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 > 0:00:10Good morning. Mrs Carr?
0:00:10 > 0:00:14They hand over thousands of pounds to family members
0:00:14 > 0:00:16who had no idea they were in line to inherit.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20Their work involves painstaking investigation.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22Did you know Mr Godfrey?
0:00:22 > 0:00:23Right.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26And it can shed new light on the past.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32The over-riding thing about the workhouse was the shame.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Most of all, though, the work is giving people
0:00:35 > 0:00:38news of an unexpected windfall.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Could the heir hunters be knocking at your door?
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Coming up...the heir hunters grapple with a massive family tree.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55Six, seven, eight, nine... Nine children in total.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57But will it be worth their while?
0:00:57 > 0:01:01The information we've picked up is that it's just above our threshold.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06The death of a Sussex woman sets two sisters off on a journey of discovery.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10Got a picture. That's Georgina. She's very happy in there.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Plus, how you could be entitled
0:01:12 > 0:01:16to inherit unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18Could a fortune be heading your way?
0:01:27 > 0:01:29Early Thursday morning in London.
0:01:29 > 0:01:35A new list of unclaimed estates known as the bona vacantia has just been released.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40It details the names and dates of death of people who've died without leaving a will.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43And at the offices of heir-hunting firm Fraser & Fraser,
0:01:43 > 0:01:45boss Neil has chosen one to follow.
0:01:47 > 0:01:53We've just started the case of Jack Ronald Godfrey, dies in 2012.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57The heir hunters usually work for a percentage of the estate.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00The higher the value, the higher potential profit.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04They don't believe Jack's estate is hugely valuable,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08but on a slow day like today, it could still be worth chasing.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10It doesn't look like it's going to be a great case,
0:02:10 > 0:02:16but we'll do an enquiry. Value-wise, could be anywhere from £5,000 up to maybe £10,000 or £15,000.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21Hopefully, if we can get the enquiry to confirm it, we might be able to get it up to £20,000.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23And if it gets up there, we can work it.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Whatever it's worth, the heir hunters will only get paid
0:02:27 > 0:02:28if they find Jack's heirs,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32and if they get to them ahead of other competing firms.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41Born in 1931, Jack Godfrey was 81 years old when he died in Woolwich,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45southeast London, where he'd lived for most of his life.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47No pictures of Jack survive,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51but friends Pat Bishop and Geoff Stevenson remember him well.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56I met Jack probably in 1990.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59And he was a neighbour of mine for many, many years.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02I used to live next door to Pat here,
0:03:02 > 0:03:06three doors away from Jack. 1989 I first met Jack.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10- He was always pleasant.- Absolutely.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13- Always had a word.- A gentleman, wasn't he?- Yeah, a gentleman.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15But he kept himself to himself.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19It seems Jack wasn't concerned with material things,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22and made a point of living very frugally.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Didn't have a fridge freezer, nothing. Washing machine, cooker,
0:03:27 > 0:03:30nothing at all. No mattress. He had an inflatable one for about a week,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34and he put it on the old springs, and, of course, it punctured.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36But he still wouldn't get a mattress. He wouldn't.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38Did get him some furniture once.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Took a day moving it all down,
0:03:40 > 0:03:42then the next day he came to me and said,
0:03:42 > 0:03:44"No, it's just too much in there. Cluttered."
0:03:44 > 0:03:48- So I had to take it all out again. But that's how he lived.- Yeah.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Although Jack lived in rented accommodation
0:03:51 > 0:03:53and had very few possessions,
0:03:53 > 0:03:56his estate is now thought to be worth around £20,000.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00For the heir hunters, it's a job worth working.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04The case is likely to have caught the eye
0:04:04 > 0:04:06of competing heir-hunting firms as well,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09so speed is of the essence for case manager Ben Cornish.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Just minutes into the investigation, a check of birth,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17marriage and death certificates has already thrown up the first clue.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20We think he may have had a sister, an older sister.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25But we're not sure what happened to her. We think she may have passed away as an infant.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29Marriage records show that Jack died a bachelor,
0:04:29 > 0:04:31with no children of his own.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33If it's confirmed that his sister did die as a child,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37then the heir hunters must look for Jack's aunts, uncles and cousins.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43It's not long before there's a breakthrough. Senior researcher Alan
0:04:43 > 0:04:46has found the phone number of Jack's former neighbour.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49She's only been there at least since '97.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51She's the same sort of age as the deceased,
0:04:51 > 0:04:53- and she's still there.- Excellent.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57She could provide some vital pointers
0:04:57 > 0:04:59to help the team track down Jack's family.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04It seems that the family have lived, or were living in,
0:05:04 > 0:05:09that property all the way back to '48. And apparently the deceased left it in 2000,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13so hopefully, she may have some information about the deceased.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Even though so much of the investigation can now be done online,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22there's no substitute for talking to someone who knew the deceased.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Did you know Mr Godfrey? Right.
0:05:26 > 0:05:27Jack, yes.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32It's good news. Jack's neighbour remembers him well.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34Oh, right. OK.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37It sounds like he was an only child if she passed away in infancy.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41Because you never had the impression that he had a sister, is that correct?
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Ben's hunch that Jack's sister died as a child
0:05:45 > 0:05:51looks likely to be correct. That means the team will now concentrate on finding Jack's wider family.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56There's potentially a link to Wales and Canada, so I'm not sure where
0:05:56 > 0:05:59that's going to go. But I've just been given the number of another guy
0:05:59 > 0:06:02who knew the deceased pretty well, so I'll give him a quick call now.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05As Ben makes his next call,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09travelling researcher Bob Smith sets out for a day on the road.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16While much of the research is done by the staff in the office,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20the team rely on a country-wide network of senior researchers
0:06:20 > 0:06:21who can follow up their leads.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Their job is to pick up certificates, chat to neighbours,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28and hopefully, sign up heirs ahead of the competition.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Bob's looking for clues at the sheltered accommodation
0:06:33 > 0:06:35where Jack spent the last few years of his life.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42They couldn't really tell me a lot about Jack himself
0:06:42 > 0:06:47or his financial situation. But what I have obtained is details
0:06:47 > 0:06:52of a lifelong friend who apparently looked after all his financial affairs
0:06:52 > 0:06:54and will know all about his family.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59In the office, case manager Ben has beaten Bob to it.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02He's already spoken to Jack's friend and has come up trumps.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06He looked after his financial affairs as well.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10Um, looked after his financial affairs. Says he's got over £20,000.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13The friend has also given Ben another good lead -
0:07:13 > 0:07:16the name of one of Jack's relatives who lived nearby.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21The deceased had an aunt who lived in the area, called Mabel Nicholls.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25We're just trying to work out which side she belonged to, the paternal side or the maternal side.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29With the value of the estate now confirmed,
0:07:29 > 0:07:31the team can go full steam ahead to track down heirs.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36But it soon becomes clear that Jack's father was part of a huge family.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Six, seven, eight, nine... Nine children in total.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49Jack's father, Edward John Godfrey, had 12 brothers and sisters,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52eight of whom went on to have families of their own,
0:07:52 > 0:07:55which means Jack had dozens of first cousins.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59If they're still alive, they will be heirs to his estate.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01If any of them have passed away,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04then their children will be in line to inherit.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07It's a dauntingly large family, and at this stage,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10boss Neil is concerned that the potential profit
0:08:10 > 0:08:12may not be worth the amount of work involved.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16It's a big family. The information we've picked up, though,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21is it's just above our threshold and only just above our threshold
0:08:21 > 0:08:23for going back to cousins.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27So we were hoping it wasn't going to be such a big family,
0:08:27 > 0:08:28with it being so close.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Nevertheless, the team keeps moving forward.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34Yeah, I'm on a roll.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Alan has found a number for who he thinks is the son of Jack's aunt, Mabel.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43Case manager Ben makes another call.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48I'm just wondering if you can remember any of your mum's brothers and sisters?
0:08:48 > 0:08:53With Neil's help, he's trying to build up the Godfrey family tree.
0:08:53 > 0:08:54Jim...
0:08:55 > 0:08:57Yeah? And who did he marry?
0:08:59 > 0:09:03It's more good news. The team has found their first heir,
0:09:03 > 0:09:08one of Jack's first cousins, and he's a mine of information about the Godfrey family.
0:09:08 > 0:09:09We think that you're...
0:09:09 > 0:09:14The deceased, he mentioned the fact that he had an aunt, Mabel Nicholls.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17And we weren't sure whether she was from the Godfrey side
0:09:17 > 0:09:20or his mother's side, the Fletcher family.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25It looks as if there are at least 35 cousins on Jack's father's side alone.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28The tree is getting bigger by the minute.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31- Everyone's one of seven or five.- Exactly!
0:09:33 > 0:09:35But that's only half the story.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Researcher Emma has been looking into relatives of Jack's mother, Mary Fletcher.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42If she also had lots of brothers and sisters,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44the team could find itself swamped.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50- He's a boy called Thomas.- Thomas, OK.- We knew that there were three on the top line,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53including the mother. But one of them dies.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58He doesn't seem to die between '01 and '11. That should be that side done.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Jack's mother, Mary, had just two siblings -
0:10:02 > 0:10:05a sister who died without having any children
0:10:05 > 0:10:07and a brother who was illegitimate.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09Because he wasn't a full blood relative to Jack,
0:10:09 > 0:10:11like the other heirs they found,
0:10:11 > 0:10:15his descendants won't be entitled to a share of the estate.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18That side now looks like it's pretty much...
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Um, you know, there's no heirs on that side.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26So it's all about the Godfrey side...which is huge.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29It's a stroke of luck.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Ben and his team can now concentrate their efforts
0:10:32 > 0:10:34on finding Jack's father's family.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Out on the road, travelling researcher Bob Smith
0:10:36 > 0:10:39has been sent to see his first heir.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44I've just been to see a paternal first cousin of our deceased, Jack Godfrey.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Um...he wasn't really able to tell me much information.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50Remembered the deceased.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52Um...
0:10:52 > 0:10:55But he has given me the telephone number of his brother
0:10:55 > 0:10:58who he knows was in regular contact with the deceased
0:10:58 > 0:11:00until the last four or five years.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04So what I'm going to do is, I'll call the office, let them know what's happened,
0:11:04 > 0:11:06It's not a great result.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09The heir hasn't signed with the company.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13- Hello, Ben.- Hi, mate. How are you doing?
0:11:13 > 0:11:14'Yeah, I'm all right.'
0:11:14 > 0:11:16He wasn't particularly welcoming, to be honest.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20- 'Oh, really?'- Yeah. I left the agreements with him.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23I don't know if there's anyone else in the area, actually.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27There is somebody in Hornchurch. There's a stem that we haven't got into.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30She was originally Maud Godfrey.
0:11:30 > 0:11:31Right, OK, mate.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33- 'All right.'- Speak to you later.
0:11:33 > 0:11:34Cheers, Bob. Bye.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Although they've spoken to a couple of beneficiaries,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43the heir hunters still haven't signed anyone up.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Which means rival firms could pip them at the post.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Can Bob make it in time to beat the competition?
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Finding heirs almost always involves delving into the past.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05But some cases take heir hunters further back than others.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09In 2011, the team started working the case
0:12:09 > 0:12:12of a woman called Georgina Pumfrey,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15who had died in West Sussex, aged 102.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22Right from the get-go, senior case manager David Milchard knew it was going to be a tricky one.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25This is going back to the sort of case
0:12:25 > 0:12:29that I probably experienced more when I first started.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33Today you've got so much on the computer and things like that.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35It almost becomes mechanical.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39But going back, you really have to work at some of these cases.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43Georgina died without leaving a will,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47so her estate was advertised on the bona vacantia list of unclaimed estates.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51As rival heir hunters were likely to be looking at the case,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53David knew they had to work fast.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55But he soon discovered that to find any heirs,
0:12:55 > 0:13:01he'd have to go back almost 200 years, to Georgina's grandfather.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05He was born in 1820.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Which, to put it into perspective,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11you're going back to a time when Napoleon had died.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15With a family tree going back so far,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18David and his team would certainly have their work cut out
0:13:18 > 0:13:21to find heirs to Georgina's £54,000 estate.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Georgina Pumfrey died in February 2011
0:13:28 > 0:13:30in Rustington, West Sussex.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Bill McMellan became friendly with her
0:13:33 > 0:13:35in the last few years of her life.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38I was very fond of Georgina.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40It was a pleasure to go and see her.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42She was a very warm person
0:13:42 > 0:13:44and she...
0:13:44 > 0:13:46You just felt good when she was there.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Towards the end of her life,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Georgina had grown frail and had to move into a care home.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57But as a young woman, she'd been a vivacious and artistic character.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00I remember Georgina telling me about painting
0:14:00 > 0:14:03and about how she'd earned her living through painting,
0:14:03 > 0:14:05with a big company in Hove.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09It's quite easy to imagine her painting with a canvas in front of her.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13She was quite a flamboyant person, I think.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16Georgina had never married, nor had children
0:14:16 > 0:14:21and had lived alone since the tragic death of her fiance in 1976.
0:14:23 > 0:14:24One thing about Georgina was that
0:14:24 > 0:14:28although her neighbours and people around were concerned for her,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30she always seemed to be on her own.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33There were no family that I knew of,
0:14:33 > 0:14:37and I didn't hear of her family until after she had died.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41And it seems to me to be terribly, terribly sad
0:14:41 > 0:14:46that there was no contact between her and her living family,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49who would have doted on her, I'm sure.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55A search of birth, marriage and death records
0:14:55 > 0:14:58had revealed that Georgina was an only child,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02with no nieces, nephews, uncles or aunts on either side of the family.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06It was looking increasingly unlikely that there'd be any living heirs.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09But then came a glimmer of hope
0:15:09 > 0:15:12in the shape of Georgina's maternal grandfather, George Rolph.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15The heir hunters' painstaking research
0:15:15 > 0:15:18revealed that Georgina's grandmother, Jane,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20was, in fact, George's second wife.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23His first wife, Eliza,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25had died in 1876.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27If she and George had children,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30they would be half-blood relatives of Georgina.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36From the paternal grandfather's first marriage, we found there was one child,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40an Eliza Emily Rolph, who was born in 1849.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Now that would make her...
0:15:43 > 0:15:46an aunt of the half-blood.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48Which, in the absence of full-blood relatives,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50half-blood then come in.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56With the discovery that Georgina had a half-aunt,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59the heir hunters were finally starting to make some headway.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02But the family story was not a simple one
0:16:02 > 0:16:05and David still had some unravelling to do.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10Everything now rested on whether or not Eliza Emily Rolph had children.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13And the early signs were not good.
0:16:13 > 0:16:19We found that Eliza married when she was about 30
0:16:19 > 0:16:21to a guy called Dennis Power
0:16:21 > 0:16:23in 1886.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25But unfortunately, he died a year later.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28There was obviously no issue from that marriage.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31We thought then it was going to die out again.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35But the heir hunters were not about to give up on this case.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41David and his team went the extra mile to see if Eliza had any children out of wedlock.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43And they struck gold.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47We trawled through some other records,
0:16:47 > 0:16:52and we established that Eliza in fact had an illegitimate daughter...
0:16:53 > 0:16:58..called Emily Louisa Rolph, who was born in 1878.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03This was a significant breakthrough for the heir hunters.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Emily Rolph was Georgina's half-cousin
0:17:06 > 0:17:08and although she had long since died,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10her descendants, if she had any,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13would be heirs to this £54,000 estate.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22This is really going back to what this sort of work is really all about.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25It's going back to where there's almost nothing
0:17:25 > 0:17:28and you're looking for that little bit extra.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32You could so easily have missed this one illegitimate child.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37It's only through the diligent research that you can identify what happens.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41But if it had been missed, it would have been a lost case
0:17:41 > 0:17:44and the money now would be going to the Government.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Fortunately, that was not the case,
0:17:48 > 0:17:52as marriage and birth records revealed that Emily had a large family of her own.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57When she marries, she then goes on to have 11 children,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01which is quite a contrast to the previous generation.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06And she is now survived by a considerable number of grandchildren.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Two of those 16 grandchildren are sisters Dorothy and Beryl.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Their father, Edward, was Emily's youngest child.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19They'd never heard of Georgina,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22and were stunned to find out they were heirs to her estate.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24I thought it was a joke.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28I thought, "There's no way we've got any relations left
0:18:28 > 0:18:30"that would want to get in touch with us."
0:18:30 > 0:18:33So I just thought, "This is going to be a hoax."
0:18:33 > 0:18:37We always thought we might have someone leaving us something one day,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39but we didn't think it was going to come like this!
0:18:39 > 0:18:41We thought we was going to know the person,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45- which would have been nice. It would've been nice to have known her and spoken to her.- Oh, yeah.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51Now, keen to find out more about their mystery benefactor,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55the sisters have come to Georgina's home town in West Sussex.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59She can't go to 102 and everyone forget her. It's not right.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02We've got to find out.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06She had no children, she had no-one. We're the only two to...
0:19:06 > 0:19:08to dig.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12- To find the mystery.- Yeah. Find the mystery of where she came from.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17Georgina spent the last few years of her life in a care home.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20Dorothy and Beryl have decided to call in,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24in the hope of finding out more about their long-lost relative
0:19:24 > 0:19:25and getting a photograph of her.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29We've got a picture.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33That's Georgina. She's very happy in there.
0:19:33 > 0:19:34She was just over 100 then.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37She got a telegram from the Queen and the Prime Minister
0:19:37 > 0:19:39when she was 100.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43She was a fiery lady. If she didn't want to take her medication, there was no way you would make her.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46- And a wash.- And a wash!
0:19:46 > 0:19:49- I'm glad we came down and done all this.- Yeah.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52I feel happier now.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58But the sisters' quest to piece together the puzzle of their family history
0:19:58 > 0:20:00is only just beginning.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04As they move forward, they discover a surprising family secret.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08People just didn't talk about the workhouse to their children.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20Thousands of rightful beneficiaries are tracked down by the heir hunters every year.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22But not all cases can be cracked.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26There are thousands of estates on the Treasury's unclaimed list
0:20:26 > 0:20:30that have eluded the heir hunters and remain unsolved.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33Bona vacantia is Latin
0:20:33 > 0:20:38for "ownerless goods". There are two types of bona vacantia.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42There are the estates of people who die without leaving a will or any entitled blood relatives,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45and there are the assets of dissolved companies.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Today we're focusing on two cases that are yet to be solved by the heir hunters.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52Could you be the beneficiary they're looking for?
0:20:52 > 0:20:56Could you be about to inherit some money from a long-lost relative?
0:20:58 > 0:21:00First is the case of Albert Phillip Ford,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03who died on the 18th of February 2011
0:21:03 > 0:21:06in the West London suburb of Ealing.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08Although Ford is a common name,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11research has already established some basic facts.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15Albert was married to a Sylvia Millicent Strong
0:21:15 > 0:21:18and worked as a lift operator.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22But the heir hunters can't find any record of his birth in 1930.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25And they believe it's possible he was adopted.
0:21:25 > 0:21:26Perhaps you know Albert.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Perhaps you were one of his long-lost relatives.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35Next is the case of Thelma Margaret Williams,
0:21:35 > 0:21:37who died in South Kensington in London
0:21:37 > 0:21:40on the 19th of April 2001.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Her estate is believed to be of substantial value,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48but there are over 400,000 people in the UK
0:21:48 > 0:21:50with the surname Williams,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53so tracing her heirs has proved extremely tricky.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56But perhaps Thelma Margaret Williams
0:21:56 > 0:21:58was a relative of yours.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02Both Thelma and Albert's estates remain unclaimed
0:22:02 > 0:22:06and if no-one comes forward, their money will go to the Government.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11The Crown doesn't want to grab all the estates it possibly can.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14It's keen for kin to be found and for people to make wills.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17That's the way to stop property becoming bona vacantia - make a will.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Do you have any clues that could help solve the cases
0:22:20 > 0:22:21of Albert Phillip Ford
0:22:21 > 0:22:23or Thelma Margaret Williams?
0:22:23 > 0:22:27If so, you could have a fortune coming your way.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38In London, the heir hunters are working the case of Jack Godfrey
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and they're dealing with a colossal family tree.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47We've just been looking primarily at the paternal family, the Godfrey family.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50So we've been tracing quite a few stems.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53A good majority of them survived and had children.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57And they seem to have a lot of children themselves.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59Jack's grandparents, Frank and Eliza,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02had 13 children in total.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04But two of them died as infants.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06Of the 11 who survived,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09nine of them, including Jack's father, Edward,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11went on to have families of their own.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14So Jack had 38 first cousins.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21It looks likely that there are dozens of beneficiaries
0:23:21 > 0:23:23to Jack's £20,000 estate.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26And case manager Ben has spent most of the morning
0:23:26 > 0:23:29trying unsuccessfully to reach them by phone.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41In Essex, Bob Smith is hoping to talk to one of the heirs, Maud, face to face.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44She is a paternal first cousin,
0:23:44 > 0:23:45the lady I'm going to see.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Her father and the deceased's father were brothers.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Bob heads straight for the address
0:23:52 > 0:23:56and without making an appointment, goes to see if Maud is in.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Will she be the first heir to sign up?
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Jack Godfrey passed away on the 9th of January 2012
0:24:05 > 0:24:09at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, southeast London.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11He was 81 years old.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Neighbours Pat Bishop and Geoff Stevenson
0:24:15 > 0:24:16have fond memories of him.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19He was a very nice chap
0:24:19 > 0:24:21and very inoffensive, and um...
0:24:21 > 0:24:24He would always have a smile.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26- He had a bit of a twinkle in his eye as well.- Yeah.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Yeah, he did.
0:24:28 > 0:24:29He was a lovely chap.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Jack never married nor had children
0:24:32 > 0:24:34and he rarely talked about his family.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36He was a solitary soul,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38but he did enjoy company.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40But he didn't seek company.
0:24:40 > 0:24:41He just, er...
0:24:41 > 0:24:44He just did what he did, you know, and enjoyed it.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47But he would stand there often just smiling, with nothing to say,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49and just enjoy being with people, you know?
0:24:49 > 0:24:52- Watching the world go by.- Well, that's what it was. He was a watcher.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55He didn't participate, did he? He just watched.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00In later life, ill health forced Jack to move into sheltered accommodation.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03But before that, he'd lived in the same Woolwich terrace
0:25:03 > 0:25:05for more than 50 years.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08He would always be stopping and talking to somebody.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12A lot of the neighbours would come by and say to me, "How's Jack?"
0:25:12 > 0:25:16And I'd say, "He's in hospital." "Oh, well, hope he's doing all right."
0:25:16 > 0:25:20And you'd see them again and I'd say, "I'm sorry, but Jack passed away." "Oh, I'm sorry about that."
0:25:20 > 0:25:22- There was a lot of people sorry. - Yeah.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25- He was a gentleman, wasn't he?- Yeah.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28- We will remember him.- Oh, absolutely.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33- Won't forget Jack. Part of Woolwich. - Yeah, definitely.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38Bob Smith has come to Essex to try to find a lady called Maud,
0:25:38 > 0:25:40who is one of Jack's first cousins.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45And when he arrives at the address he's been given by the office, there's a surprise in store.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Not one, but two heirs.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Your cousin Jack, he died earlier this year.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55OK? Now, when he died, he hadn't made a will.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And there were no family that were in touch with him
0:25:58 > 0:26:00that could look after his affairs.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Maud and her younger sister, Mary,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06live together in sheltered accommodation.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08It's a stroke of luck for the heir hunters.
0:26:08 > 0:26:13They can save time and money by interviewing the two ladies at the same time.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15When did you marry?
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Er...'47.
0:26:17 > 0:26:18Mr Nicholls?
0:26:18 > 0:26:20To make sure he's got the right people,
0:26:20 > 0:26:25Bob has to check the office's research against the information he gets from Maud and Mary.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27What was your father's name?
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Charles Frank Godfrey.
0:26:34 > 0:26:35The office got it right.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38The ladies are the daughters of Jack's uncle, Charles.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41It's a great result for the heir hunters.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43Well, that went very well.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48Um, I'd turned up to see a paternal first cousin,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52and, surprise, surprise, her sister is sitting there with her!
0:26:52 > 0:26:56So that was quite an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59The interview went well.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02Got lots of good information. I've left the forms with them to consider
0:27:02 > 0:27:05and I'll ring the office now and let them know the good news.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12It's been a long time since Maud and Mary have seen the younger cousin they knew as Jackie.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16We hadn't heard from him for years, you know.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19We used to think about him,
0:27:19 > 0:27:20because he was on his own.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22He was a quiet boy, but he just....
0:27:22 > 0:27:26Sorry to hear that he went like that
0:27:26 > 0:27:28and we hadn't sort of seen him.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32And when you're all getting old, nobody can get to one another
0:27:32 > 0:27:33like they used to, you know.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38The sisters are a mine of information about their large family.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43Our dad had 12 brothers and sisters.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48Maud and Mary's father, Charles, was the fourth of 13 children.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50His younger sister, also called Maud,
0:27:50 > 0:27:54was an aunt to the ladies, and to Jack Godfrey
0:27:54 > 0:27:56and lived on a farm in Devon.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Used to take the kiddies down
0:27:59 > 0:28:02and we'd see them a lot, like Aunt Maud and that.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04But, um...
0:28:04 > 0:28:07And that's where Dad come from originally.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Like, his father and mother
0:28:09 > 0:28:11came from Devonshire.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Like the rest of her siblings, Maud was born in London,
0:28:17 > 0:28:22but at some point she moved to North Devon to live with her grandmother, Mary-Anne Godfrey.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27There, the two women earned a living through the centuries-old craft of Honiton lace-making.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33People have been making lace since 1580, 1590 in Honiton.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35And it's been continuous, right up to the present day.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38This intricate technique requires not only a steady hand,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41but lots of patience.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Just one square inch takes around nine hours,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47which makes for an expensive product.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52And we have wedding veil that was made in 1869
0:28:52 > 0:28:56and it cost £84.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00And in 1869, £84 was an average man's annual salary.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03The lace is named after the east Devon town
0:29:03 > 0:29:06which was once the centre of British lace production.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12In the late 1800s, there was about 4,000 people who lived in Honiton.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14At least half of them made lace.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17It was a cottage industry,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20with the majority of lace being made at home by women
0:29:20 > 0:29:23like Jack's Aunt Maud and great-grandmother Mary-Anne.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28Made in Honiton, it was collected and taken to London, where it was sold.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33Because it was so time-consuming,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36it was very difficult to make a decent living from lace-making,
0:29:36 > 0:29:38but according to Maud and Mary,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41Mary-Anne had a very grand customer.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Me great-grandmum, she was blind
0:29:46 > 0:29:51and she used to crochet collars for Queen Victoria.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54Queen Victoria loved Honiton lace,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57and was a great promoter of the industry.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01The white silk dress and veil she wore to marry Prince Albert in 1840
0:30:01 > 0:30:03was trimmed with Honiton lace
0:30:03 > 0:30:05and throughout her life,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08she commissioned many pieces for ceremonial garments.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14Mary-Anne used to sell her lace through one of the small shops in Honiton.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18According to family legend, one piece caught the eye of the agent
0:30:18 > 0:30:21that Queen Victoria used to send to the town to buy her lace.
0:30:21 > 0:30:27She said, "I like that one." She said, "Well, that's an old lady that's blind that does them."
0:30:27 > 0:30:31"Ooh," she said. And she had a scroll, me aunt,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34from Queen Victoria.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43Back in the office, the heir hunters have now finally
0:30:43 > 0:30:47broken the back of Jack Godfrey's sprawling family tree.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50They think they've identified most of the living relatives
0:30:50 > 0:30:53and case manager Ben has been on the phone all day,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56trying to talk to as many of them as he can.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59Hello. Is it possible to speak to Mrs Bishop, please?
0:30:59 > 0:31:04The team now knows of around 50 heirs to Jack's £20,000 estate.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08And Ben is hopeful they will sign up with the company.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11I've made contact with at least all the stems at the moment, apart from one.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14There's quite a few beneficiaries on each stem.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17We've just been making sure we've got the correct addresses.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20With the value of the estate, we're probably going to write to everyone.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23It's a huge tree, so it's a big undertaking.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27It might not be much of a reward, but it's definitely an interesting family.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Everyone's been really helpful with the research, so it's been OK.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34At the end of the day, partner Neil can rest a little easier
0:31:34 > 0:31:38now he finally knows the case was one worth working.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42It's been one of those days. We've started the case, started the research,
0:31:42 > 0:31:46hoping really that we may find some value.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48Um...but not really expecting to find any.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53From the enquiry, we've identified probably about £20,000 worth of assets,
0:31:53 > 0:31:55maybe a bit more than that,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58which means we're working the case. It's above our threshold. We're working it.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02Haven't identified any competition. I think a lot of the competition would be scared off
0:32:02 > 0:32:06and they probably haven't identified that this estate's got some value.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08So, quite a good day for us.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12Not, obviously, life-changing amounts of money for any of the beneficiaries,
0:32:12 > 0:32:16but by the end of it, they're going to get a family tree they didn't know about before
0:32:16 > 0:32:19and they're going to get a couple of hundred pounds.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28Sisters Dorothy and Beryl are getting to grips with the news
0:32:28 > 0:32:30that they're in line to inherit money
0:32:30 > 0:32:33from a mystery relative called Georgina Pumfrey.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37I honestly thought it was a hoax.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39Because it wasn't until I spoke to my brother Joey
0:32:39 > 0:32:42and my sister Dorothy
0:32:42 > 0:32:45that I found out they'd all had letters as well.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49So then I thought, "Well, who is this Georgina Pumfrey?" Cos I don't know who she is.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55Georgina was 102 years old when she died in West Sussex.
0:32:55 > 0:32:59Bill McMellan became her friend in the last few years of her life.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03It sounds trite, almost, but there was a twinkle in her eye.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06I understand that she liked to dance.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08And...
0:33:08 > 0:33:11Yes, I can remember almost dancing around me
0:33:11 > 0:33:12when I spoke with her.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16And my biggest memory of her
0:33:16 > 0:33:19is...apart from her face, which was... She was very warm.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23Perhaps you could say she was eccentric.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Georgina became frail in her late nineties,
0:33:26 > 0:33:27and had to move into a care home,
0:33:27 > 0:33:31but up until then, she'd lived alone in a small cottage.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34Georgina was a very independent person.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36The house was her territory.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38She liked having all her things around her.
0:33:38 > 0:33:44You very much felt that you were a guest in her domain when you went to see her.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47She was very attached to the house
0:33:47 > 0:33:51and she... It was a terrible shame that she left the house.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54When she moved into a home, she enjoyed the company,
0:33:54 > 0:33:58but she always wanted to move back to her own home.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00And although she'd lived alone,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04Georgina was a sociable person, who was popular with her neighbours.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09My impression is that the people who lived around were fond of her
0:34:09 > 0:34:10and concerned for her.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13But she was also a very warm person
0:34:13 > 0:34:18and would have been delighted to have found that she had family.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Solving the case of Georgina Pumfrey
0:34:22 > 0:34:26was a tricky job for Fraser & Fraser's senior case manager, David Milchard.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31He had to go right back to Georgina's grandfather,
0:34:31 > 0:34:36George Rolph, in order to start searching for heirs to her £54,000 estate.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41Napoleon had died in the same year her grandfather was born,
0:34:41 > 0:34:42in 1820.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44To go back so far...
0:34:44 > 0:34:49and to find half-blood, it makes a nice change.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52But thanks to the heir hunters' persistence,
0:34:52 > 0:34:57Georgina's estate will now be divided up between her 25 rightful heirs,
0:34:57 > 0:35:00including sisters Dorothy and Beryl.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08Keen to find out more about the distant relative they never knew existed,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12they've set off on a fact-finding mission to West Sussex,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15and have managed to find the small cottage Georgina called home
0:35:15 > 0:35:17until she was well into her nineties.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Let's try round the back.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26The house has been lying empty since Georgina went into a home,
0:35:26 > 0:35:28and has fallen into disrepair.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Very sad to see the way she lived, the way it is,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36because you'd have thought somebody would have helped to get it put nice for her.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40But I'm sure, cos of her age, that's why it's all run down.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45But it's lovely. Lovely cottage. Seems like a nice little village.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48It doesn't look as big as I thought it would.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50It's not as big as the man's next door.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52Mmm.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54- She's got an outside toilet.- Yeah? - Yeah!- Oh.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59The trip to Georgina's home town has been an enlightening one for the sisters.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06But there's another family mystery that they're keen to solve.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09While searching for Georgina's surviving family,
0:36:09 > 0:36:14heir hunter David Milchard stumbled across something unusual about Eliza Rolph,
0:36:14 > 0:36:18Georgina's half-aunt and Dorothy and Beryl's great-grandmother.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23We've then come across the 1911 census.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27And this is quite interesting, in that it appears that, um...
0:36:27 > 0:36:29she was an inmate
0:36:29 > 0:36:33in Parkhurst, which I assume was the prison.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Further investigations reveal that the institution referred to on the census
0:36:38 > 0:36:42was not actually a prison, but a workhouse on the Isle of Wight.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46This information has raised a lot of questions for Dorothy and Beryl.
0:36:46 > 0:36:52Keen to know more, they're on their way to meet workhouse historian Peter Higginbotham.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Workhouses were first introduced in England and Wales in the 17th century
0:36:57 > 0:36:59and were set up to house and feed people
0:36:59 > 0:37:02who were too poor to support themselves.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07By Victorian times, the workhouse had gained a terrible reputation
0:37:07 > 0:37:11as a grim, harsh place, to be avoided by all but the truly destitute.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14I had a great-great-grandfather who died in the workhouse.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18and when I first learned that, I was quite taken aback to think...
0:37:18 > 0:37:20"That sounds a bit grim."
0:37:20 > 0:37:24What was this place? I'd heard of Oliver Twist, and, you know...
0:37:24 > 0:37:25It sounded pretty horrendous.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28But when you actually dig in a bit more,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31it's actually interesting to discover what it was really like
0:37:31 > 0:37:33and how it actually changed over the years.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36It was the welfare system that we had
0:37:36 > 0:37:38prior to the National Health Service.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43And we often forget, really, what it was like for everyday life.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46When you hear, "In the workhouse, they had this to eat
0:37:46 > 0:37:48"and there were these rules and regulations,"
0:37:48 > 0:37:50it's very easy to go,
0:37:50 > 0:37:51"That sounds horrendous."
0:37:51 > 0:37:55But you always have to compare it to what life was like outside
0:37:55 > 0:38:00at the same time. And life outside, for poor people in Victorian times, was very hard.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05Nevertheless, the workhouse was seen as the absolute last resort,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08where only the most desperate people turned for help.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11Peter has found Eliza on the 1911 census,
0:38:11 > 0:38:16living in the Union Workhouse on the Isle of Wight, at the age of 61.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19When you went into a workhouse, the first thing that happened to you was
0:38:19 > 0:38:22your own clothing was put into store
0:38:22 > 0:38:24and you were given this workhouse uniform.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26You had to have a bath,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28to make sure you were nice and clean.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33Would it have been a choice for her to go to the workhouse, or could she have...?
0:38:33 > 0:38:35Well, technically, it WAS a choice.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Um...no-one was forced into the workhouse
0:38:38 > 0:38:41except from their own circumstances.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44So if you were sick, you had no money...
0:38:44 > 0:38:46You know, the rent's due...
0:38:46 > 0:38:48then what do you do?
0:38:49 > 0:38:52How and why their great-grandmother ended up on the Isle of Wight
0:38:52 > 0:38:54is a mystery to Dorothy and Beryl.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57Even more puzzling is the revelation
0:38:57 > 0:39:00that while Eliza was living a grim existence in the workhouse,
0:39:00 > 0:39:06her daughter Emily was living in London with her own husband and children.
0:39:06 > 0:39:07Why didn't she go to her daughter's?
0:39:07 > 0:39:10Why didn't they take her in?
0:39:10 > 0:39:13The over-riding thing about the workhouse
0:39:13 > 0:39:15was the shame
0:39:15 > 0:39:16attached to it.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Emily may have actually wanted to block this out
0:39:19 > 0:39:21from her life, you know,
0:39:21 > 0:39:25and not tell the children that their grandmother was in the workhouse.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27It's really difficult to imagine
0:39:27 > 0:39:30how awful this was viewed,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33and people just didn't talk about the workhouse to their children.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39The possibility that their grandmother Emily kept her mother's plight a secret
0:39:39 > 0:39:41comes as a shock to the sisters.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46It'd be a shame if she died and she didn't know she had all those grandchildren.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49I think myself personally that she was ashamed of her being in there.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53That's what I would have thought.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56And then she just thought, "I'll cut my ties."
0:39:58 > 0:40:00Despite their grim reputations,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04conditions inside workhouses had improved a lot by the early 1900s.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08Here's a picture of a workhouse dining hall,
0:40:08 > 0:40:10where Eliza would have found herself
0:40:10 > 0:40:13surrounded by rows and rows of other inmates,
0:40:13 > 0:40:15with their daily ration of food.
0:40:15 > 0:40:20In the 1830s, 1840s, it certainly was bread
0:40:20 > 0:40:22and gruel.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25By 1900, 1910, things had changed.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27I've actually here got quite a rare thing.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30This is the original workhouse cookery book
0:40:30 > 0:40:32from 1901.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34You've got fish pie
0:40:34 > 0:40:36and dumplings
0:40:36 > 0:40:39and...cake. Plain cakes.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42Not much different to what you eat now, today, really.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45Once she got into the workhouse, could our great-grandmother have come out?
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Once you're in there, it wasn't a prison,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50and if Emily had turned up on the doorstep
0:40:50 > 0:40:54saying, "Mother, I hadn't realised you were here. I've come to take you,"
0:40:54 > 0:40:56that would have been absolutely fine.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Sadly, it appears Emily never did come to collect her mother
0:41:00 > 0:41:04and Eliza died in the workhouse infirmary in 1917
0:41:04 > 0:41:06at the age of 68.
0:41:07 > 0:41:08That's sad.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13I can't believe I'm getting emotional. That's stupid.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19At the end of their meeting with Peter,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22the sisters take a moment to reflect on how far they've come
0:41:22 > 0:41:26since they first found out they were heirs to Georgina Pumfrey's estate.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31- We would never have done this ourselves, never have found it in a million years.- No.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33Wouldn't know where to start.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37It's all down to Georgina. It's just a shame that we didn't know about her when she was alive.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40Cos she could have told us so much more.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43Well, she didn't know she had any family, so...
0:41:43 > 0:41:45If she'd have known she had a family,
0:41:45 > 0:41:49we could have all gone to meet her as well, which would have been nice.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53It's been an emotional journey for Dorothy and Beryl,
0:41:53 > 0:41:58but for heir hunter David Milchard, who's managed to overcome several obstacles
0:41:58 > 0:42:00to track down 25 heirs,
0:42:00 > 0:42:02there's a real sense of achievement.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06I'm quite proud of the guys who did the research that they...
0:42:08 > 0:42:10..not so much went back so far,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14but it was the fact that they were able to, through the records,
0:42:14 > 0:42:17identify an illegitimate child.
0:42:17 > 0:42:18Had we not done that,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21then we wouldn't have a case now.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24We wouldn't be making any fees of the value that we've got money
0:42:24 > 0:42:29or be giving information about the family they didn't know.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32And, in fact, any money that's in the estate
0:42:32 > 0:42:35would be sitting in the Government Treasury now.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44If you would like advice about building a family tree
0:42:44 > 0:42:46or making a will, go to...
0:42:54 > 0:42:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd