0:00:02 > 0:00:05Heir hunters specialise in tracking down people
0:00:05 > 0:00:08who are entitled to money from someone who has died.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12If we don't do the work to inform them, it's money which is going to go to the government.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Sometimes, the deceased has become estranged from their family.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Sometimes, they simply haven't left a will.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24Either way, the heir hunters must make sure that any unclaimed money goes to the right people.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28As soon as I realised they were phoning about a relative, I said, "Is that Joe?"
0:00:29 > 0:00:32It involves painstaking research.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37I knew at that point it was going to be a long struggle to try and find some heirs on this case.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39But it can reunite people.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42I'm just glad to learn more about her.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47It's all about giving news of an unexpected windfall.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50So, could the heir hunters be knocking on your door?
0:00:56 > 0:01:01Coming up, the heir hunters deal with not one but two connected cases
0:01:01 > 0:01:04to try and solve a 60-year-old mystery.
0:01:04 > 0:01:09In all the years doing the job, I've never had an estate where the deceased died so long ago.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13A story of incredible hardship and bravery.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15They were very tough men indeed.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17All sailors in that period were tough.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21Plus, how you could be entitled to inherit unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24Could thousands of pounds be heading your way?
0:01:29 > 0:01:33It's morning in London. At the offices of heir hunting firm Fraser and Fraser,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37case manager Dom Hendry and senior researched Alan Riches
0:01:37 > 0:01:39are busy on a case.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44They're trying to find relatives of a lady called Winifred Daisy Moth,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47who died in Colchester in 2008.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53The deceased father is John Frederick Bergum, died in 1965.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56Says he was born in St Luke's, which is Shoreditch.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58- We know it's the right family. - Yeah.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Winifred died without leaving a will.
0:02:02 > 0:02:08As she had no obvious next of kin, her estate, which is estimated at £5,000,
0:02:08 > 0:02:14has been advertised on the Treasury's Bona Vacantia list as unclaimed.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19That means heir hunters across the country could be competing to find and sign up heirs.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25Dom and Alan have already established that Winifred was a widow and had no children.
0:02:25 > 0:02:31But they've got a lot of work to do to find out who should inherit her estate.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34As she died without any children, we believe,
0:02:34 > 0:02:38we'll need to find her cousins on both her mother and her father's side.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42Winifred died a few months before her 100th birthday.
0:02:42 > 0:02:48And spent the last 30 years of her long life in care homes in Essex.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53Carers who looked after her have find memories.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Winifred liked to look at the sea. We're lucky to be situated opposite the sea.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04So she could take that all in. She'd spend hours looking at the scenery.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11She was a jolly person. She was a great reader. A knitter.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13She loved watching the TV quite a lot.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18She had a good personality, friendly, kind.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21She had a good sense of humour. She was easy to get along with.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30In the heir hunters' office, the team is trying to build up Winifred's family tree.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33They've established that she had no immediate family.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36They're now looking to see if she had aunts and uncles
0:03:36 > 0:03:39who may lead them to living relatives.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43At the moment, there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45- Seven including the dad. - There could be eight.
0:03:45 > 0:03:51Alan has established that Winifred's father, John Bergum, had eight brothers and sisters.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55He's now looking to see if they had children, who would be Winifred's cousins.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02The team reckons because Winifred was living in care homes for so long,
0:04:02 > 0:04:07the chances of her owning a property, or having a valuable estate, are slim.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12The children have good names. We've got a couple of stems that I picked up marriages for, which we'll work.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16It looks as if the Bergum side of the family is going to be large.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19That's not good news for the heir hunters.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21They'll only earn a percentage of the modest estate.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25And a large family tree means a large workload.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30We were hoping for less family. But the family seem to be popping up.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34The beneficiaries are going to be entitled to a really small legacy.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36It's not going to be big money for them.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41Fortunately, the family name is making their lives a little easier.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44The name Bergum is not a common name at all.
0:04:44 > 0:04:51And it just makes things so much easier to identify when you've got a good name.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54Although Winifred's name had been advertised by the Treasury,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57the team found out about it in an unusual way.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02They came across Winifred while working another much older case,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04which dates back 60 years.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06This is the estate of John Henry Edward Pinner.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09This came through a firm of solicitors
0:05:09 > 0:05:13who found this estate from 1951 that had never successfully been dealt with.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17John Henry Pinner died in December 1951
0:05:17 > 0:05:19in the London suburb of Southall.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24He didn't leave a will. His case was referred to different solicitors
0:05:24 > 0:05:28until Dom and his team were called in to help trace relatives.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33In all the years doing the job, I've never had an estate where the deceased died so long ago.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37The two cases are connected because John Pinner is Winifred's uncle.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41Her mother, Adeline Bergum, was John's sister.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45The first thing Alan and the team learned
0:05:45 > 0:05:48was that John had been survived by his widow Laurie.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Normally, a wife would be a beneficiary to an estate.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57But in the 1950s, when he died, the inheritance laws were very different.
0:05:59 > 0:06:05Because he had no children, his wife was only entitled to a percentage of his estate.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10And his surviving siblings, namely five sisters,
0:06:10 > 0:06:15were also entitled to a share under the intestacy laws of the time.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19The law was brought in after the First World War with the aim of protecting widows
0:06:19 > 0:06:22whose husbands hadn't left a will.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29It guaranteed widows like Laurie would inherit the estate up to a maximum of £1,000.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35There's an expectation that husbands should look after their wives.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38So where, under a will,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42a husband hasn't protected his wife,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44that seems to be quite problematic.
0:06:44 > 0:06:50But because the law was capped at £1,000, it didn't keep up with the cost of living.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54And the government began to realise it needed changing.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58There was a real concern that it was outdated.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02The primary reason why the law was outdated was because of inflation.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04That was the number one reason.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07£1,000 really wasn't covering most estates.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12Because John Pinner owned a house, by the time he died in 1951,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17his estate would have been worth considerably more than £1,000.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20But, thanks to the law, it was out of reach of his wife Laurie,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22and would instead go to his five sisters,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25all because he hadn't left a will.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29John might not have written a will because he assumed she'd get everything.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33A lot of research shows that people don't make wills, don't write them,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36because they just assume that they're going to get everything.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43In 1952, the law was changed to allow widows without children
0:07:43 > 0:07:46to inherit up to £20,000 of their husband's estates.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49It was too late for Laurie.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54But all was not lost because she was allowed to carry on living in her and John's home.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59This meant the full estate couldn't be passed on to John's sisters
0:07:59 > 0:08:01until Laurie died in 1976.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05But, by then, John's sisters had also died.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Because no other relatives could be found, the case lay unsolved for decades,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13until the heir hunters were asked to look into it.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18It is a little bit more involved than it normally would be,
0:08:18 > 0:08:24simply because, obviously, I wasn't aware of what the intestacy laws were in 1951.
0:08:26 > 0:08:32Nonetheless, Alan and the team set about finding descendants from John's five sisters.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36Adeline, Elizabeth, Grace, Jane and Martha.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40They found that all five had children,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42some of whom had children of their own.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45And this led them to ten heirs.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51But it was when they were looking into John's sister Adeline that they made a surprise discovery.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55They saw that she had married a John Bergum
0:08:55 > 0:08:58and had a daughter called Winifred.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00Winifred is John Pinner's niece.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04And, therefore, heir to her mother's share of his estate.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11This lady, Winifred Bergum, married Osmund Moth.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15She was a beneficiary on the job we were working on.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20However, a check of the death records revealed that Winifred had also died
0:09:20 > 0:09:23- without leaving a will. - Ah-hah.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28Because of this, the case has now turned into a more complex investigation.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33I've worked out that she's become a Treasury job in herself,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36- which is why I couldn't find her the last few years.- OK.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40She hasn't left a very large estate but we've got to actually work
0:09:40 > 0:09:43her father's side of the family now as well.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48Just looked for the children and the children of the children in the way we'd normally work.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51We were having to really trawl through all the legal documents,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54all the probate records, letters of administration, wills,
0:09:54 > 0:09:58to see where these people are leaving their money to.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03The team believe they have traced most of John Pinner's heirs
0:10:03 > 0:10:05but Winifred's estate remains unsolved.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09Because it's been published on the Treasury's list of unclaimed estates,
0:10:09 > 0:10:13the team know they're competing against rival firms.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16What it means is, we're going to have to be more urgent,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19make sure we get all the letters out today to everybody.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22Really work this up as quick as possible.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Make sure that we sign all the beneficiaries before the opposition.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36Heir hunters trace the relatives of people who have died without leaving a will.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Sometimes, the journey to find heirs can be a long one
0:10:40 > 0:10:43with many unexpected twists and turns.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46And that was the case with Thomas Kennar
0:10:46 > 0:10:50when his estate was investigated by heir hunting firm Hoopers.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57It was quite unusual, with unique obstacles
0:10:57 > 0:10:59and hurdles to overcome.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Thomas Kennar, known to his friends as Ken,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05died in August 2010 at his home in Brighton.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10He lived a quiet life, but his friend Peter Rogers remembers him well.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14Well, I met Ken, as he's known to me,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17about 35 years ago.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21It was in connection with the RAF Association.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25Ken's connection with the RAF stretched back to the Second World War.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Although he was demobbed in 1945,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32he was keen to join his local association.
0:11:32 > 0:11:38He was a popular club member and was known by an affectionate nickname.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43He became famous because he'd be the only member in here most nights
0:11:43 > 0:11:48with one can. And I used to describe him as Ken the Can.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52Well, we'd chat generally
0:11:52 > 0:11:55about everyday items.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59On rare occasions, we might mention the RAF.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03And he did say that he'd been to Canada
0:12:03 > 0:12:06during the war for RAF training.
0:12:06 > 0:12:13He probably went as a pilot to start with.
0:12:13 > 0:12:18But I seem to vaguely remember him saying that he ended up as a navigator.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23Peter remembers that, as the years went by, Ken became more solitary.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27He was quite a sociable mixing sort of fella.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31But in the later part of his life, he got a little bit more of a recluse.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35He didn't like crowds.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42He was a quiet fella in the end.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50For heir hunter Mike Tringham, the case of Thomas or Ken Kennar
0:12:50 > 0:12:53seemed to be nothing unusual at the start of the investigation.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57All they had to start with was a name and date of death.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Well, we never know what the value of any estate is
0:13:01 > 0:13:04that we investigate when we start out.
0:13:04 > 0:13:10One of the first things we look at is to see whether there is a property involved.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13If there is a property involved, we know there's going to be some value.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19Heir hunters often start cases with very little information.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24The first thing they have to do is to establish whether or not a person was married and had children
0:13:24 > 0:13:28because, as next of kin, they would be the first to inherit.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33A death certificate is a very useful document to us
0:13:33 > 0:13:39because it gives us a few snippets of information, hopefully,
0:13:39 > 0:13:44about the deceased. The deceased's death certificate didn't tell us a great deal.
0:13:44 > 0:13:50It gave us his date of birth and his place of birth and his occupation.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54He was retired. But that was about it.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59Ken's birth certificate gave the heir hunters a little more information.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01They learned the names of his parents.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Thomas Kennar senior and Helena Vile.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08From there, it didn't take them long to find their marriage certificate.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10The investigation was underway.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Because Ken owned his house, the heir hunters thought
0:14:15 > 0:14:18his estate might be worth as much as £½ million.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22So Mike needed his team to move very quickly.
0:14:22 > 0:14:28There was likely to be competition from rival firms because there was so much money involved.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33He sent his team out to speak to Ken's neighbours in the hope of finding a lead.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37When we made enquiries, there wasn't a lot of information.
0:14:37 > 0:14:43The usual thing about the deceased being a private person,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45keeping himself to himself.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49The heir hunters turned their attention to Ken's mother, Helena Vile.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53They discovered she had a brother and sister, Ella and William.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58If they had children, they would be entitled to a share of Ken's estate.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03She had two siblings, a brother and a sister.
0:15:03 > 0:15:08But, unfortunately, neither of them had any family
0:15:08 > 0:15:10and died without issue.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16The case now rested on whether or not Ken's father, Thomas Kennar senior,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18had siblings.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21If he was an only child, there would be no one to inherit.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23The estate would go to the Treasury.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27Having eliminated the maternal side of the family,
0:15:27 > 0:15:32we concentrated our efforts into the paternal family,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35the father and his family.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39We soon discovered he was from a large family, one of twelve.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44But typically with Victorian families,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48many of them died either in infancy
0:15:48 > 0:15:51or without issue.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56So Mike and his team faced a huge task of finding living descendants from Thomas's siblings.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01And it was while they were looking into Thomas's family
0:16:01 > 0:16:05they discovered something remarkable about the man himself.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11Thomas Kennar senior was born in Brixham in Devon in October 1876.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14He was the son of a fisherman, another Thomas Kennar.
0:16:14 > 0:16:20It's possible that Thomas first went to sea aged 11 on his father's deep-sea trawler.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25But Thomas was destined to sail further than the fishing coast off Devon.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29He joined the navy at 16 and, a few years later, earned his place
0:16:29 > 0:16:33on one of the most historic expeditions of the 20th century.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38The heroic age of Antarctic exploration was a period of about 20 years.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42at the start of the 20th century when numerous nations
0:16:42 > 0:16:48sent expeditions down to the Antarctic region to answer the great scientific questions of the day.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54At the turn of the last century, very little was known about Antarctica.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57And Britain became part of an international project
0:16:57 > 0:17:00sending explorers and scientists to the region.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05They're all remarkable stories as people struggled to bring back
0:17:05 > 0:17:09the scientific data and explore the last unknown part of our planet.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Numerous nations pledged to share their findings.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14But there was also a competitive side.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16Everyone wanted to be first.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18It was the space race of its era.
0:17:18 > 0:17:24It was a race to the Antarctic to carry out the scientific research that was being demanded
0:17:24 > 0:17:27and come up with answers to the big questions people wanted answered.
0:17:30 > 0:17:36In 1901, legendary explorer Robert Scott set sail on board the Discovery,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40launching the first British Antarctic expedition.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45The Discovery expedition set sail from the Isle of Wight.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Among the 40-strong crew of explorers, scientists and sailors
0:17:49 > 0:17:51was petty officer Thomas Kennar.
0:17:51 > 0:17:58The men who sailed into the unknown would not see home for another three years.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02They were very tough men indeed. All sailors in that period were tough.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06Sailing around the oceans in sailing vessels was a very, very tough thing.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Felicity Aston is a modern-day explorer
0:18:09 > 0:18:13and was the first woman to ski across Antarctica alone.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18She has a rare insight into the harsh conditions Thomas would have faced.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22I remember when I got dropped off by the plane,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26the thought of those early expeditions were very much in my mind.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30I think it's the closest I've ever come to really appreciating
0:18:30 > 0:18:33how cut off and how vulnerable they must've felt,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36how far from help they must have been at that time.
0:18:36 > 0:18:43I think I got a greater understanding of just how isolated they were.
0:18:44 > 0:18:49Life in the freezing conditions was unbearably hard and dangerous.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54And it was Thomas's job to help maintain safety by keeping the men in line.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59Kennar was one of five or six petty officers on Discovery.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04He had a fairly important role in maintaining lower-deck discipline and morale.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Thomas Kennar's career was firmly at sea.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12But this way of life would later have lasting impact
0:19:12 > 0:19:14on his young son Ken.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23There are still thousands of unclaimed estates in the UK.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28In Scotland, these are dealt with by the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30Or QLTR.
0:19:30 > 0:19:36In England ad Wales, estates are handled by the Treasury's Bona Vacantia Division.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43The Bona Vacantia unclaimed list is steadily reducing and we're pleased with that.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45We think it's because a lot more people
0:19:45 > 0:19:49are involved in tracing now because there's more interest in the work.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54Today, we're focusing on two cases that stumped the heir hunters.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Could you be the heir they've been looking for?
0:19:58 > 0:20:00Could you be in line for an unexpected windfall?
0:20:03 > 0:20:06First, is the case of Pattie Fenella Lawson
0:20:06 > 0:20:11who died in the Yorkshire town of Halifax on the 25th May 1996.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Heir hunters have tried hard to trace her relatives
0:20:14 > 0:20:18but they've been unable to establish who her father was.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Did you know Pattie or her father?
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Do you have any information that might solve this 16-year-old case?
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Next, can you shed any light on the case of Robert Alexander Craig Baillie
0:20:32 > 0:20:38who died in Glasgow in Scotland on the 25th November 2005?
0:20:38 > 0:20:43Robert's estate was advertised by the QLTR in Scotland
0:20:43 > 0:20:46and is valued at around £6,000.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50He was born in Glasgow on the 13th September 1929.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Before he died in the city's Victoria Infirmary,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58he lived at Cathkinview Place. Were you a neighbour?
0:20:58 > 0:21:03Perhaps you're the heir the QLTR have been waiting to hear from.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Both Robert and Pattie's estates remain unclaimed.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12If no one comes forward, their money will go to the government.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17To gain information about Bona Vacantia estates' work,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21the first port of call would be the Bona Vacantia's dedicated
0:21:21 > 0:21:26website, it has a lot of information on it for people and guidance.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Do you have any clues that could help solve the cases
0:21:30 > 0:21:33of Robert Alexander Craig Baillie
0:21:33 > 0:21:35or Pattie Fenella Lawson?
0:21:35 > 0:21:39If so, you could have a windfall coming your way.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47In London, heir hunters Fraser and Fraser
0:21:47 > 0:21:51are in the highly unusual position of working two connected cases.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57They're trying to find living descendants of Winifred Moth who died in 2008.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01And they are hoping that this will help them wrap up the estate
0:22:01 > 0:22:05of her uncle John Pinner who also died without leaving a will
0:22:05 > 0:22:07way back in 1951.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11I've never dealt with anything like this matter.
0:22:11 > 0:22:17The fact that the deceased is 1951 makes this much more challenging and much more interesting.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Winifred's estate was advertised by the Treasury Solicitor,
0:22:22 > 0:22:28so the team is competing against rival firms to be the first to find and sign up heirs.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31They're working flat out to try and trace her relatives.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33The research has gone really well.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38However, there are clearly several large gaps in the family tree.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40Winifred Moth died just a few months
0:22:40 > 0:22:44before her 100th birthday in Colchester.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47She spent nearly 30 years in care homes.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53When she first moved into one, she was well known for being an animal lover.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56She used to live in a village called Jaywick.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59I know she had a lot of cats down there.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04It wasn't one or two cats. Probably 20 or 30 cats. She was a cat lover.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09Winifred was a private person who revealed very little about herself.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11She never mentioned any family to us.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14We didn't push the subject either.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17She was happy where she'd been and where she was.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19That was about all she would let us know.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24She never had no brothers or sisters come down and visit her or cousins
0:23:24 > 0:23:26or anything like that.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31She didn't let it affect her. She liked talking to the staff and other visitors. She was friendly.
0:23:31 > 0:23:38On her 99th birthday, her carers and fellow residents threw her a special party.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42We organised an entertainer to come and sing songs and they all joined in.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46The cook made her a birthday cake with her name on, which she thought was fantastic.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49She really enjoyed herself.
0:23:53 > 0:23:59In the office, the team is focusing on Winifred's father's side of the family.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04Her father, John Bergum, had eight brothers and sisters.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09They've established that one of them, Frederick, had seven children of his own.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Two of John's sisters died in childhood.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17And another, Blossom, married but didn't have children.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26Researcher Dan has been looking into John's sister Elizabeth who married a Peter Leppington.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Managed to find that he had two children, Peter and David.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34And Peter passed away in 2001.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37As Peter died without having children,
0:24:37 > 0:24:42his brother David is the last hope of heirs on the Leppington side.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47The other child of Peter, David, he has died a bachelor.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Having ruled out any heirs from Winifred's aunt Elizabeth,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Dan turns his attention to her uncle William Henry Bergum.
0:24:56 > 0:25:02Yep, got him on the 1911 census in Warrington as a drummer in the army.
0:25:02 > 0:25:08And we've got him dying on the 18th of April 1916.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12The census doesn't show whether William was married or had children.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16So instead the team turn to his army service record.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21Wife was a Sarah. We can't work out her surname at the moment. It looks like he was married
0:25:21 > 0:25:28in November 1898 in Ireland, which is why we can't find him on the census.
0:25:28 > 0:25:34William Henry Bergum was born in 1879 in Shoreditch in London.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39And enlisted in the British Army had the shockingly young age of 15.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43At around this time, the army was enjoying real popularity
0:25:43 > 0:25:46following successful military campaigns.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49We're never going to know why he particularly enlisted.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52But it may be that it was simply an option
0:25:52 > 0:25:54when there were no other options available to him.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58There was always a correlation in the Victorian period
0:25:58 > 0:26:02between the rate of unemployment and enlistment.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04We're talking now about the 1880s, the 1890s,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07imperialism is at its height.
0:26:07 > 0:26:12For many, it could be an attractive adventure. Er, it's...
0:26:12 > 0:26:14Also, the army was becoming more respectable.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16His records say he was a drummer boy.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21That didn't mean he played the instrument but rather he was a musician in the army.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Cleary, at one level, he's there to play the bugle.
0:26:26 > 0:26:33But in war, on active service, traditionally the musicians do have a number of other roles.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35They have been used as stretcher bearers for example.
0:26:35 > 0:26:40It wasn't long after William joined the army that he saw active service.
0:26:40 > 0:26:46He was sent to South Africa in 1902 during the last few months of the Second Boer War.
0:26:46 > 0:26:53Fighting had broken out in 1899 and claimed the lives of more than 65,000 people.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58It was a conflict between the British Empire and the two Boer republics.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01The British wanted control. It was a brutal war.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06Clearly, you would have expected the war to finish very quickly with a triumph.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09And it didn't. It lasted a long time.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12William arrived five months before peace was settled
0:27:12 > 0:27:16and spent his time in watch-out posts called blockhouses.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21By the end of the war, these blockhouses are linked by telephone, most of them.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26They've got electric searchlights so you can beam it across the wire at night.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29It's a very elaborate system by the end of the war.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31But they're about 1,000 yards apart.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34So these six-seven men are sat in one
0:27:34 > 0:27:37and then 1,000 yards away there's another six or seven men.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41So there's very little opportunity for recreation.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44It's a very boring mundane tedious business.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49For William and his comrades, it wasn't the enemy who claimed the most lives.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54Even if we consider Bergum's battalion, which was the 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58it's only their for five months, it has three men killed or die of wounds,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01eight are wounded but sixteen die of disease.
0:28:01 > 0:28:07The real killer both in the camps and for the British Army is enteric, which we would now call typhoid.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13Back home, it wasn't a popular war, even though it was a British victory.
0:28:13 > 0:28:19It was a success because you had achieved what you had set out to do.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21But it had been very costly to do it.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26But lessons were learned from the conflict,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29from how to deal with an opponent who has gun power
0:28:29 > 0:28:31to how to treat disease out in the field.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36These lessons were to prepare the army for even greater challenges ahead.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41There are major reforms of the administration of the British Army,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43the organisation of the army, after 1902.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48And, indeed, I think it is the case that the relatively small
0:28:48 > 0:28:53British Expeditionary Force that went overseas in August 1914,
0:28:53 > 0:28:59including William Bergum, is probably the best army that Britain's ever able to out into the field.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03William had left the army in 1906
0:29:03 > 0:29:06but was called up as a reservist in 1914
0:29:06 > 0:29:09and served with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
0:29:09 > 0:29:15The record shows that when he did go back to France, he was a sergeant.
0:29:15 > 0:29:22Tragically, like hundreds of thousands of others, William didn't see the end of the First World War.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27It's thought he was injured in France and brought back to Liverpool where he died.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29He was 37.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Although he died in 1916, he still gets the three medals.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39He got the 1914-15 Star because he'd served overseas.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42Then, automatically, a serviceman in the First World War
0:29:42 > 0:29:45gets the War Medal and the Victory Medal.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48We call them Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, if you have all three.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00In the office, the team is focusing on Winifred's father's side of the family.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04Her father, John Bergum, had eight brothers and sisters.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09They now know one of the brothers, William, died during the First World war.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13But they're trying to establish if he and his wife Sarah had children.
0:30:15 > 0:30:21Alan has been checking cemetery records in Liverpool but they haven't come up with any answers.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23In this case, because the guy was in the army,
0:30:23 > 0:30:27he's been buried in an army section. It hasn't given us a great deal.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31It confirmed it's the right guy because it's the right age.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36By checking his wife Sarah's death certificate, the team make a breakthrough.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41On Sarah's Death, she had a daughter Mary F Cannon.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45William and Sarah's daughter Mary is the lead they were hoping for.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49But it's not long before their hopes are dashed again.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Problem is, in 1953, they all emigrate to Canada.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58Because the team reckon Winifred's estate is only worth £5,000,
0:30:58 > 0:31:02they cannot afford to take their research to Canada.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06So, for the time being, they're turning their attention to other parts of the tree.
0:31:07 > 0:31:13We're really keen at this point to get the family information because we're hoping that all these gaps,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16these people with common names we've not been able to find,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19we're really hoping that, once the family get in contact,
0:31:19 > 0:31:23we'll be able to pick their brains and actually fill in all these gaps.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27Fortunately, the team is having a little more luck
0:31:27 > 0:31:31as they look into William's bother and Winifred's uncle Harry Bergum.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35We found a family tree online that the family told us about.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38A lot of the information we know about is missing.
0:31:38 > 0:31:44But it does make interesting reading because it mentions that there's a child
0:31:44 > 0:31:47from one of Henry's supposed marriages that we can't find.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52The family tree has been put online by an amateur genealogist in the family.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57These can be useful for heir hunters as long as they are accurate.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02Looking at the online tree, the team believes it's found Winifred's cousin once removed.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04And Dom gets straight on the phone.
0:32:04 > 0:32:09I'm glad you said that. You've confirmed we're talking about the same family.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Dom believes the woman he's speaking to is an heir.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16But it turns out he's not the first heir hunter to contact her.
0:32:16 > 0:32:18Bye-bye.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21She says she's been contacted by one of our opposition.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26I'm not entirely surprised because we originally wouldn't have looked at this matter anyway.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29What it means is, we'll have to be more urgent,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32make sure we get all the letters out today to everybody.
0:32:32 > 0:32:39Work this up as quickly as possible, make sure that we sign all the beneficiaries before the opposition.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46Fortunately, the team is already ahead on the maternal side of the tree.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49Winifred's mother, Adeline Pinner,
0:32:49 > 0:32:51was one of John Pinner's sisters.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55Another of their siblings, Elizabeth, married an Ernest Hall.
0:32:55 > 0:33:00And his grandson Brian is an heir to both Winifred's £5,000 estate
0:33:00 > 0:33:06and John's estate, which is valued between 35 and £60,000.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11Dom has spoken to him and he has agreed that the company will help him
0:33:11 > 0:33:14make a claim to part of Winifred's estate.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17I was sort of flabbergasted
0:33:17 > 0:33:22and shocked that this sort of thing would happen to somebody like me.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28I remember visiting my grandmother with my mother
0:33:28 > 0:33:32when she lived at Potters Bar near South Mimms.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36I lost contact with her after that.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Brian is one of many heirs to the two estates,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42so he won't be in line for a large payout.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47But, even so, for him, it's a reminder of the importance of family.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52My immediate family is important to me because, when you get married and you have children and that,
0:33:52 > 0:33:55life is all about families.
0:33:57 > 0:34:03After several weeks of research, the team has finally managed to crack the cases
0:34:03 > 0:34:06of both Winifred Moth and her uncle John Pinner.
0:34:06 > 0:34:12We've been successful in identifying grants for people on the top line.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16They've signed up 28 heirs to the two estates.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20It's been one of the most unusual cases they've ever worked.
0:34:20 > 0:34:26But it has finally solved a 60-year-old puzzle of who should inherit John Pinner's estate.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32I'm not surprised in the least that this was never successfully dealt with.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Clearly, it's one of those ones that's got missed for many years.
0:34:41 > 0:34:46And by reviewing John Pinner's case, the heir hunters have also solved
0:34:46 > 0:34:50the mystery of who should inherit from his niece Winifred Moth.
0:34:50 > 0:34:56Her estate may have been small but she does leave a lasting impression on those who knew her.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59It was quite a shock to me when I did hear that she passed away.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01It was quite a shock to all of us
0:35:01 > 0:35:05because she was quite dearly loved by a lot of people.
0:35:13 > 0:35:19Heir hunting firm Hoopers were looking into the case of Thomas Kennar, known as Ken to his friends.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23He was an only child who never married or had children.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26He was a retired telephone engineer
0:35:26 > 0:35:30but his social life centred around his wartime connection
0:35:30 > 0:35:32with the RAF.
0:35:32 > 0:35:38He was a regular visitor at his local Royal Air Force Association.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41People there have fond memories of him.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47He came in quietly, had his drink, we had a little chat.
0:35:47 > 0:35:52We spoke about his private life round where he lives
0:35:52 > 0:35:55because he had a cat.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57The cat was known as Squeaky.
0:35:58 > 0:36:04And Squeaky, I think, was a bit more of his life than round here.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06He often spoke about the cat.
0:36:06 > 0:36:12But, other than that, he was just a quiet bloke.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22The key to solving the case centred on Ken's father Thomas Kennar.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26He took part in explorer Robert Scott's
0:36:26 > 0:36:31historic Antarctic expedition in 1901.
0:36:31 > 0:36:37There were thousands of applicants in the Royal Navy. A lot of volunteers wanted to go on this expedition.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41You needed to be a good sailor, or good at your scientific work,
0:36:41 > 0:36:44or whatever your discipline was going to be,
0:36:44 > 0:36:46you need to bring skills to the expedition.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51Until the heroic age of Antarctic exploration,
0:36:51 > 0:36:53very little was known about the area.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57And Ken's father Thomas would have played his part supporting
0:36:57 > 0:37:00the explorers and scientists on sledging trips.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05He was part of a team headed by geologist Hartley Ferrar
0:37:05 > 0:37:08who uncovered fossils in the freezing conditions,
0:37:08 > 0:37:14which proved the Antarctic had had a warmer or even tropical climate millions of years before.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21Out there, I often thought about the early explorers
0:37:21 > 0:37:24because it was the centenary while I was in Antarctica
0:37:24 > 0:37:26of those first men who got to the South Pole.
0:37:26 > 0:37:32And, although lots of things have changed, so the kit that we use,
0:37:32 > 0:37:34perhaps our attitudes have also changed a lot,
0:37:34 > 0:37:39it's still the same cold, the same mountains, the same weather,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42the same sounds that you're experiencing.
0:37:42 > 0:37:49And so I think it is possible to try and put yourself in their shoes a little bit.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56Thomas was also known for his sense of humour.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00And was a regular contributor to the ship's newspaper.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04One account described how the crew caught emperor penguins.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07Kennar makes some very wry comments in the South Polar Times
0:38:07 > 0:38:11about people were supposed to be hitting penguins over the head and ended up
0:38:11 > 0:38:14hitting him on the knee instead with their sticks.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17And this really wasn't very good form.
0:38:17 > 0:38:23The Victorian scientific findings still have lasting effect today.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27They made a breakthrough in nearly every branch of science.
0:38:27 > 0:38:32This was the first time people started to enquire into Earth's systems, Earth's ecosystems
0:38:32 > 0:38:36and how they work. The data that these expeditions brought back
0:38:36 > 0:38:40were an important part in starting people thinking and recognising
0:38:40 > 0:38:45that what happened in an Antarctic storm could influence the weather in the United Kingdom.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48People had no idea about that at the time.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51And Thomas left his mark in another way too.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56A small area of Antarctica has been named the Kennar Valley.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04Three years after returning from the Discovery expedition,
0:39:04 > 0:39:06Thomas married Helena Vile.
0:39:08 > 0:39:14Tragedy struck the family in 1938 when 15-year-old Ken's mother Helena died.
0:39:14 > 0:39:19He was sent to live her sister Ella Vile and her husband Gilbert Wilson.
0:39:19 > 0:39:26Their house in Russell Square in Brighton became Ken's home for the next 72 years.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31Ken's father, Thomas, served in the Second World War.
0:39:31 > 0:39:38Tragically dying of heat exhaustion on board the Ninella off the coast of Karachi in 1945.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43He had spent most of his life on board ships and it seems fitting
0:39:43 > 0:39:46that the 69-year-old Thomas was buried at sea.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49For heir hunter Mike,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53solving this case rested on what happened to Thomas's brothers and sisters.
0:39:53 > 0:40:00Taking in the disappointment of the maternal family dying out,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04we were relieved to discover that the deceased's father was one of 12.
0:40:04 > 0:40:09And there were a number of branches of the paternal family
0:40:09 > 0:40:13that survived and had living descendants.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18Of Thomas's eleven brothers and sisters, eight reached adulthood.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23Five - Alfred, George, Harry, John and Ellen had children.
0:40:23 > 0:40:29But Alfred's only child died during the Second World War without having children.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34Concentrating on the remaining four led them to 25 heirs,
0:40:34 > 0:40:38including Angela who is Ken's first cousin once removed.
0:40:42 > 0:40:49Angela never met Ken but she does have memories of her parents meeting up with him 30 years ago.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53Mt father went down to Brighton and met him with my mother.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58And they thought he was very nice, they didn't have a lot in common.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00There would probably be no further contact.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05I believe we had Christmas cards for a few years and then they just fizzled out.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10But Angela is proud of her great-uncle's part in Scott's Discovery expedition.
0:41:10 > 0:41:16Aunt Bessy and Uncle Arthur used to talk about it and Auntie May and my father.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19It's been a family legend. It's just always known.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23I'm extremely proud to be related to Thomas Kennar senior,
0:41:23 > 0:41:25after all, he was one of the true Victorians.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32For Mike and his team, the hard work was done.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34But there was another twist.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37His flat, shortly after he had died,
0:41:37 > 0:41:43obviously became empty and was taken over by squatters.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45We do find this is an increasing problem
0:41:45 > 0:41:50with some of the estates that we deal with when there is a property involved.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54The delay means the estate might not be finalised for another year.
0:41:54 > 0:42:01But the 25 heirs can look forward to a share of somewhere in the region of £400,000.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05I'm extremely grateful, it will make a big difference to me.
0:42:05 > 0:42:11It might not be a vast amount but it will give me some peace of mind.
0:42:11 > 0:42:17I think, for my son, it's especially important to know where he comes from.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20When I look at photographs of Thomas Kennar senior,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23I can see a real resemblance to my son Ted.
0:42:23 > 0:42:28But it's not just about the money for Angela and her son.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32The real journey has just begun.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36Yes, it's been very interesting finding some of the relatives
0:42:36 > 0:42:40I didn't know I had and reconnecting with ones where we'd drifted apart
0:42:40 > 0:42:44to where it got to the stage where it was just Christmas cards.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46So it's lovely to get to know them all again.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49And we're looking forward to meeting up in future.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59If you would like advice about building a family tree or making a will,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03go to bbc.co.uk/heirhunters
0:43:06 > 0:43:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd