Williams/Wild Heir Hunters

Every year, thousands of people die with no known family

and without leaving a will.

If no relatives are found, their money could go to the Government

and that's where the heir hunters step in.

We trace the next of kin of people who have died intestate.

They use specially honed research skills

to trace long-lost relatives...

Nothing in this job gets the adrenaline going

like making enquiries.

..and delve into the past to uncover family secrets.

Joseph Napier-Du has been dismissed with service

by sentence of general court martial.

It's a race against time to beat the competition...

We treat everything with the same degree of urgency.

You don't want to take a chance. You never really know for sure.

..and bring news of an unexpected windfall.

Hopefully...he'll be proud that it went to his family members.

Could the heir hunters be knocking at your door?

Coming up...a common family name puts the heir hunters in a spin...

It's thrown a bit of a spanner in the works.

We thought we'd ruled out the possibility of near kin.

..and an unclaimed estate uncovers a family history

spanning two world wars.

None of them even had a chance to say goodbye,

and that in itself must have been horrendously traumatic.

Plus, could a fortune be heading your way?

Find out how you could inherit unclaimed estates

held by the Treasury.

It's Tuesday morning in London at heir hunting firm Fraser & Fraser.

What have you got there, Jay?

Just some priorities that have come in this morning.

A new case has just come in, which the staff are busy getting their

teeth into, and senior researcher Roger Marsh is already optimistic.

Got my search? Ah! Good man.

Thank you very much.

I've got a new job that's Arthur Charles Williams

who died in 2013 in Brighton

and we believe there's a property in Brighton, so there will be value,

but I don't know how much at the moment, but definitely worth doing.

Arthur Charles Williams died on the 8th of July 2013

in Brighton, aged 81.

There seemed to be no surviving photographs of Arthur

and the details of his life remain vague.

He's believed to have served in the RAF and then

worked as an aircraft maintenance engineer until he retired.

Judging by his home in Worthing-on-Sea, it would seem that,

whatever Arthur did, he had a successful career,

which is good news for Dom.

We think the deceased owned his flat in Brighton.

And we think it's probably a £200,000-plus case.

But, although they believe he owned his own home, they don't yet have

any proof, so taking on the case is a bit of a gamble,

which could prove costly.

The neighbours of the deceased said he'd never been known to have

any visitors, any family or friends.

Many of the cases the heir hunters work are advertised

on the Treasury solicitor's bona vacantia list of

unclaimed estates, but, today, they're acting on a tip-off,

so they need to tread carefully.

When we do any of these cases,

there's always a risk that there's a will.

In this particular case, we haven't been indicated by anyone that

there's definitely no will, so we are taking a bit of a risk on this one.

And it doesn't look like there's an easy road ahead.

If we're correct on the date of birth, the parents have got

to be Charles Williams and Florence Hill, both common names.

That'll make it quite a hard job, but, you know,

we'll see how we get on.

We'll have to come back to the one before that as well, because it's...

-No, I can't.

-Yeah, cos they're...

-They said they've got...

Arthur was born on the 3rd of April 1932 in Brighton...

but the team can find no trace of any siblings.

So, this means the search for heirs must widen to aunts,

uncles and cousins on both sides of the family.

So, it looks like the parents were married in Staining in 1931.

He was 42 and Mum was 34, so...it's a start.

It appears that both of Arthur's parents were

born in the late 1800s,

so researcher Roger turns to census records in the hope that it

will give him a short cut to finding their siblings.

I'm just trying to tie up censuses for the parents.

I was hoping that there'd be something in the Brighton,

Sussex area, but there's no reason to presume

they were born in that area, so...

So, it's a bit hit-and-miss at the moment.

But the team starts exploring the maternal side

and is already making headway on Arthur's mother's family.

The dad's got a second name and both names are listed on there,

Edward David Hill, father of Florence, of the right age,

and there's one in Brighton, so, unless I'm really unlucky...

this is going to be the right one.

But Roger is puzzled by the census entry for Arthur's grandmother.

That's interesting.

According to the marriage, she's married as Henderson Scott.

The team were expecting Arthur's grandfather, Edward Hill,

to be married to Elizabeth Henderson,

but, to their surprise,

the 1911 census lists Edward as having married in Brighton to

Henderson Scott, a male-sounding name.

He's not going to have married a Scott Henderson, is he?

-No.

-I don't think they're retrospecting gay marriage.

Well, this is the wrong marriage.

If this is the wrong marriage, then all the team's work

so far will have been for nothing.

In order to avoid any wrong turns,

the team needs to ensure they have the right family and, for this,

they urgently need to establish the full name of Arthur's grandmother.

Scott.

-Hmm.

-It should be Elizabeth Henderson.

This is down as Henderson, isn't it?

Yeah.

It's got to be the right one though, because it's bang on the right area.

-Yeah.

-We're going to have to order it in anyway, just to make sure.

-Yeah, I'll bang that in as a priority.

-Yeah.

After a thorough search of birth records,

the confusion is cleared up.

Arthur's grandmother had the unusual name

of Henderson Elizabeth Scott, but her full name was not listed

on the census entries that relate to her.

'I just found the birth of the maternal grandmother.'

On the census, she was Elizabeth Henderson,

but, when she was born, she was Henderson E.

It just means that it's right and the marriage is right.

It's one step further, isn't it? One step nearer.

The heir hunters are back on the scent

and have discovered that Arthur's grandparents, Edward Hill

and Henderson Elizabeth Scott,

had 11 children in addition to Arthur's mother, Florence.

Four died as infants, which means the team is now

searching for descendants of seven of Florence's brothers and sisters.

One of them, Dorothy, has a very unusual middle name.

That's a middle name to die for!

-Catura.

-Yes. If correct...

..it might make life easier, might it?

A name like Dorothy Catura Hill could be invaluable

in tracking down beneficiaries and the team quickly makes progress.

Dom identifies a cousin once removed

and finds a telephone number for her.

Oh, hello, I wonder if you can help me.

I'm trying to figure out if a family that we've been looking into,

which is a family by the surname of Hill, is any relation to your family.

Edward David Hill and an Elizabeth Henderson Scott.

-That's a name that means something to you, then?

-Bingo.

It's the right family and the relative tells Dom some

vital information about Arthur's mother, Florence.

Did Auntie Flo have any kids that you are aware of?

Ah, OK. Well, that's interesting that you would say two.

We think she had a son, Arthur, and we think Arthur has recently died.

Thank you very much. Take care. Bye-bye.

But unfortunately,

it's flagged up a possible major flaw in the research.

She thought Auntie Flo, who is the mother of the deceased,

had possibly two kids.

It's thrown a bit of a spanner in the works.

We thought we'd ruled out the possibility of near kin,

but with a surname like Williams, you just never know.

Come on. Let's have a look at the trees over here.

'The team now need to establish if Arthur did have brothers or sisters.

'If he did, they or their children would be entitled over any cousins

'the team are tracing, rendering that research null and void.'

She had an Auntie Flo.

-Auntie Flo, and this is where it goes slightly wobbly...

-Hmm.

..is thought to have two children.

She thought she remembered playing with Auntie Flo's two children.

The heir hunters now have to split their resources, with some of

the team double-checking if Arthur did have siblings.

Dom has to continue the search for wider family and updates the tree.

Ernest Edwards was a French polisher.

-She doesn't know if he married and had kids or not.

-Right.

Beatrice is thought to have married with kids, no idea of their names.

So, I think the two to concentrate on are Beatrice and Ernest

-because they're the two with potential for issue.

-Yeah.

It seems there are still plenty more maternal cousins to find,

and researcher Roger still has to get

stuck into work on the paternal side.

Nobody's started much on the Williams' side, have they?

Because of the names. Potentially, 12 stems, aren't there?

So, it could be a very big tree.

As Williams is such a widely used name,

Roger could be facing a huge search.

Because it's a common name, they probably have to put that in probate, to see if he's right.

But all the research they're doing into the wider family could be for

nothing if it turns out that Arthur did indeed have brothers or sisters.

When heir hunters receive a new case to explore,

they never know the family history that they are

about to uncover or when the next file is coming their way.

Daniel Curran, from probate researchers Finders,

knows that his team have to be prepared to hit the ground running

to stay one step ahead of the competition.

As the Treasury can advertise randomly at any time,

we have to be ready to respond if we feel that a case is interesting.

Raymond Wilfred Wild died at Queen's Hospital, Romford,

close to his home on the 3rd of May 2012, aged 77.

He was a journalist for local newspapers for many years

after developing a love for writing as a child.

Bonnie and David McGough lived next door to Raymond

and remember him fondly.

'Raymond was a very, very smart man. Very well dressed.'

He'd have a Panama hat in the summer and a bowler hat in the winter

and a red silk handkerchief in his top pocket.

Everybody knew him, everybody used to say,

"Who's that smart man who walks along?"

David first met Ray when he was suddenly taken ill one night.

We rang for an ambulance for him and, uh, he was taken into hospital

and when he came out, we received a present and a letter from him.

"Dear Dave and Bonnie, I want to thank you both

"most sincerely for all the help you gave me.

"It is indeed good to know that there are still a few

"kind and caring people left in this world.

"I am only too well aware of how very rare such people are

"in this day and age.

"Thank you again, sincerely, Raymond Wild."

We thought, "What a nice way to write."

It looks old-fashioned

and it's precise and it just reminded us

of someone from way back, really, a gentleman from back in history.

Cos it is sad to see that he's not around any more.

And...

I suppose that's life, you know.

When the estate of Raymond Wild was advertised by the Treasury's

solicitor, case manager Amy-Louise Moyes immediately

identified its potential.

We thought that the surname Wild was particularly interesting.

We also thought that he might have owned his own property.

Raymond's case came from the Bona Vacantia Division,

a government department run by the Treasury solicitor,

which publishes unclaimed estates.

And Amy knew that having an uncommon family name to work with,

made things all the more urgent.

When we are working on a case from the Treasury solicitor,

it's usually a competitive case, which is why,

if the surname appears to be unusual or particularly rare,

it's always best because it means that we can work on it quickly

and hope to beat any other competition.

Aware that rival firms were also tracking Raymond's relatives, it was

a race against time for Amy and the team, who hit problems straightaway.

One of the first ports of call is to try

and obtain a copy of the death certificate.

The death certificate will confirm the full date of death for us

and it will also provide a full name.

The death certificate will also show a full date of birth

and, hopefully, a place of birth.

Unfortunately, with Raymond Wild, we were unable to obtain

the death certificate because his death was

still at inquest at the time.

There are a variety of reasons why a death certificate may not be

issued soon after someone has died.

And without Raymond's, Amy had to explore other avenues.

One of the first bits of research I did was to check the electoral rolls.

This suggested that Raymond had been living alone for a number of years.

There appeared to be no spouse living with him and no children either.

I then double-checked this information to

confirm by looking at the marriage indexes for England and Wales

and there were no obvious marriages for Raymond, which, again,

led us to believe that he had died a bachelor without any children.

This meant that I could go straight ahead and look at the birth indexes.

I could find Raymond's birth records

which would then lead me onto finding out his parents' names

and, in turn, to establish whether or not either parent was still alive.

Having studied birth records,

Amy discovered that Raymond's father, John Wild,

had four brothers and sisters,

and he had married Elizabeth Ellen Witting in 1921.

Amy's search had thrown up some fascinating facts

about John's profession.

Raymond's parents' marriage certificate was able to tell us

that his father, John, had been a sheet metal worker.

John worked for Bates Cycles in East London and,

perhaps surprisingly, his bicycle making skills

brought him to the attention of the War Office.

The War Office is, today, what we would call the Ministry of Defence.

Army, Navy, Air Force all come under the War Office

in the First World War.

On the outbreak of war, there was a massive number

of people who volunteered, and many of them were skilled workers,

so it was very, very important

that the War Office were able to stop some people going off to

volunteer cos they were needed in the UK,

so the War Office gave them a post. You probably don't know what

you're making, because the War Office

isn't going to tell you, it'll be assembled somewhere else.

In those periods, you just don't talk about it.

You do your job, you go home and you keep shtoom.

John probably never imagined that one week he would be making

bicycle frames and the next he would be part of the war effort.

The bicycle industry is a real analogy with

the ammunitions industry.

The technology of bicycles,

the technology of weapons at the time, almost identical.

If you can make one, you can make the other.

John Wild was a sheet metal worker.

Sheet metalwork for the Army involves

everything from building the interior ammunition boxes

through material required inside the land ships later known as tanks.

So, I suspect he was involved in some element of

the production of weapons for the Army.

John survived the war, but, unfortunately,

like many families, he had loved ones fighting overseas.

His brother, Matthew,

was a stoker on HMS Inflexible at the beginning of the war.

HMS Inflexible was a cruiser.

When the Germans attempted to raid Port Stanley

and they caught the Germans napping and they went out

and all the German vessels were sunk just before Christmas 1914.

The operation was a huge success for the crew,

but, sadly, their celebrations were short-lived.

What would have been a jubilant time for all those on board turned

to tragedy as it seems Matthew fell overboard in what

are described as unknown circumstances on Christmas Day 1914.

They have just been involved in a successful operation,

they've sunk all the enemy vessels, the South Atlantic is now clear,

it's Christmas Day, there's a double reason to celebrate.

Unfortunately, with everybody busy, everybody partying,

somebody goes over the side, he simply will be lost

and, even if he was seen to go over the side,

a vessel of that size in the South Atlantic in winter...

there's no point turning round and going back for him.

The true story will never be known.

This wasn't the only wartime tragedy to befall the family as

less than six months later, John's older brother, James,

was on board the Royal Edward.

James Wild was in the second battalion of the Hampshire Regiment.

He was a new recruit, wartime volunteer

being sent on the Royal Edward to join the active service element of

the 29th Division, when they are torpedoed.

The vessel sinks very rapidly,

there was a very, very high loss of life on board.

One of those people is James Wild.

By the time he was 25 years old, Raymond's father, John,

had tragically lost both of his brothers.

But in 1921, he married Elizabeth

and Amy knew they had at least one son, Raymond.

I searched the birth indexes using the surname Wild

and also a mother's maiden name of Witting.

Because the family appeared to be from London, I also

limited my search to the London area.

Based on her search, Amy quickly found a total of five siblings to

Raymond, two sisters and three brothers, all born in London.

I decided to look at the two sisters initially.

I had a look at the marriage indexes in order to determine

current surnames that the sisters were using.

From here, I managed to identify potential addresses for both

sisters and, in the meantime,

the team had also identified an address for one of the brothers.

The next steps were then to send some of our representatives

around in order to determine that the information we had was correct

and also to try and sign them up.

As Amy continued her research, it soon became clear that

the Second World War had just as devastating an impact

on the family as the First.

During that period, we're looking at probably 30,000 Londoners dying

and possibly another 50,000 who are injured as a result

of the bombing itself.

EXPLOSIONS

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.

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.

First, it's the case of...

..also known as Anita Fowler, who died a spinster on...

Joyce was born in...

Her mother, Phyllis May Vernon, died on...

Joyce's father...

..died on...

..in Hillingdon.

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

beneficiaries to her estate.

Do you know anything which could shed some light on her family?

Next, can you shed any light on the case of...?

Joseph was born in Israel in 1932

and was a bachelor. He died on...

..East Sussex.

Both Joyce and Joseph's estates remain unclaimed and,

if no-one comes forward, their money will go to the Government.

The money raised by the Bona Vacantia Division is passed

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

therefore to benefit the country as a whole.

Do you have any clues that could help solve the cases of...?

..also known as Anita Fowler or...

Perhaps you could be the next of kin.

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

In London, a team of heir hunters led by case manager Dom are

working the case of Arthur Williams who died in Brighton aged 81.

As they think the case could be worth as much as £200,000,

they are keen to try and stay ahead of the competition.

'We're currently working on the case of Arthur Charles Williams

'who died in July 2013.'

He was not known to have any close family or friends,

so we're keen to get cracking and work the family tree.

The team are busy trying to trace Arthur's cousins,

but their work has been thrown into doubt by a phone call

suggesting he may have had a sibling.

-Auntie Flo...and this is where it goes slightly wobbly...

-Hmm.

..is thought to have two children.

If Arthur did have a sibling, he or she would be the sole heir

to his estate, so the team must quickly establish if it's true.

But at the same time, they must continue the search for cousins.

I think the two to concentrate on are Beatrice and Ernest.

In addition, there's work to be done on the paternal side as the surname

Williams is so common, meaning the family tree could be enormous.

Because it's a common name, they probably have to put that in

probate and see if it's right.

To make matters worse, it's not yet known

if Arthur owned his own property, so working on this case is a gamble.

It's not that easy when you have these really rubbish names.

But the team get to it, and by studying birth, marriage

and census records, they establish that Arthur's father, Charles,

was one of up to 12 children born to Robert and Eliza Williams.

The research has also thrown up some interesting

information about the occupations of Charles and Robert,

and the team have discovered that father and son

were both saddle-makers in Bury St Edmunds.

Back in the 1800s, the job as a saddler

and harness maker was absolutely vital

for everybody, you know, if they wanted to get from A to B.

If they were drawing carriages or whether they were being ridden,

it all involved saddle and harness making.

The master saddler had to be able to turn his hand to everything.

Whether it be horse harness,

anything that needed to be fabricated from leather.

Due to the importance and necessity of their work, Robert and Charles

would have been well-known and well thought of in their local community.

'It was a highly respected profession

'because everybody was reliant on the horse.

'There was no mechanical transport.

'You didn't really want to upset your local saddler.

'They were highly respected.'

But being held in such high regard would not have come easily.

The lifestyle of a country saddler would have been rather hard, I think.

Long hours because you're constantly under pressure, especially in...

'Well, with Victorian times, we've got no electric light,

'you've got to rely on daylight, so you're actually sat at the bench'

for a long, long time making the most of the amount of light that

you've actually got, naturally.

And it would have been up to Robert to hand down the vital secrets

of his trade to his son, in order to maintain the family business.

'The usual way, of course, is to pass it from one generation to the other,

'and that means that that person would sit

'an apprenticeship with the master.'

It's a long-term apprenticeship.

But it is known that Arthur, who was born in 1932,

did not follow in his father and grandfather's footsteps.

In 1932, of course, times were changing, technology was changing.

The whole world was changing. It was the age of the motorcar.

And, so, he went on to do other things.

Back in the office, several members of staff are now hard at work

trying to track down heirs on the huge paternal side of the family.

For researcher Shannon,

it's clear there's still a mammoth amount of work to be done.

It's not that easy because I've got 885 marriages to work through.

And there's still the matter of a possible sibling

of Arthur to consider.

Don't worry about this near kin thing.

I think everything about this says that he

looks like he's going to be an only child.

A thorough trawl of birth records has also drawn a blank,

so case manager Dom decides to follow Roger's hunch,

that Arthur was indeed an only child.

We've been told sort of roughly that there might be

a sibling of the deceased. We think we've ruled that out.

But for today, that's as much as the team can do.

The next day, it's an early start for the heir hunters and

satisfied that Arthur was an only child, the team can now put

all their efforts into tracing his extended family.

Can you guys play with this a bit and then give me a shout

when it's all on the tree?

Case manager Dom starts the day in a confident mood.

We're getting there. I have to say, the research has been brilliant.

We got everything up-to-date

really, really quickly.

So, filling all the gaps is going to take a long time.

And the arrival of various certificates helps the team

take several steps forward.

And what they know about the family profession proves vital.

In the Sidney Williams marriage, the father has the right name

and he's a saddler, so that pretty much confirms it's the right family.

So...saddler and harness maker.

The discovery of Sidney Williams,

a saddle-maker in Bury St Edmunds, adds another piece to the jigsaw.

What it means is that we've got the right name

and he's got the right occupation, so it's going to link in with family.

So, on the cert itself is an Arthur Williams and a Robert Williams

and we've got both of those in the family,

so, it's a double check, really.

INAUDIBLE

Finally, the heir hunters can confirm that Arthur's father,

Charles, had ten siblings,

most of whom were believed to have lived in the Brighton area.

One of Arthur's uncles, Robert, had seven children, one of whom,

Hilda, went on to have

five children of her own.

As first cousins once removed to Arthur,

they're in line to inherit a share of his estate.

This Hilda, however, suddenly jumps and goes up to Derbyshire.

We've tracked down one of her kids, Reginald Alan Barber.

Reginald Barber is one of the heirs the team have tracked down

and he's Arthur's cousin once removed.

It's now two weeks since he was contacted by the team

and the news is still sinking in.

I didn't know anything about my mother's side of the family

and I couldn't think of anybody up in Derby who it could be.

'It's hard to believe when you get it and you do feel

'a little bit sorry for the people who's died and left it to you.'

But then, it was, "Who is this person that's died?"

And we still, hopefully, will learn a bit more about it and about

the extended family down in Bury St Edmunds,

which we know absolutely nothing about.

In London, it's taken Dom and the team more than three weeks to

finally get a handle on Arthur Williams' huge family tree.

On the maternal side, the team has identified descendants

of three of Arthur's aunts and uncles,

all of whom will be entitled to a share of his estate.

And, from his father's side,

there are heirs from five branches of the family.

It's been a tough but rewarding job for case manager Dom.

'We've identified over 30 beneficiaries so far'

and I'm sure we're going to identify more again.

This is going to be really quite a large family tree.

So far, we've signed about seven of the family.

Uh, we'd hope to have a lot more in the coming days,

so it's going quite well, but we've really still got to keep pushing it.

And the team have confirmed that Arthur did own his own property.

Meaning his estate was worth around £214,000.

Dom's instincts were right

and the gamble he took on the case has paid off.

DOM LAUGHS

But for Reginald, more important than an unexpected windfall

is the chance to find out more about the relative he never knew he had.

You just want to know more,

something that you've never bothered about in your life.

And then, all of a sudden...

somebody comes into your life who you don't know

and it's a funny experience.

I suppose, in a way, it is a bit of an adventure,

your family tree that you never think of.

In North London,

case manager Amy-Louise Moyes was working the case of Raymond Wild.

So far, she'd found out that Raymond had five brothers and sisters,

but Amy knew she would have to act quickly to find them.

With a highly competitive case,

it's imperative that you are the firm that makes the first contact.

Once we had names of the potential siblings,

myself and the rest of the team were then able to work

simultaneously in order to try and find addresses for these siblings

and try and visit them before any other competition came our way.

Raymond Wild, a bachelor from East London, died in May 2012

and the heir hunters believe he may have owned his own home.

His neighbours, Dave and Bonnie McGough, were some of

the few people that had contact with Raymond in his final years.

He was an enigma...to us, yeah.

'We was getting used to him stopping and chatting a bit more.'

We just tried to be friendly and be as normal as possible.

'He was just a nice guy.'

-It was sad.

-It would be nice to see him walking up and down again.

Having found contact details for some of Raymond's siblings,

it was urgent that the heir hunters got to them as soon as possible.

The challenge with this case was more to do with

the timescale that we were working to.

Because we were keen not to encounter any competition,

the whole team worked together so that we were able to, then,

go and visit the heirs simultaneously.

And when they did, it threw up a surprising twist.

One of the first heirs we were able to contact was one of

Raymond's sisters who was able to verify our research as correct and,

also, she was able to tell us of an additional sibling,

a younger brother named Bernard who had been born

outside of the London area.

This was why he hadn't been included in our original search.

This new information meant that Amy was now able to confirm that

Raymond was in fact one of seven children born to John and Elizabeth.

Raymond's brother Bernard was born in Somerset rather than London,

where the other siblings were born.

Bernard was born during the Second World War and, during this time,

it was common for whole families to flee London

in order to avoid the bombing.

With German bombs pounding the capital, the Wilds were

one of many families who were not safe in their own home

during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

This is the period of intensive bombing of London

and other British cities and it is indiscriminate bombing, rather than

attempts at tactical or strategic bombing on specific areas.

We're looking at about 28,000 high explosive bombs being

dropped on London and something over

400 parachute mines being dropped in London at that time.

Having already lost his brothers during World War I, John did

everything he could to make sure his family were safe.

He moved his pregnant wife and his children to Bridgwater in Somerset.

If you are suffering from intense aerial bombardment,

you have an incentive to try and make your family safe.

Key workers may well be staying in central London and elsewhere,

although their families might be relocated, if they can.

While it was a common experience, those who could leave, did.

Having confirmed Raymond's siblings,

Amy was now close to tracing all of the heirs.

Two of Raymond's brothers had actually predeceased him,

but had died leaving children of their own

and these children would now inherit a share of Raymond's estate.

But it was only when the team had actually traced the heirs,

that it became clear that Raymond's father John's attempts to keep

the family safe, weren't enough to prevent another tragedy.

Raymond and his family were in Somerset,

having been evacuated,

but Raymond's father John was worried about their house being

damaged due to the bombing, and he wanted the insurance papers

for the home and so Cyril went along with his father.

When they got there, unfortunately, tragedy struck

and a bomb actually hit and damaged the family home.

As the bomb fell, Cyril was pushed out of the way.

Sadly, his father John was killed during this bombing.

For the second time,

a world war had caused the family agonising heartbreak.

This is probably where 26 Rochester Avenue actually stood.

Now, the parachute mine detonated where that block of flats is.

That would have taken out the entire row of houses

from there up to this point.

John had heroically saved his son's life by pushing him

under a cupboard to safety.

Raymond's brother Cyril fractured his skull, but survived, but a joist

fell on John in the family home, breaking his neck and killing him.

It's a matter of luck, in this case, enormously bad luck,

that the parachute mine went off here and destroyed this area.

It really is a tragedy.

Through her research and conversations with the family,

Amy had managed to unravel the family tree

and contacted the families of all six of Raymond's siblings.

One of the beneficiaries was the family of Bernard,

the youngest, born in Somerset during World War II.

Bernard passed away in July 2011, um, survived by three children,

a son called Martin and two others.

Bernard also left a wife, Eileen.

Their son, Martin, is one of the heirs

and knows from his father how the bombing affected him.

My dad never got to know his own dad

because my dad was born nine days after his father was killed.

Um, and I think that had a massive effect on the entire family,

really, the loss of the father.

Instead of introducing her husband to his newborn son,

Elizabeth had to travel to London for John's burial,

but, when she arrived, Elizabeth had missed the funeral.

None of them even had a chance to say goodbye,

and that in itself must have been horrendously traumatic.

News of Raymond's death has brought back

vivid childhood memories of his uncle for Martin.

When I first met Raymond, I thought he was great.

He was just like a smaller version of my dad.

Their sense of humour was almost identical.

And this is amazing.

Bernard was in possession of some priceless family items that he

left with his wife, Eileen,

including a birthday card sent from John to Elizabeth Wild,

which reveals the pet names they used for each other, Jack and Nell.

"My dear Nell, I wish you many happy returns of the day.

"May the year be the end of the war. Best wishes.

"Love from yours, Jack."

And, on the back...

"I am writing this under heavy gunfire, so..."

So, he was being holed in somewhere...

-So, he was...

-..in the war.

That is about three months...

-before he died.

-Before he died, yeah.

-Yeah.

Unfortunately, Raymond did not own his own house,

meaning his estate was worth £6,000.

AMY-LOUISE: With the work that we do here, it isn't always about the size

of an estate with cases such as this one where the value itself

is relatively small. It's the research that brings you

the satisfaction and is the reason why we do the work that we do.

Amy's work has meant that Raymond's estate is

going to the rightful heirs.

'In total, we identified eight heirs to Raymond's estate.'

It had come as quite a shock to several of the heirs that

Raymond had lived so nearby,

as they'd been unaware that he lived so close to them.

Raymond's ashes were scattered by hospital staff

on the Chase in Dagenham after they were told by

his neighbour Dave that Raymond used to go horse riding there as a boy.

It was a surprise that he has got relatives

and it's sad that there wasn't much contact between them.

I don't know...I don't know, it's hard to...it's hard to fathom.

For Martin, it could mean the start of a personal journey

and a chance to build relationships with some of his long-lost family.

'I'm certainly interested in'

finding out more information about where my position in this

whole Wild family is.

'Had John not have died during the war, I think

'the whole family dynamic would have been very different.

'I certainly feel that that has affected...

'the relationships between all of the siblings, and...'

now, the family has gone sort of scattered far and wide

with very little communication.

'I know very, very little about my dad's side of the family and,

'unfortunately, that side of the family are much older,'

so, the time to be able to find that

sort of thing out is...is running out.