In today’s episode we see case managers James and Amy working tirelessly to find the beneficiaries to and estate worth in the region of £300k.
Eric Stone died in March 2013 at 84yrs old. He had a will in place that left his entire estate to his brother James – but sadly James died in 2011 and therefore this meant the will was no longer valid.
Eric lived in the family home in St Leonards-on-Sea and for the latter few years a local care home, where staff there remembers him fondly as a private man with a dry sense of humour!
Solicitors referred the case to Finders having already contacted beneficiaries on each side of family, so all we needed to do was confirm their findings and search for any remaining entitled beneficiaries. But things are never as simple as they first seem…..
Eric was the youngest of 3. But al his siblings had all died before him with none of them ever having had any children. This meant a wider family search was required, so case manager James called Amy in to help!
As always the census was key in discovering stems to the family tree – mainly that of Eric’s grandparents (paternal side) – who went on to have 9 children (Eric’s aunts and uncles). Surely there were entitled beneficiaries on this stem… but no! All the sisters were spinsters except one who went on to marry age 46 but sadly had no children. With none of Eric’s aunts offering any leads Amy switches focus to both uncles!
One uncle, Fredrick, married and had one daughter, who would be Eric’s cousin and entitled to a share of the estate. But sadly she had died just 1 month after Eric!
With one last uncle to research – he seemed to be a complete mystery!
Death certificates and marriage certificates were not conclusive, so in a bid for clues Amy awaited photos to be sent through from the solicitor.
Luckily for Amy, forenames, surnames, maiden names and locations were all documented on the back of some of the photos. A breakthrough for Amy at last!
She turned her attention to the maternal side of the family, where she discovered Eric’s mothers was one of 7 children. Solicitors had already identified 4 heirs and several potential heirs, so Amy calls in Peter our ‘travelling superstar researcher’ to try and gain more information about the potential heirs.
Peter visits Eric’s cousin Rose. She remembers Eric fondly a child but they had drifted apart over the years, and actually wasn’t aware that Eric had passed away, so she was obviously completely shocked to be one of the heirs. Rose was also able to help us trace other beneficiaries.
This was a tricky case that required dedicated cases managers and a little luck, but they got there in the end, and every entitled beneficiary was contacted. Well done team!!