It’s a little-known secret that the details of thousands of unclaimed estates are available online – and you could make a claim to one of them today if you’ve got the right surname!
The Government is currently taking care of the estates because the deceased passed away without making a will or with no next of kin.
There are currently 64 unclaimed estates in Derby and Derbyshire, spread right across the county bearing 63 different surnames (there are two Smiths)
They include land in Derby, Ironville and Eckington.
Several of the estates have been listed by the Government for decades, and will revert to the Crown permanently if they remain unidentified.
According to Finders International – a specialist probate genealogist team- family members and heirs have just 12 years to claim an estate once it has been reported unclaimed to the Crown.
Any individual can check the Central Probate Registry to see if any next of kin are on the unclaimed list.
If you think that you might be the rightful heir to one of the estates listed you can find out how to make a claim for that estate here .
The list has seen an sharp increase in numbers over the past few years because Government cuts mean that there is no search for a will before an unclaimed estate is added to the list.
These are the surnames of unclaimed Derbyshire estates:
Akinyeye
Atkins
Bannon
Barr
Bartosz
Berzins
Boyle
Brown
Bull
Caddick
Cannon
Chappell
Cholodowski
Collard
Connolly
Cooper
Davies
Day
Dodds
Gaunt
Goluwko
Goodwin
Hales
Hallam
Harrison
Harry
Hawkins
Hazeldine
Herring
Higgins
Hilson
Holt
Hudson
Johnson
Kennard
Lavelle
Lord
MacCabe
Matthews
McGee
Mcgowan
McPhail
Miller
Nightingale
Noton
Pietrzykowski
Robertson
Shaw
Slater
Slizys
Smith
Smith
Stasiolek
Stubbs
Sykes
Townsley
Trajkovic
Varsha
Vince
Was
Westwood
Williams
Attwood
Whitehouse
This article has been first published in Derby Telegraph