beneficiaries to the £1.7 million estate of Elizabeth Malhotra.

'David Milchard was the case manager.'

It was quite a long haul, initially,

because we got a delay in getting into the family.

Once we got into the family,

it was fits and starts, really.

It took a lot longer than you would normally expect to take on a case.

'An estate this large would almost certainly attract the attention of rival firms,

'so it was time David's team could ill-afford to waste.

'Elizabeth Malhotra was a very religious lady.

'When she grew frail in her final years,

'it was the Church that came to her aid.

'Sister Margaret Coyne was her carer for four years.'

I've fond memories of Elizabeth.

I actually liked going in there,

because she had a dry sense of humour...

and she was happy.

I felt she was pleased to see me and I was pleased to see her.

I must say, I was sad when she departed.

'Elizabeth was also very private.

'When it came to talking about her past, she refused to open up.'

Most, at the end, will speak something about their past,

but Elizabeth never would.

She just seemed to have cut off completely.

I knew she was born in Belfast, went to America and married Mohan.

Beyond that, I knew nothing about her.

If she didn't want to speak about it, nothing would convince her to do so.

She was a determined lady.

'Having established that Elizabeth had no siblings, nieces or nephews to inherit her fortune,

'the team set about looking for aunts and uncles.

'If they had living descendents,

'they would be heirs to her £1.7 million estate.

'The first step was to establish whether Elizabeth's father, James Grogan,

'and her mother, Annie McKnight, had any brothers or sisters.

'It was no mean feat for case manager David Milchard.'

When you're looking at the family names McKnight and Grogan,

they're quite common in Northern Ireland.

So it didn't make our research very easy at all.

'Census records showed that Elizabeth's father

'had eight brothers and sisters.

'Four went on to have families of their own.

'These would be Elizabeth's first cousins and heirs to her estate.

'But when the company contacted one of them,

'they found that the delays in obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates had cost them dear.'

We discovered that the competition had, in fact, been working that side.

We subsequently learned that the prime reason they did better than us

was that one of our competitors' staff actually knew the family.

We still got several of the heirs signed up.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the whole lot.

'There was better news when it came to Elizabeth's mother's side.

'She also had eight brothers and sisters,

'four of whom had children.'

We were able to trace all of that family.

Some quite easily, some with more difficulty.

At the end of the day,

we managed to sign every member of that side of the family up.

'It was a good result for David, not to mention the heirs -

'like Elizabeth's first cousin once removed, Geraldine,

'who found out she was entitled to share in a fortune.'

I got the phone call and, er...

I couldn't believe it.

He said there's one and a half million pounds had been left.

I didn't know I had anyone who had that kind of money.

I'm really looking forward to finding out more about her.

I think she must have been a fascinating woman.

She obviously made a lot of money somewhere, cos there's money.

It would be lovely to find out more.

'Elizabeth left Belfast for America in the early 1950s.

'It's thought she eventually went to work for an airline

'and that's where she met her husband, Mohan Malhotra.

'Born in Pakistan, Mohan had come to America to work for TWA

'which, back then, was one of the country's biggest airlines.

'It was an exciting time to be in civil aviation,

'the beginnings of the glamorous world of transatlantic travel,

'when flying was still seen as the height of sophistication.'

Aviation was not just going from A to B.

It was the experience of travel. People enjoyed it.

The first class meal service was second to none.

We offered champagne, the best,

offered wines by name, served caviar.

And we had a trolley with roast beef.

You didn't fly as high or as fast,

but you could look out the window and see places you were flying over.

Today, you can't see anything except cloud.

Then, it was so exciting to watch the land moving slowly under you

and you could see the places you were flying over.

'Mohan Malhotra worked in Flight Operations as a dispatcher,

'a job which carried a huge responsibility.'

The job of a flight dispatcher was to operate the aircraft as safely as possible,

producing a flight plan that calculated the fuel required correctly,

to plan its track and the altitudes it was going to fly at,

when it was going to climb and descend.

He had to analyse all the data that he got from the Met Office,

and he'd brief the captain on all of this.

The role of Operations should not be underestimated.

Without that, no aircraft could go safely from its origin to its destination.

'As an important employee of one of the world's biggest airlines,

'Mohan and perhaps his wife Elizabeth would have enjoyed a certain status.'

In the '60s, people who worked for an airline were seen as fortunate.

It was an exciting time and a glamorous time, if you like.

I think the wife of a dispatcher -

whose job mustn't be underestimated, it was a very important role -

would have enjoyed a certain feeling of opportunity, glamour if you like.

She obviously travelled with him on their holidays

on their reduced rate tickets.

I would say, yes, she may have been the envy of her friends as well.

'Mohan is thought to have worked for TWA in the United States

'for more than 25 years

'before he and Elizabeth came to live in London in the mid 1990s.

'But many details of their lives,

'including how they came to accrue a £1.7 million fortune,

'remain a mystery.

'It's left heir Geraldine with some unanswered questions.'

I wonder what her motives might have been for going to America.

She was incredibly brave, I would have thought,

not only going to America, meeting someone from another country,

from Pakistan, no less, getting married.

I often wonder is that possibly why

no-one ever heard from her again in Ireland.

Maybe she thought that wouldn't have been acceptable here.

'But finding out she's an heir has given Geraldine a golden opportunity

'to find out more about her other relatives.'

One of the great benefits of finding out all about this

is finding out that we do have all this family.

There's some in Canada. I believe there's some in America.

There's people here in Belfast, for goodness' sake, I didn't even know existed.

I'm ever hopeful that at the end,

when everything is settled and we hear what's happening,

that maybe we could all... get together? You never know.

And we'll raise a toast to Elizabeth and thank her very much.

For not only the money but for letting us get to know each other.

'Elizabeth's £1.7 million estate will be divided between 81 heirs,

'but the company didn't manage to sign up all of them.'

We've signed about 53, 54.

So we've signed the majority of the heirs.

Having said that, it doesn't mean we get the majority of the fees,

because it depends on the degree of relationship

and how many people are in each individual part of the family.

'The sheer number of heirs means Geraldine's share of the estate is unlikely to be a fortune.

'Whatever she gets, for her, it's a welcome bonus.'

Emigration has always been a big thing for the Irish.

Loads of people went to America. Seems to have been their first port of call.

And what they did when the people went away, they used to look after their families at home.

There was an expression when we were growing up,

if you got money, a windfall of some description,

"Ah! It's money from America!"

It's so funny now that this lady who lived in America

has brought all of this money back and now it's come to us.

It's, yet again, money from America.

'If you would like advice

'about building a family tree or making a will, go to:'

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