Here at Finders, we spend a great deal of time uncovering family trees and delving into the depths of history so that we can establish the rightful heirs to an estate.Recently, we posted up a link on our Facebook page to a newspaper site which highlighted an article about a young boy who had turned up some unexpected (and pleasant!) surprises when he chose to make his family tree the subject of a school project. Young Ben Portlock from Worcester discovered that his great-great grandfather and his brother had attended the same primary school that he is at now, and that fact had not been known by the family before.The great-great grandfather Arthur and his brother George had gone on to join the Worcester Regiment 10th Battalion and fought in the First World War. Sadly, George was killed in that war, but Arthur survived.
Family Tree Research
We really enjoy stories of families (and especially young people) who do their own research and uncover hitherto unknown facts about their family trees. It is good to know where you come from and the various routes your family may have taken over the years to end up where it is now. Copies of your family tree are available from us if we have worked with you to establish your claim to an estate and we would encourage you to take advantage of this service, as the document is a useful and informative thing to own. Additional copies are also available for a fee.
As we are a reputable and established probate genealogy firm, we have a great deal of experience in ploughing through the hundreds and thousands of records that are available. When we are preparing a family tree for someone who has died intestate or cases where a will is missing, we look through birth, marriage and death records, census data, military records, obituaries in newspapers and more to find the data we need, allowing us to piece together the family tree.
Census data is particularly useful, as it lists all kinds of information which paints a picture of the country’s population and its characteristics. Often, we are able to give clients detailed information about their families they might not have known about thanks to research using census data and other records.
Research and Where it Can Lead
That can encourage further interest – we know of may people who have gone on to do detailed research into their families’ past as a result of the interest triggered by our work. And who knows where that can lead to? Perhaps young Ben Portlock, for instance, might be inspired by the story of Duncan Campbell who ended up writing a book on the adventures of his ancestor Robert Campbell after discovering his life as a fur trader and explorer in North America?
Of course, census data is particularly useful for the past and the future. Thanks to the census, governments, public bodies, charities and others can make decisions about services which will be needed in years to come because they can analyse population growth and if there will be, for example, more people of a certain age around at a certain time in the future.
The past always informs the present and the future you see, and we know this very well at Finders because our research can often turn up unknown family connections and we can change lives when we are able to tell people they are the rightful heirs to a sizeable estate.
If you would like to know more about Finders’ services and what we can do for you, please contact us through our general inquiry form.
