Bone/Jones Heir Hunters

Heir Hunter's specialise in tracking down people

who are in line to inherit money from relatives who have passed away.

Often, the family members they find have no idea they're entitled.

It was a real shock to find out Arnold had died

and that they... I could be an heir.

Their work involves expert research.

It says two Royston Briers,

both born on the 29th of December, one in 1885, one in 1886.

And can often uncover fascinating family secrets.

Absolutely no idea about any of that at all.

But most of all, it's about giving news of an unexpected windfall.

Could the heir hunters be knocking at your door?

Coming up, the race is on to find heirs to a 1.3 million pound estate.

It's frustrating. I've got the right family, just can't get to see them.

Research on the estate of a Cheshire man goes all the way to the Emerald Isle.

It's necessary to go over to Ireland,

and for me, personally, to do the work.

Plus, how you could be entitled to inherit unclaimed estates

held by the Treasury.

Could thousands of pounds be heading your way?

It's a Wednesday afternoon at the offices of

heir hunting company Fraser & Fraser, in London.

Boss, Neil, has received an unexpected tip-off about

a lucrative new case. That of Stanley Bone.

This isn't our usual sort of case. This hasn't come in overnight,

it hasn't come in first thing in the morning. It's 3.30 now.

It's a £1.3 million estate, which probably means I'm going to be here

till well into the night.

The company have got wind of this huge estate

before it's advertised by the Treasury Solicitor as "unclaimed".

But although it appears that they've got a head start,

it's possible rival firms have received the same information,

so the team need to work fast.

I'm going to give it to one of our senior case managers,

so it'll probably go to David Slee or David Pacifico.

And he will have the full resources of the firm.

He'll be able to pull on exactly who he wants to travel on it,

which senior researchers on the road will be working,

which senior researchers downstairs will be looking at it.

It's a top priority case. It's a very valuable case.

It means we cannot slow down, we have to work this extremely quickly,

but, at the same time, very professionally.

The team have established that Stanley

didn't marry or have children.

With the clock ticking, their next task is to get hold of

his birth certificate to see if it reveals any more information.

I was phoning a couple of registry offices around the area of

St John's Wood, where the deceased died.

I tried Brent and Camden, they don't hold it,

so I'm hoping Westminster have it.

I've tried phoning them but they say they can't do a search for me,

so I'm sending Ewart there tomorrow morning when he does the enquiry.

Stanley Bone died on the 6th of February, 2012,

at his home in St John's Wood, London.

Stanley worked for the Metropolitan Police.

When colleague Terry Oglethorpe first met him in the 1970s,

he was stationed at a rather prestigious location.

He was working at Buckingham Palace, where he did his duties,

on ceremonial duties and that type of thing.

And also on Royalty Protection in those early days.

And that would be his full-time job.

But Stanley kept his work life very separate from his home life.

He was also a very, very private man,

and always mixed well with colleagues.

He didn't have any problems from that point of view.

He kept himself to himself,

and that's how he liked it, how he wanted it.

After retiring from the police,

Stanley developed a very different interest.

His main, um, hobby

was stocks and shares,

and, really, that's what he was into.

He used to take a great delight in it.

It was all his life, you know?

Regardless of what else he did, he was into it.

There's no two ways about it.

He should have been a banker himself, I think, by the sound of it.

But in the office it's all hands on deck,

as the team search for heirs to Stanley's huge £1.3 million estate.

On a case like this, Neil and his team will be working for

a pre-agreed percentage of the estate,

which could make this a high-earning job.

But only if they can find and sign up heirs

ahead of rival heir hunting firms.

Um, we didn't check, probably, for her, did we?

I mean, I know she's died '72,

but it could just kick into '73, couldn't it?

And the team have already hit difficulties.

They need a copy of Stanley's death certificate,

which will confirm his date of birth

and may reveal other useful information.

But Westminster Register Office is closed for the day, which means waiting until the morning.

In the meantime, the team are going to gamble and use guesswork.

He's meant to be in the police, or retired police, um,

he's also meant to be about 71 years old. It doesn't quite seem right

if he's been retired 30 years from the police,

he should have retired about 50,

so therefore he should be in the mid-70s, early 80s.

So he may be 81, he may be a little older,

but initially we'll have to work on the age of being 71 years old.

Other than that, I haven't got anything on him.

I don't know his parents, I don't think he's married

or has any children. I don't know about brothers and sisters until we've done some research.

Really, a blank sheet for us to work from.

Working with the theory that Stanley was 71 when he died,

the team look for births in 1940 - and find nothing.

But when they try 1930 births they find two.

One in Woolwich, and the other, a Stanley H Bone,

in Staines in Middlesex.

They can't confirm which death is right until tomorrow,

but with time ticking on,

Neil decides to hedge his bets and work up the Woolwich birth.

The issues we've got is we've nothing to confirm this is the right birth.

We've ruled off a lot of the others, and this is the best of the bunch.

If it is the wrong birth, then anything we do after this,

anything we do from here on is going to be totally rubbish

and we might as well just throw it away.

So fingers crossed we have identified the right one.

The team are able to establish the Stanley Bone born in Woolwich

was the only child of Arthur Bone and Alice Hart.

As there were no siblings, the team must look to the wider family,

and they soon discover that Arthur had seven siblings.

Their descendents would be heirs to Stanley's seven figure estate.

With the office closed, Neil is now working alone,

but it's not long before he thinks he's found a potential cousin.

He is the youngest child off the youngest aunt of the deceased

on the paternal side,

so if we're ever going to find the child alive,

or a first cousin alive, it's going to be the youngest off the youngest.

I have now got an up-to-date address for him,

and a phone number, in Dover in Kent.

Neil has a number for this possible heir,

but as he's a gentleman in his seventies,

Neil decides to phone his daughter instead.

Sorry to trouble you. I'm Neil Fraser,

a genealogist and probate researcher, phoning from Central London.

I'm sorry to trouble you so late on a Tuesday.

The reason I'm calling, as I just explained to your husband,

we were hoping to speak to your father,

but I know he's born in 1935 and didn't really want to worry him,

that's why I'm contacting his children first.

We are genealogists and probate researchers.

We specialise in locating missing and unknown beneficiaries.

Neil is able to confirm some details about the lady's immediate family.

I think he's got a brother Frank, a brother Bill, or William,

and Nelly as well. Sister Nell.

I don't know if any of them are alive or anything.

They're all alive, are they?

It's a positive call, and the daughter is able to confirm her father would be an heir,

but only if the team are working the right family.

What I don't know is if the stem is actually connected to our deceased.

So we've got huge problems still, trying to prove that this is

one and the same family.

As it stands at the moment, it's a bit up in the air.

Frustratingly for Neil, there's little more he can do

but go home and hope that tomorrow he and the team can solve the case.

The following morning the race is back on.

The company have sent senior researcher Bob Barratt

to Westminster Register Office

to pick up the all-important death certificate.

Bob is one of the firm's trusty travelling researchers.

He's primed to help the office by going to Register Offices,

knocking on neighbours' doors, or visiting heirs.

The team are hoping that when Bob collects the death certificate

it will confirm that Stanley was born in 1930,

and the research Neil did last night was correct.

But in the office, Dave Slee, who is now leading the research, has put in

a call to the Coroner's Office and got some crucial information.

That was really, really helpful.

The Coroner's Court knew very little about him, other than his age, 81.

Ties in perfectly with this 1930 birth,

so I'm really pleased we've got that information, if nothing else.

Nollaig, Nollaig, that looks brilliant, that birth.

-Is it him?

-Yeah, Coroner's Court told me he's 81.

-19th.

-Bang on.

-Bang on.

Circa '31, there.

The confirmation that the deceased was 81 is great news,

as this match is the Stanley Bone they've already started working.

But they can't get too excited yet

as there are still two Stanley Bones born in 1930.

One in Woolwich, in South East London,

and one in Feltham, in West London.

Yesterday, the team took a huge gamble

by working up the Woolwich birth,

but Dave Slee is beginning to wonder if they've got it wrong.

In theory, Stanley Hector, in Feltham,

is a better birth for where the deceased dies

than Stanley who died in Woolwich. Did you see that? Feltham.

-What's that?

-Feltham. That's not a million miles from where he dies.

Mmm.

They'll only know when they get the information from the death certificate,

and Bob Barratt is on the phone from Westminster Register Office.

-Hi, Bob.

-Hello, Dave. I've got Stanley Bone's death certificate.

They've given you it now, brilliant.

So we've got Stanley Bone, died 6th of February, 2012,

in Grove Hall Court.

The date and place of birth, 12th of September, 1930, in Woolwich.

12th of September. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

Yeah.

Good. Is there anywhere you want me to head for?

For the moment, take a well-deserved cup of tea and we'll crack on with this.

-We've definitely got the right family.

-Cheers now, bye.

After an anxious wait, it's the news they've been hoping for.

The Stanley Bone born in Woolwich is correct,

and Neil's gamble has paid off.

But this £1.3 million case is far from solved.

The team have lost valuable time waiting for the death certificate

and must now work flat-out to ensure they find and sign up heirs ahead of any rival firms.

At the moment, I can't get to see anyone,

can't get anyone on the telephone,

and the certificates are not leading us to any decent informants

that now we can interview.

Every Thursday, the Treasury Solicitor

releases a list of unclaimed estates,

and if no relatives can be found,

the money in these estates will go to the government.

In 2010, the name Victor Jones appeared on this list,

and Peter Birchwood, from heir hunting company Celtic Research,

took up the search for heirs

that would end up taking him on a voyage overseas.

It was necessary to go over to Ireland,

and for me, personally, to do the work.

Victor Joseph Anthony Jones passed away in a nursing home

in Runcorn, Cheshire, on the 26th of February, 2010.

He was 80 years old. Fred Boon was one of Victor's neighbours.

Didn't see much of him because it was only now and again

when he showed himself, you know?

No photos survive of Victor, and it seems he was

something of an enigmatic figure in the local community.

The first time I saw him was a well-dressed man,

being pushed in a wheelchair, coming past my house.

That was in the road.

I saw him once out the back. I said, "Good morning, Mr Jones."

He said, "Good morning," and that's it.

He was a man that liked to be left alone.

Victor's reclusive nature meant that he was destined to remain a mystery.

I had no idea if he had a wife or not.

I don't know much about it, although I've been living here all them years.

As soon as he picked up the case of Victor Jones, Peter,

who runs his company with son Hector,

realised they would need to move fast.

This case is a reasonable-sized one. It's worth about £150,000,

so pretty certainly there were going to be competitive elements.

And we had to do the research as quickly as possible.

The company work on a commission basis,

which means they must get to heirs ahead of rival firms.

One way they do this is by having case managers

based in different parts of the country.

I have various case managers, they all have their own little niches, their expertise.

Saul, in Liverpool, works on cases in that area.

He's also an expert on Jewish genealogy.

Phil down in South Wales works on Welsh records,

and also anything to do with South Africa.

As it seemed clear that Victor Jones was going to be a Welsh case,

Peter turned to Welsh records expert Phil,

who immediately knew he was facing a tough challenge.

When they passed me the case and said it was a "Jones" case, I went, "No! Here we go again."

Jones is the most common surname in Wales.

In fact, almost one-in-six Welsh people are named Jones.

As a result, tracing this common name can feel like

looking for a needle in a haystack.

It makes it hard to find because the possibilities of children

of a Jones-Jones marriage is multiplied hundreds of times.

But Phil was determined he would not be beaten on such a valuable case.

According to his death certificate, Victor had died a widower,

so Phil quickly checked to see if Victor had any children, and found none.

Phil's next job was to look for any brothers or sister he might have.

To do this, he first had to trace Victor's parents,

Stanley Jones and Elizabeth Holland.

Using the mother's maiden name, we found that he was an only child.

The fact that Victor had no siblings meant the team would now

have to expand their search and look for cousins, who could be entitled.

That wasn't the only thing Phil was able to report back to Peter.

He got the marriage certificate of the parents of the deceased,

and from that and from the information on the 1911 Census,

it was clear that the maternal family were Irish.

With half the family in Wales and half in Ireland

and with the threat of competition ever present,

it was time for the team to divide and conquer.

I didn't have the expertise to find the Irish side of things.

I immediately gave it to Peter, who's an expert at Irish research.

So whilst Phil tackled the paternal Jones side of the family,

Peter set about tackling the Irish connection, a challenge he relished.

Irish research, now it can be difficult, it can be tricky,

and it can be sometimes almost impossible,

but my particular little speciality is Irish research.

But with the pressure on to find heirs ahead of their rivals,

the Irish research could make or break the case.

I was concerned about the Irish side of the family.

That had to be dealt with.

Fortunately, Phi's research had given Peter a head start.

From the marriage certificate of the parents of the deceased,

it was obvious that this was a middle-class family.

The grandfather of the deceased on the Holland side was John Holland.

He was a teacher, a headmaster.

The mother of the deceased had been a teacher herself,

so I was looking for a family probably in the professions.

Peter was off to a good start,

and in South Wales things were even better.

Phil had been able to cross-reference Census records

to establish that Victor's father, Stanley, had two brothers,

Thomas and Trevor, and one sister, Violet.

Phil needed to establish whether any of these siblings

had any living descendants. The eldest of the three, Violet,

was born in Newport, but passenger records showed that

she'd travelled to India in 1920.

It later transpired that she made this epic voyage

in order to become a missionary.

Missionaries have been around almost as long as the Christian church.

They are people who leave the place where they are,

were brought up, to travel to different parts of the world

to tell people about Jesus Christ.

But they're also people who believe that they should show compassion

to other human beings, that they should offer forms of service,

whether it be education, health work, and that kind of thing.

Until the early 20th Century,

missionaries had been almost exclusively male.

But Violet was part of a new wave of females taking up the mantle.

The First World War had opened up greater opportunities for women.

They had had to work in ways that were new, or different,

and so I wider number of women now had the opportunity

to work as missionaries.

Increasingly, they were sent to teaching colleges, and in schools,

and sent to be nurses and indeed doctors.

Violet's nursing training meant that she was able to travel the globe,

helping those in need.

And she was sent to Chikkaballapur Hospital, near Bangalore.

This was a new hospital.

It had been established in 1913. It had 60 beds at the time.

And it was set up to respond to a desperate need

for the local population for basic medical care.

Once there, in very challenging circumstances,

Violet's skills would have been pushed to the limit.

Violet would have been called upon to do

a variety of jobs within the hospital.

She wasn't a doctor, but she would've been expected to assist the doctor.

She would have probably found that the skills she'd learnt in the UK

were stretched, and she would almost certainly have

come into contact with diseases that were unfamiliar in the UK.

The work that she and other staff carried out at Chikkaballapur

saved countless lives,

helping to stem the spread of many fatal diseases.

We know there was an outbreak of plague,

and that the hospital dealt very well with that outbreak

and managed to reduce its seriousness in the area.

And perhaps most notably, the healthcare that they offered there

was available to everyone who needed it.

The hospital that Violet Jones worked in

was very important for the local community.

It was very significant for the poorest people in that community,

the people who were considered outcaste, or low caste,

and Violet would have been involved in their care.

Missionaries at the hospital welcomed, with open arms, those considered "untouchable",

and outcasts according to the Hindu class system.

As a result, many converts were born.

The Indians who became Christians as a result of this whole movement were the outcaste and lower caste.

About 60% of the Indian population today,

probably, possibly even more, come from those outcaste groups.

They saw it as a form of liberation.

But having dedicated her life to religion, Victor's Aunt Violet

never married or had children,

which meant that in the search for heirs to Victor's estate,

Phil's search now focused on her brothers, Thomas and Trevor.

In North Wales, company boss and Irish specialist Peter

was making great progress with Victor's mother's family.

The mother of the deceased was born in County Cork, in Ballinspittle.

Using the online records, Peter was able to gather some basic

information about the family, but it wasn't enough to crack the case.

The information that I got from Ireland helped out,

but it wasn't conclusive.

I'd done as much as I could with the online records

and the records that we've got here at the office.

If Peter wanted to stay ahead of rival firms,

he knew he needed to go that extra mile.

I decided that, given the probability of competition,

that it was necessary to go over to Ireland

and for me, personally, to do the work.

And as Peter began to make real headway on the ground...

Fortunately, I found a historian who knew of the family.

A relative on the other side of the family was in for a big surprise.

I knew virtually nothing about Victor Jones.

I didn't really know he existed.

Heir hunters trace thousands of rightful beneficiaries every year,

but not all cases can be cracked.

There are thousands of estates on the Treasury's Bona Vacantia list

that have eluded the heir hunters and remain unsolved.

The Bona Vacantia Division deals with the estates of people who die

without leaving a will, or any entitled blood relatives.

Today we're focusing on two cases that are yet to be solved by the heir hunters.

Could you be the beneficiary they're looking for?

Could you be about to inherit some money from a long-lost relative?

First is the case of Doris Heffer, who died on the 16th March, 1998,

in Ealing, in West London.

There are only around 750 people in Britain

who share the unusual surname of Heffer.

Are you one of them? And if so, could you be a relative of Doris,

entitled to a share of her estate?

Next, can you shed any light on the case of George Edward Bainton?

He died on the 8th April, 1997,

and his place of death is simply listed as The Willows.

It's likely the name Bainton originates from Yorkshire,

but these days, Bath is where the name is most commonly found.

Did you know George, or do you have any information about his family?

Both George and Doris' estates remain unclaimed,

and if no one comes forward their money will go to the government.

Money raised by the division is ultimately passed to

the General Exchequer, which benefits the country as a whole.

Do you have any clues that could help solve the cases of Doris Heffer

or George Edward Bainton?

If so, you could have thousands of pounds coming your way.

From their offices in Wales,

the team at Celtic Research were racing against the competition

to find heirs on the £150,000 estate of Victor Jones.

Victor Joseph Anthony Jones died in Runcorn, Cheshire,

on the 26th February, 2010. No photos remain of him.

Neighbour Fred Boon can remember seeing him out and about

very occasionally.

Well dressed, he had a...

He was a bit taller than me. He was a slim man,

wasn't tubby or anything, was very slim.

But Victor never engaged beyond a brief hello.

He kept himself to himself. He never mingled with people all that much,

as far as I know.

And his private manner meant Victor

and the details of his life remain a mystery.

But one thing was for sure. Victor had left a sizeable estate,

and the race was on to find his rightful beneficiaries.

To try and stay ahead, company boss Peter

had decided they should split the research in two.

The paternal Jones side of the family was

handed over to case manager Phil, who specialises in Welsh research.

All Welsh cases, where the names tend to be somewhat common,

then Phil has got such an expertise in that.

He knows where to go for the records. He's pretty successful.

While Phil was trying to keep up with all the Joneses,

Peter had taken on the maternal Holland side of the family,

who were all in Ireland.

I'd managed to put together a family tree of the Holland family in Cork,

but I knew that it was going to need to be developed,

and that was when I decided to go over to Ireland.

It was a gamble, but Peter hoped that by investing time and money

going to Ireland, he'd be able to find Victor's heirs

and win the company valuable commission.

Irish research often means scouring parish records.

-Morning. Father Healey?

-That's right. You're welcome. How are you?

And in the past, trips to Ireland have really paid off for Peter.

-I have it for you.

-Do you?

-Oh, wow!

-Wow.

But would this trip be as successful?

Because working in Ireland does have its own problems when it comes to research.

Christian names can differ. Nora can be Honora.

Patrick can be anything from Paddy to Paul.

You've got to use your sense of adventure

when you're going through Irish records.

Peter was trying to establish whether Victor's mother, Elizabeth,

had any siblings whose descendents would be heirs.

Faced with tricky records, Peter decided on a different strategy

and went straight to the family's hometown.

I got to the town of Ballinspittle and I asked people about the family,

and, fortunately, I found a historian who knew of the family

because, when he had been in school as a young boy, one of the members,

Miss Nora Holland, had been his teacher.

And Nora Holland was an aunt of the deceased,

and he was able to take me to one of the local cemeteries,

and we saw her grave and that of her father.

It was a brilliant stroke of fortune,

and Peter knew exactly where to go next.

I managed to contact the priest,

who was good enough to go through the records,

and, at that point, we managed to find the dates of baptism of

what we now believe to be the entire Holland family,

and there were 12 of them, of whom one died as an infant.

This was the crucial information that Peter needed,

but although the trip to Ireland had paid off,

the research on the maternal side of the family is far from over.

Because Victor had 11 aunts and uncles,

most of whom had several children of their own, the family tree is huge.

I've found about 20 heirs so far,

the majority of whom are in Canada.

I would expect there will be quite a few more to find.

But whilst the Irish research is still a work in progress,

in South Wales, Phil was trying to crack

the difficult Jones side of the family.

The name is Jones,

and even with middle names it was still very difficult.

Things were looking pretty desperate

until a check of the probate record revealed that,

whilst Victor's uncle Trevor hadn't left a will, his wife had.

Wills are great if they give information.

Sometimes they don't give much information,

but in this particular case, both wills gave a lot of information.

They listed the names of the children and grandchildren.

In a brilliant breakthrough, Phil had struck gold

and uncovered his first heirs.

Even better, he'd done so before the competition.

With a bit more work, it wasn't long before he managed to find

six heirs on the paternal side,

all now entitled to a share of Victor's £150,000 estate.

Isobel is Victor's cousin once-removed,

and one of the heirs Phil found through her grandmother's will.

News of her inheritance was a surprise on many different levels.

I knew virtually nothing about Victor Jones.

Um, I didn't really know he existed.

I think my family, they weren't terribly close on my father's side.

He used to keep in touch with his two sisters, although not that often.

But not with... The extended family,

we knew little about him, they didn't keep in touch.

It was a weird feeling to know that, you know,

you might have some money from someone you didn't even know existed.

The knowledge she's now inheriting from

a mystery family member has been a turning point for Isobel.

Since this started, it's got me thinking about the family

and wanting to find out more, particularly when there are people you didn't even know existed.

You wonder what they were like. It's a shame we couldn't have met when they were alive.

While she doesn't know much about her father's family,

she knows there was one figure that was very dear to him.

I know he was fond of Aunty Violet. Aunty Vi they used to call her.

She's somebody who fascinates me. I'd love to have met her,

because she sounds a real character. I know she used to write to him

when he was in the Second World War. He was an aircraft fitter in the RAF.

She used to write him long letters,

but she had terrible writing and he couldn't read them.

So he used to get his friends in the billet,

they used to look at the letter to try and decipher it

so that he could know what to say in reply.

So, um, but that's about all I know about her really,

and the fact that she was a missionary in India,

but I don't know when exactly, or how long she was there.

And now that she's been contacted by the team,

Isobel can't wait to discover more.

For me, it was never about the money. It's finding out about the family

and if there are any good stories,

and finding other members of the family we didn't know existed.

In London, the team at Fraser & Fraser

are working the case of Stanley Bone following a tip-off.

They understand the estate is worth an incredible £1.3 million.

It's really rare to find an estate that's potentially

really valuable - and have no competition.

The combination of both is a luxury.

But although the team are confident they're the only ones working

this seven-figure case, there's a chance rival firms are onto it, too.

So they need to sign up heirs as fast as they can.

Stanley died on the 6th February, 2012,

at home in St John's Wood, London, aged 81.

He had been a police officer with the Metropolitan Police.

Terry Oglethorpe first met Stanley in the 1970s,

when he was a protection officer at Buckingham Palace.

Stanley turned to Terry when he was looking for a new job opportunity.

With being an older man, he wasn't really suitable

to go back out on the streets, like a probationer, again.

Stanley went over to the Palace of Westminster for a trial period,

and they found him excellent with his job.

Very good, very loyal.

Um, and that's what he carried on.

Terry stayed in touch with Stanley after they retired,

although his personal life always remained a mystery.

I never knew anything about family. He never, ever mentioned it.

I didn't know whether he had brothers and sisters, mum, dad.

I didn't even know where he was born or where he came from.

I just kept it as a colleague... relationship, shall we say.

In the office, the team had taken a huge gamble searching for

Stanley's relatives before confirming his date and place of birth.

But the gamble has paid off. They've been proved correct.

We're all tired. I'm tired and emotional.

They now know Stanley was the only son of Alice Hart and Arthur Bone.

The family lived in Woolwich, in South East London,

where Stanley's father Arthur worked for a local brewery.

It was a good job. He was a foreman,

which was a very important person in the pecking order in any company,

particularly a brewery. He would've been a salaried employee at a time

when many people would've been on what we call piece rates,

that they were casual workers who'd be called in

when they were needed, then sent home when they weren't needed.

Attitudes toward beer drinking were quite different from today.

We have to understand that, in the 1930s, everybody drank beer.

It was a very different culture and society to today.

Only the seriously rich and the aristocracy drank wine,

nobody else drank wine.

And so you had pubs like this pub which had two bars,

one bar the saloon for the middle class,

and the public bar for the working class.

Arthur was right at the heart of a renowned brewing empire.

London was famous for a beer style called mild ale,

and when it was in a bottle it was called brown ale. That's what Arthur was doing.

He'd have been bottling enormous quantities of brown ale.

And the reason why London made dark beer

was because of the nature of the water in London,

which was best suited to producing dark, slightly sweet beers.

But the writing was on the wall for that era of the brewing industry.

In the 1930s, there was a catastrophic decline

in the number of breweries in London because of the Great Depression.

Many breweries went out of business.

We think he may have worked for a company called Beasley's,

which was taken over by Courage.

Courage and Barclay Perkins were the big, giant brewers in South London.

So Beasley's ended up in the arms of Courage.

Arthur's history may be well-documented,

but the team are struggling to find out about the rest of his family.

With no heirs on Stanley's mother's side,

the paternal family is the team's only hope of finding heirs.

There's no kids to that marriage.

There's no issues with that marriage. Maternal looks dead.

They found that Arthur had seven siblings. Their descendants would be

Stanley's cousins - and heirs to his £1.3 million estate.

And he dies March 1998, in Worthing.

The team have discovered that four of Arthur's siblings died

without children, which means the search for heirs is now focused

on the remaining aunts and uncles, William, Ernest, and Nelly.

The team already know that Nelly had four children,

all of whom are still alive,

so now they're turning their attention to William and Ernest.

-Dave.

-Yeah.

I think Aisha's onto William John, got the 1911 Census.

He's married with about four or five kids. He's a paper hanger.

The team are able to identify some potential cousins,

but they soon encounter a new problem.

Dave is struggling to get hold of anyone.

It's frustrating. I got the right family but can't get to see anyone.

Across the office, Noel and Aisha are researching William's stem

and trying to find his correct birth.

-No.

-So the death's wrong.

-The death's wrong.

-The marriage in Croydon's going to be correct?

-Definitely.

Ethel's going to be correct, and if this marriage is correct...

There's two Frederick William H Bones born a year apart in London.

One's born West Ham, ours is born in St Pancras.

We've got a death for the West Ham one in Waltham Forest,

but we can't seem to find a death for our one.

We've got his daughter up-to-date so it doesn't really matter now.

If we speak to her she'll be able to tell us.

If the daughter they've found is correct,

she would be Stanley's cousin - and an heir to his huge estate.

But it seems the daughter isn't at home.

Unbelievable, isn't it? You just - You really think that ten o'clock,

11 o'clock this morning, I just thought, "This is a doddle!"

We're going to be speaking to loads of people,

and then we've just spent all day and not seen an heir.

Finally, though, Dave manages to get someone on the phone.

Hello, good afternoon. Very sorry to trouble you.

I'm trying to trace a family by the name of Bone. B-O-N-E.

The lady he's speaking to isn't a blood relative of Stanley,

but she does have some crucial information about one of the heirs.

Now, your sister-in-law Margaret, is she still alive?

OK. Does she? Because I have an address...

It seems Dave is finally getting somewhere.

She has given me the address and phone number of her sister-in-law, who will be an entitled party.

It's the lead they'd been hoping for.

Margaret is the granddaughter of Stanley's uncle, William,

And will be an heir to his estate.

We believe that you, as the children of your father, John William Bone,

and from your mother, Mary Taylor I believe was her maiden name,

you would be entitled parties in this estate.

At last, Dave has spoken to an heir on this £1.3 million case

and, better still, he's made an appointment for

travelling researcher Bob Barratt to go and see her.

Margaret Tipton is Arthur's cousin once removed.

Her grandfather, William John Bone, was Stanley's uncle.

I think I'm pretty close to where she lives now.

The firm are hoping to help Margaret claim her inheritance in return for

an agreed percentage of the estate, and it's Bob's job to sign her up.

-Hello, Mrs Tipton?

-Yes.

-Bob Barratt. I think the office called and you're expecting me.

-Yes, I am.

-Thank you very much.

-Come in.

Before Bob can sign Margaret up, he needs to ask her

a few questions to confirm their research is correct.

-Any other first names?

-Margaret Mary.

-Mary.

-Your marriage, please?

-23rd of April, 1955.

-And your mother's maiden name?

-Taylor.

-TAY?

-Yes.

Do you remember your grandparents?

Yes, I do, very vaguely, because, um, but I do remember them.

-My granddad...

-Do you remember their names?

My granddad was William John, again.

But I do not remember my grandmother's name.

-Only as Grandma.

-She was Elizabeth.

The team's research is confirmed. Margaret is definitely an heir.

Bye-bye, now. Cheerio.

For Margaret, it's all been a bit of a surprise.

We didn't know Stanley at all because we lost...

During the war we were away and other members of the family were away,

and that's how we really didn't know Stanley.

He was a cousin, I believe, of my father's,

but we didn't know the family very well because we were away

during the war and lost a bit of touch with that side of the family.

But the news of a potential inheritance is very welcome.

We've got two grandsons who we'd like to spoil a little more.

Yes, that would be a good idea, really.

I can't think of anything else really.

No, that would be nice.

And it would be nice to have a little windfall of any kind.

For the team in the office, the case of Stanley Bone is almost complete.

We've managed so far to locate 15 paternal beneficiaries entitled.

I know from the feedback from them that they're really pleased about

the family history that we've been able to provide them with.

But there is one final twist in the tale.

Although the case was originally estimated to be worth £1.3 million,

the team have since learned it's not quite as valuable as they hoped.

We understand now that the apartment

and the small share portfolio probably means that

the estate's valued somewhere in the region of £300,000.

It's a little disappointing for the team,

but they can still reflect on a job well done.

From past experience, we've found, invariably, estates

are never over £1 million, and so we can't be disappointed that

this estate isn't as grand as we first thought it would be.

We're now left with, as always, lots of paperwork to conclude the matter.

But from our point of view, yeah, it was a good day at the office.

If you would like advice about building a family tree

or making a will, go to...

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