Dodsworth/Eskenazi Heir Hunters

Heir hunters specialise in tracking down people who are entitled

to money from someone who's died.

Now, we believe, sir,

that you'll be entitled to a share in your cousin's estate.

Sometimes, the deceased simply hasn't left a will.

Sometimes, they've been estranged from their family.

Are we talking about a large estate?

Either way, the heir hunters must make sure any unclaimed money

goes to the right people.

I had to read it two or three times

because I thought, "Wow! What is this?"

But it's a competitive business with thousands of pounds at stake...

-He signed.

-Oh, well done.

..as rival firms go head-to-head to find heirs...

Because you're in a competitive process, there's a time constraint.

..and hand over tens of thousands of pounds

to unsuspecting beneficiaries.

Could the heir hunters be knocking at your door?

Coming up, the heir hunters discover how a secret feud

tore a family apart.

Not only did these cousins not know of each other's existence,

but none of them could explain why their parents had refused to

talk about their past.

There's tough competition on a case as rival companies go head-to-head.

I don't know if you've signed any contracts or anything with

this company...

HE SIGHS

Plus, could a fortune be heading your way?

How you could be entitled to inherit unclaimed estates

held by the Treasury.

It's Wednesday morning and, in the offices of Fraser & Fraser,

researchers are already busy working up cases.

This needs to go in priority, but I think he's wrong.

I don't like it.

It's just near Regents Park. Do you want the details, then?

They married in December 1927, Fulham...

Anything Streatham, Dave Hadley?

Senior case manager Dave Slee has had a tipoff about an unclaimed

-estate that could potentially be worth over £300,000.

-Good.

No, that confirms that...

Such a valuable case will have attracted the attention

of many other rival firms, so the pressure is on to crack it first.

Michael Dodsworth died in a nursing home on the 27th of November 2012.

Neighbour Brenda Johnson knew him as a young boy.

In his younger days, he was a bit of a pickle,

but he was always good to people.

He went to school down Brixton way, it was.

He was very clever.

He was quite good at languages and everything.

He could speak six languages, I think he could speak.

Michael had a long and successful career as a translator

for the Metropolitan Police.

Roy Walker was his neighbour for 37 years and remembers him

as a very intelligent man.

If you spoke to him about everyday events,

he seemed to know what was happening in the world

and could talk in an intelligent conversation with you.

Oh, he was a real gentleman, yeah, yeah.

He opened the door for ladies, that type of thing, a very

old-fashioned gentleman, but very friendly, would always stop and chat.

As I said, a very gentle man.

Until recently, the majority of the heir hunters' work

came from the Treasury Solicitors.

But, nowadays, and just like with Michael Dodsworth's case,

they use a variety of different sources to find unclaimed estates.

Neil Fraser has been in the business for 13 years

and describes how the challenge has changed.

'We have reporters out who we pay'

a referral fee to, every time they give us a case.

We collect it from various councils, we search the newspapers,

we do an awful lot of work to try and get cases.

Heir hunters are paid by commission from a percentage

of the unclaimed estate, as agreed by the beneficiaries,

so, the pressure is on to crack the case before any rival company.

It's all about staying ahead of the game and reacting quickly,

so, in the office, it's all hands on deck.

Let's see if you can find Dawn for the moment.

I need to get that marriage on top there.

He's a bachelor, so no worry about half-brothers...

Dave pulls in more researchers to help with this high value case.

That ain't right.

We're ahead of any competition, which is good news.

They've already managed to establish Michael was married,

but it appears his wife died and they had no children.

If there is no immediate family found, the heir hunters then

have to broaden their search generation by generation.

In Michael's case, the researchers soon discover he was

born in 1945 to Sylvia, a nurse, and engineer Edward Dodsworth.

We couldn't find any other children off of that marriage,

so we came to the conclusion that there were no half-siblings or

siblings, making the deceased an only child,

so we then we had to work it up to his aunts and uncles and,

by doing so, we found out about the parents.

And it's here the hard work starts.

How many stems you got?

That's three definite, that's four, five...

six stems in total.

Starting work on the paternal side, the team discovers Michael's father

was the eldest of five children born to Edward and Elizabeth Dodsworth.

Oh, no, that's you!

With four uncles and aunts on the paternal side,

the team must move fast.

Two children died in infancy, leaving an Uncle William

and Aunt Dorothy to research.

It seems that there's going to be two potential stems on the paternal side.

One seems pretty easy, but she's married a Jones.

The other one we can't find anything for at the moment,

but, hopefully...we'll get onto it.

But it's soon clear that tracing Aunt Dorothy will be

a little more tricky than first thought.

I know she marries an Arthur Albert H Jones.

Jones is always a bit of a slog. Um, just trying to find their daughter.

I believe they have a daughter by the name of Jenny.

While Ben plugs away at the paternal tree...

Anything likely to come paternal?

No.

..things are moving quickly on the maternal side.

The team have quickly established that Michael's mum Sylvia was

the only daughter of Harry and Daisy Barker, and she had five siblings.

The children of Harry and Daisy Barker,

the males were all born at a time when they would have been

primed to have been called up during the Second World War.

There was every likelihood that, unfortunately,

at least one of them might be killed during that time.

Dave Slee's hunch is correct, as the team soon discover that

one of the brothers, Derrick, died in 1943 during the war.

Has this been done?

But the team are able to find a telephone number for someone

who they think could be a son of one of the other brothers, Graham.

Could the first heir have been found?

I'm calling Graham Barker,

a potential heir on the Dodsworth Estate.

Hello, good afternoon. Very sorry to trouble you,

I'm trying to trace a gentleman

by the name of Graham Barker who would have been born in 1944.

You're born '53, are you? Not '44. I'm sorry.

We've obviously picked a Graham Barker, but...I think we've got

the wrong family and I'm sorry to have troubled you, sir.

A disappointing result for Dave.

However, on the other side of the office...

-Yes!

-..case manager Ben thinks he's had a breakthrough.

I think I might have found a paternal cousin of the deceased.

Um, the daughter of Dorothy Jane Dodsworth who married Mrs Jones.

Um...I'm not completely convinced at the moment,

but I think I'm on the right track.

Michael's mum Sylvia had five brothers and if they, or any of

their children are alive, they would be heirs to this six-figure estate.

Boom!

But the research on this side of the family

is giving case manager Dave a headache.

There's just paperwork everywhere. This is just...

Where's her phone number? I don't?

My day has been a nightmare and...

..when you've got so much information coming at you

so quickly from all angles...

I like everything...

and if it's not like that...

it throws me.

But, finally, Dave thinks he's tracked down

one of Michael's maternal uncles.

Brian has one son who's a solicitor.

Brian married Jean Wales in 1943 and they had one son.

So, can you call Charlie...?

If they can get in touch with him,

they may have found their first heir.

I said, "Have you married anyone?"

That Cambridge one is made to Raymond A Deeks...

All the team focus on finding a contact number for the son.

The pressure is on as they need to reach him

before any other company in order to get their commission.

Sweet, it all ties in nicely. Brilliant.

Quickly, a number is found, so Dave wastes no time in calling him.

Now, we believe, sir, that you'll be entitled to a share in...

your cousin's estate. Thank you for taking the call, sir.

Thank you, sir. Bye-bye.

Dave's on a roll and is cheered with the thought he's ahead of the game.

And he soon has another heir on the phone.

Hello, good afternoon, Mrs Barker?

I don't know if you've been made aware of the fact that, uh,

a cousin of your late husband's has passed away by...

But another heir hunting company has already been in touch.

Have they actually been to see you today?

Oh, right, OK.

Uh, I don't know if you've signed any contracts or anything with

this company...

You can go to whoever you feel most comfortable with.

Thank you now. Bye-bye.

It looks like Dave's role has come to an abrupt ending.

HE SIGHS

With confirmation that the competition is

hot on their heels, the company deploys one of their

most experienced travelling researchers, Ewart Lindsay.

Ewart has worked for the firm for around 18 years and,

in that time, he's knocked on thousands of doors to tell

people they're due an unexpected windfall.

It takes one aim, you know, to find heirs, get them all signed up.

You know, that's what I'll be doing.

I enjoy it.

As well as signing up heirs, travelling researchers

collect certificates and carry out door to door enquiries.

And, for this specific case, with the competition breathing

down their necks, Ewart needs to be ready to spring into action.

However, it's not going to be that straightforward.

The first thing to find was where Mr Barker lives.

BIG BEN CHIMES

While the Treasury Solicitor publishes a list of new cases

every day, the heir hunters can't always find the vital clues

that lead them to entitled relatives.

This cases remain on the government's unclaimed list

for up to 30 years.

BIG BEN CHIMES

Like other probate genealogy firms, Celtic Research,

run by father and son team Peter and Hector Birchwood,

find the list incredibly useful and with ever-evolving technology,

the team sometimes look back at cases that remain unsolved.

Over the last 11 years, our business has changed completely.

Uh, the internet has revolutionised the way in which

we access information, uh,

and the way in which informations are made available to us.

And that's why, in 2012,

Hector reopened a case they'd failed to crack ten years earlier.

And even though other heir hunters had looked into it,

the case remained a mystery.

This case has been sitting unsolved for a number of years

and we simply decided to take a look with fresh eyes.

Looking at the number of potential branches, I could see that there

was a very good possibility that there would be heirs.

Lewis Eskenazi died at home in Stamford Hill, North London,

almost 30 years ago in 1984.

He was 62 years of age.

Very little is known about his life,

as he was a very private man who dedicated his life to caring for

his mother and, unfortunately, there are no surviving photos of him.

What is known is that he lived all his life

in the Stamford Hill area, a well-known Jewish community.

Avocados, come on!

It's believed he and his mother had a hat stall in the famous

Ridley Road Market during the 1960s and '70s.

Stallholder Larry Julian remembers the Jewish clothing stalls.

They would all walk around with tape measures all round their necks

and they'd have a little area at the back where people

could try their clothes on.

Uh, the quality of the clothing was very, very good.

Uh, and that's how it actually was and it was the Jewish people,

because they was a more clothing people, it would be probably out of

the 30% of Jewish people that traded in this market,

20% would be clothing traders.

Another trader, Gerald Viner, has had a fabric stall here

all his life and has watched the market evolve through the decades.

In the '70s, you know, we sold a lot more different cloths, cos

there were a lot more Jewish people here, but nowadays it has changed.

They've moved out of the area and other people have moved in,

but it was always a good spirit.

There was hardly any trouble and it was good times, really.

Raspberries, two for a pound!

Saul Marks has worked as an heir hunter for five years

and is the company's expert in Jewish cases,

and when he saw this unsolved case worth around £18,000,

he decided to take on the challenge of solving it.

The research that had been done in the London office showed that

Lewis was an only child,

and that he hadn't married or had any children.

Saul's passion for genealogy comes from his own family history.

My dad has always been very frustrated that his father's parents

would never say where they came from.

They were Russian Jews who arrived in England not long after

the turn of the 20th century.

They changed their surname to Marks

and my dad always felt throughout his life that this was very much

a problem for him because it was part of his identity that was missing

and part of his background that was missing.

I set out to try and solve this mystery.

I actually managed to solve it when I was 22 and it was incredible.

I was able to reunite him

with his cousins who lived only a few miles from where we lived

and we never knew they existed, and we had family photos in our

line of the family and we didn't know who the people were in the photos.

Other copies of those photos were on our cousin's mantelpieces just

a few miles away and we never knew.

And it was brilliant, my dad feels much more fulfilled now thanks

to my work and his work with me.

Based in the Liverpool office, Saul was keen to get started and he

soon discovered Lewis was the only child of Leah and Jacob Eskenazi.

So, to find any heirs, he would have to look to the wider family.

He began with Lewis' parents.

We were able to establish that Jacob was actually born in Turkey,

and there were a number of Eskenazi in the 1911 census within

the Jewish community of the UK.

I spoke to representatives of all the various Eskenazi families that

I'd found, but none of them remembered the deceased at all.

And most of them had come from Istanbul in Turkey.

So, unfortunately, we ran into a complete dead end.

Not a great start for Saul.

So, with the paternal side of the family proving too difficult

to trace, Saul turned his attention to the maternal side.

The deceased mother's name was Leah Wagenaar.

The spelling of Wagenaar was very, very unusual. It was W-A-G-E-N-A-A-R.

Normally, you would expect Wagner to be as the composer, W-A-G-N-E-R.

The problem here was that these two spellings were used interchangeably.

The first thing I had to do,

was look at all the occurrences of the longer spelling...

and make sure that that the ones that were part of the family were

accounted for, and the ones that weren't part of the family

were then discounted.

As the spelling was so unusual, Saul quickly found Leah's parents,

Harriet and Solomon Wagenaar.

Solomon had set himself up as a diamond polisher when the

family settled in the thriving Jewish community in East London.

From the late 19th century, around two million Jewish people

fled persecution in Eastern Europe looking for a better life.

Most of the Jews that came to Britain settled in London,

and most of those settled in the East End of London,

and this was close to the docks where they had actually arrived.

Jewish people were associated with a number of trades.

These include furniture making, hat making, also the jewellery trade.

They were associated with these kinds of trades

because the skills were fairly easy to learn,

also they would have brought these skills with them from their home

countries and it was relatively easy to set yourself up in these trades.

You only had to have a small amount of capital to

actually buy the equipment.

Housing conditions in the East End were very difficult.

The East End was already a very, very densely packed area

before the Jewish community settled there.

This meant there were houses with huge numbers of people

occupying the different rooms.

Um, conditions were very, very poor, so there'd be perhaps damp,

they'd maybe be bug infested,

and this led to lots of social projects to try

and improve the housing and build new housing for people to move into.

Lewis had lived his entire life just a stone's throw

from the East End, so it was highly likely

some of his relatives would have made this area their home.

Back on the case,

Saul had now discovered that Lewis had five aunts and uncles.

They had all passed away,

so he knew he was now looking for their children.

These would be Lewis' first cousins.

He started with Isabella.

And she married a gentleman named Abraham Kantrowiz.

This was a rather easier family to identify, because of the spelling.

It was spelled K-A-N-T-R-O-W-I-Z.

Very, very unusual spelling of the name.

Because of this unusual spelling,

we were able to establish a death listing for Isabella Wagenaar.

She died age 43,

and she and Abraham Kantrowiz had six children.

Saul started with Isabella's daughter, Bertha.

Bertha married Edward in 1937 and they had two daughters

One of whom seemed to still be alive and was therefore a potential heir.

Had Saul done the impossible

and finally found the first beneficiary of this £18,000 estate?

Hi, my name's Saul Marks...

'I therefore contacted this lady and explained'

the reason I was calling and I was hoping that she would be able

to put me in touch with all her cousins on her mother's side.

The case was really picking up pace

and Saul had found his first heir, but then there was a dramatic twist.

As far as this lady knew, she...

had no first cousins...

and yet, I knew that there were four other branches of

the Kantrowiz family out there waiting to be found.

Just like the Lewis Eskenazi story, not all cases can be cracked

and, every year,

millions of pounds go to the government from unclaimed estates.

The money raised by the Bona Vacantia Division is passed

annually to the Treasury and it goes into the consolidated fund.

When the Bona Vacantia Division passes money to the Treasury,

it puts the case on its unclaimed list

and it stays on there for 12 years to be claimed.

If someone makes a valid claim within that period,

then the money is paid back.

Today, we're focusing on two cases that are yet to be

solved by the heir hunters.

Could you be the beneficiary they are looking for?

First, is the case of...

..who died on...

..2012, in...

Christopher is believed to have died a bachelor.

Records show that he was born on...

His parents were...

..who died aged 67 in...

..who died in 2010, aged 86.

Despite all this information, there's been no success in

tracing beneficiaries to his estate.

Next, can you help with the case of...

He died a bachelor in...

He was born in...

..in Scotland.

Both George and Christopher's estates remain unclaimed.

However, there is hope beneficiaries could still be found.

We find that cases are being solved much more quickly these days,

there's a lot more interest in the general public in this line of work.

We find that they are using the internet more,

there's much more resources out there.

Do you have any clues?

Could you be the relative the heir hunters are looking for?

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

In London, Dave Slee and the team are on the hunt for heirs to

a high value estate estimated to be worth over £300,000.

He's a bachelor, so no worry about half-brothers...

With the possibility that rival firms could be

breathing down their necks, the team are racing to try

and be the first to sign up heirs and get their fee.

Just see if you can find Dawn, for the moment.

Well, I need to get that marriage on top there.

So far, the team has quickly built up a picture of the family tree...

I'm going to take the tree if you don't need it.

..and they found heirs on the maternal and paternal side.

Yes!

As Dave continues his research into the maternal side,

he uncovers a sad and unusual story.

What is really interesting is that two of the deceased's maternal

uncles, who were both in the RAF during the war,

were both shot down on the same day.

Like thousands of other young men, it seems Derek and Brian joined

the war effort together in 1939 and both took to the skies with the RAF.

And they were to be effected by an extraordinary coincidence.

On the night of the 9th of March 1943, the two Barker brothers

were both part of Bomber Command's raid on Munich...

EXPLOSIONS

..in separate aircraft in separate squadrons.

Both aircraft were shot down.

Tragically, Derek died when his plane went down.

Fortunately, Brian survived, but the drama didn't end there.

Bomber Command was very keen to learn from aircrew who had been

shot down, and so Brian and his comrades were interviewed

when they returned to the UK

and we have a record of the information that they gave.

Brian and the rest of the crew had to relive the experience.

Brian said that as they were approaching their target

at Munich, the starboard outer engine failed,

but they were able to continue and drop their bombs and,

on the return journey,

as they were trying to get a fix from the stars, um, they had to fly

straight and level, which made them quite vulnerable to attack.

The aircraft was hit by flak and the port outer engine was

set on fire, and the crew had to bail out near Mons in Belgium.

Brian eventually made it back to the UK, where he married and had a son

who is one of five cousins the team have found on the maternal side.

All of these are heirs to the estate.

One of them, Roger, lives in Cambridge,

and travelling researcher Ewart is already en route to see him

in the hope of getting him signed up.

It's half past four now, and he's got to go to work by five o'clock, so...

I'll have to be really quick.

But it's not that straightforward.

I first need to find where Mr Barker lives, cos I'm here now,

but I can't seem to find the block of flats.

After a quick look around, he can't find the address,

so gives Roger a call.

I'm actually here now. I'm actually right opposite the village stores.

OK.

-Um...

-Right, OK...

-Where are you?

-..I'll come out and find you.

OK, all right.

I'm just beside the green, beside the funfair.

Ewart may be on the phone to Roger,

but the competition is still causing the team a headache.

-Yeah, OK.

-A rival company has called Roger on his landline.

Yeah, possibly, but I don't get back until ten.

-That's another company, isn't it?

-Not a good time.

So, with competition hot on his heels, Ewart needs to act fast.

-OK, we're in business, so...

-Yep.

-So, I don't want to make you late, Mr Barker.

-It's OK.

And get Roger's signature on the dotted line.

-Just to explain...

-Hmm.

-..what I'm here to do.

-Hmm.

Uh, is run through a questionnaire with you,

-just to confirm who you are.

-Yeah.

We are running out of time, so I want to do this really, really quick.

-Yeah.

-Take a seat.

-Sorry!

-Make yourself comfortable.

OK. Um...

-Occupation?

-Huh?

How do I put this...?

I did...I was a travel agent for many years,

but now I do about three different jobs.

After checking some details,

Ewart confirms that Roger is indeed an heir and will inherit

a share of an estate estimated to be worth at least £300,000...

Your father's full name...

..and, fortunately for Ewart and the team in the office,

Roger's happy to sign an agreement,

and has agreed a percentage with the company for acting

on his behalf in claiming his inheritance.

-OK.

-I'll give you a call on Friday.

-Thanks.

-Bye-bye.

Although Roger did meet Michael a few times,

he hadn't seen his cousin for many years.

I, together with other members of the family, were trying to get in

touch with him and wondered why all our communications came back to us.

With his job done, Ewart can now ring the office with the good news.

-He signed, Mr Barker.

-Oh, well done.

There's three other stems and we're the first to make contact with them.

-Great stuff, great stuff.

-Yes, it's a result.

All right, mate, I appreciate that and I'll speak to you tomorrow.

Cheers, Dave, all the best.

Take care now. Bye-bye.

After a hard day's research with much of the office

working on this one case,

the team think they now have found all the heirs, 22 in total.

Although some of the heirs have been contacted by rival companies,

the firm are confident that most will sign with them.

Job's done.

But the team's work doesn't end there.

Heir hunters often help to administer

an estate on behalf of the heirs

and a vital part of that process is visiting the property to

double-check a will hadn't been made.

If a will is found, all their efforts could be for nothing.

Around four weeks' later,

company partner Andrew Fraser goes to Michael's house.

Stepping into the world of Michael Dodsworth

gives the heir hunters a better insight into who he was.

So, I expect this must be Michael himself.

We've got another picture over here as well.

And he appeared to have been a very religious man.

We've got a number of pictures of him with the ministers in the church.

I've got a number of Bibles. We've got a Spanish one.

They're all interesting and it shows that his language skills have

developed from a young age and he's gone on to use them all.

Michael's 60th birthday party from 2005.

He's play the piano and...

looks like he's had an enjoyable time.

These are very nice family pictures

and it really shows the person who we're dealing with now.

As no will is found, the team's research stands and Roger,

along with 21 other people, will share the estate,

now thought to be worth well over £300,000.

But, for Roger, the true legacy is the memory of his cousin Michael.

It's certainly quite sad to know that he's gone.

And, also, it sort of brings back memories of him, really.

In Liverpool, heir hunter Saul Marks from Celtic Research was

hard at work on the case of Lewis Eskenazi.

Lewis had died nearly 30 years ago, leaving an £18,000 estate unclaimed.

This was a case that had stumped many heir hunting companies

when it was first looked at over ten years ago,

but then, expert in Jewish genealogy Saul Marks

took on the case and made a breakthrough.

He had found a whole branch of Lewis' family

with potential cousins who would be heirs to his estate.

Hi, my name is Saul Marks. I work for a company...

'But, when he contacted the first of these cousins'

he got a surprise.

As far as this lady knew, she...

..had no first cousins.

And yet, I knew that there were four other branches of

the Kantrowiz family out there waiting to be found.

Saul then turned his attention to the other four children born

to Lewis' aunt Isabella,

but it was proving tricky to track the Kantrowiz family down,

especially Harry.

Harry Kantrowiz didn't appear to be alive,

but the lack of a death listing was a real problem.

The deceased's date of birth would have been on the birth certificate,

and Saul needed this to be able to start the investigation.

We ordered his birth certificate.

I then did a search for anyone of a first name Harry with any surname

using his exact date of birth, and there was one that popped out...

Harry Kanter.

So, Harry Kantrowiz was now Harry Kanter. Why had he changed his name?

Jewish migrants coming over to Britain in the late 19th century

and early 20th century, often changed their names once they got here,

and that was for a variety of reasons.

Once reason might be that British officials

writing down their names may have got the spelling wrong

and they may have just then adopted the new spelling,

but probably the main reason is that they wanted to fit in,

and often they experienced prejudice as Jewish people...

and, for that reason,

they would have anglicized their names or completely changed them.

After such a significant breakthrough,

Saul quickly tracked down Harry's son, Michael.

Could he be the key to unlocking the gates to the rest

of the of the Kantrowiz family?

This was very exciting because, obviously,

Bertha's daughter hadn't been able to tell me anything about

the family or put me in touch with any cousins cos she hadn't known any.

So, I spoke to Michael.

He said to me, "My father didn't talk at all about his family

"and I wasn't aware he had any brothers and sisters."

So, this was exactly the same situation.

Saul realised that finding the rest of the heirs

was going to be a tough job.

My heart sank at this point because I really hoped that one person would

be able to tell us where all the other cousins were. Um...

I really realised there were going to be shortcuts on this

case at all and these five branches I was going to have to

work as five different families with no help from one branch to the next.

Saul persevered and focused his attention now on Theodore

and it wasn't long before Saul discovered

he had also changed his surname from Kantrowiz to Keene.

This then enabled him to quickly track down a contact number

for their eldest child, Peter.

Peter was able to confirm for me that the name had been Kantrowiz and this

was the family which I was looking for, which was a great relief.

Um...he explained that his father knew that he was Jewish, um,

but was very reluctant to speak about it

and really wanted that part of his heritage hidden.

So, um, so, this was a real revelation to him, to find out

that Lewis Eskenazi was a cousin of his father through

the Jewish side of the family.

Um, and he really took a great interest in that.

Even though Peter grew up in the heart of the Jewish community

in East London, it wasn't until he was in his 60s that

Peter discovered that he was actually part of that culture.

My father never told me why he changed the name.

He made some excuse about the war and people calling him

the man with the funny name and, um, shouting very loudly at him

because it was a very Polish name.

And he said that he and his brother had decided that

they would change the name.

And so, that's what I was told, but he swore me to secrecy.

So, with a new identity came a whole new family that he didn't

know about, including his late cousin, Lewis Eskenazi.

I had no idea who this chap was, um, and what I think is sad

is that he lived not a stone's throw from where I lived.

He lived in Hackney and I was just a couple of miles away in Shoreditch.

He appears to have died on his own. He didn't marry.

We've visited his grave and nobody has been there

because there are no stones on his gravestone.

I'm very sad about his death

and his loneliness to be honest.

Lewis' story has away in clearly had an impact on Peter

and sparked a need for him to know more about his Jewish roots.

He's come to meet Maurice Bittern at the UK's oldest synagogue

where Lewis' parents married.

Is this the nearest surviving synagogue to the

sort of Hackney area?

Yes, it would have been the only one, actually.

And most of the Jews who came to London in the 19th century were

from Russian and German origin and they would have all been Ashkenazi.

So, the majority of the synagogues in this area and in Hackney

and Dalston and Stoke Newington and that sort of area,

all would have been Ashkenazi.

-I wonder if my family are Ashkenazis or not.

-Well...

My great-grandfather

and my great-great-grandfather were buried in Edmonton Jewish Cemetery...

-Ah.

-..which I visited last week.

Well, then he would definitely have been an Ashkenazi Jew

-because Edmonton Cemetery is Ashkenazi.

-Oh, right!

So, that answers that question.

So, I was right in my guess that they're Ashkenazis.

They are Ashkenazi or were Ashkenazi.

Peter is now on a path to discovering more

about his Jewish ancestry.

He had begun looking into his family tree a few years ago,

but kept hitting brick walls.

However, the little information he did have was extremely useful

for Saul to track down the other cousins of Lewis.

One of them is Moira Wingate who, like Peter,

knew very little about her ancestors.

I didn't know anything about my mother's siblings

other than their names.

Moira did know about her Jewish roots,

but it was made clear to her that this had to be kept a family secret.

My mother used to talk about the Jewish religion.

She used to try and teach us...

that was often out of earshot of my father.

Um, and we were told very strongly not to advertise to friends or

school friends that, um...

we come from a Jewish mother.

Moira and her husband, Michael,

have gone back through family records to try and learn more,

but there is a big question that remains unanswered.

Why did Lewis' aunt's children all become estranged?

In total, Saul found 18 cousins through this side of the family

and, since finding out they were heirs,

the cousins have agreed to meet up for the very first time to see

if they can shed some light on this mystery.

I'm absolutely delighted and I can't wait to meet them,

because it's part of my heritage and they're part of the same family.

OK, right, not now, but two or three generations back,

we shared the same ancestors, and it means a great deal to me

and I'm so excited and I can't wait, really.

A few weeks later, it's the day of the reunion.

-Moira is on her way to the venue.

-The journey, although

it's not very far, feels a bit like waiting for a kettle to boil.

It feels a long way away even though it's only about an hour or so.

She's the first to arrive.

And waits nervously to meet the cousins she never knew existed.

Michael is the next to arrive.

You don't have to come up and ask me, it is.

-I'm Moira.

-Hi, I'm Mike.

Mike, I'm just trying my hardest to see

if I can see a family resemblance.

-It's exciting, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is a bit, yeah.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-Sisters Maureen and Lorraine then join the group.

We've brought the family tree because I can't remember who's who.

-No, no...

-And I'm going to really struggle with it as well.

To see how these four cousins are all connected,

the family tree helps them piece their puzzle together.

-So, which are you?

-So, we're...that's...

-That's me.

-So, you're the daughter of Maurice.

-Maurice was our dad.

-Yes.

So, what relation are you to my dad then?

It's clearly all rather confusing...

-Sorry, say that again.

-I keep listening, I keep just...

..but very exciting.

Yeah, yes, it's been amazing, actually.

I've got the family tree that goes back to 1786.

-Oh, have you?

-I brought it for you.

It's nice to know that we're not the only relatives left

because we've just recently lost our mum,

so, to know that there are other sort of, you know,

family members out there that we didn't know about is really nice.

Oh, that's my mum and dad, isn't it?

Have a look cos I don't know how far apart that is.

Basically, we're half-Jewish and we didn't know...

about that at all.

-Peter then arrives.

-Hello.

-I'm Moira.

-Moira.

-Hello.

-And you look like grandad.

-Oh, thank you.

-Oh, you must be Mike.

-Yeah, pleased to meet you.

-How do you do?

I think we've lost maybe 40, 50 years of...

you know, family things that have gone on.

They even manage to get Peter's brother

Steven on the phone in Canada.

You've got a lovely Canadian accent.

What sort of dog have you got?

He's like the rest of the Keene family.

He's a mongrel.

THEY LAUGH

It looks just like you, Steven.

A family reunited beginning to create their own memories.

The big question which is never answered is why the siblings

became estranged,

leaving these cousins having no knowledge of a wider family.

This mystery has died with the aunts and uncles,

but their children see a different future.

I'm sure the bonding will grow with time.

It's just unbelievable that nobody knew of each other

for all these years.

'Unfortunately, the downside is,

'and I think the same is for Mike as well, it hasn't answered

'my question, which is, "Why did my father change his name?"'

So, it's still an unsolved question.