As we are often in the business of seeking out missing wills and the next of kin when people die intestate (in other words, without a will), our work often means we encounter families torn apart by different circumstances.From wars, to emigration to the more mundane and common place losing touch when life gets in the way, families drift apart for all sorts of reasons as you will have seen on the current series of Heir Hunters. But sometimes this drifting apart is something that people want to alter or do something about. After all, if your grandmother fell out with or lost touch with a sibling, you may wish to find out more about this person and their family after her death as an example.
Or perhaps a relative who has recently died mentioned a long-lost cousin and expressed regret for not being able to get back in touch with that person before their death? You may now feel duty bound to seek out the relative on their behalf, but how do you go about such a task?
Finders can help you. If you have become aware of long-lost relatives or previously unknown family members, you may wish to establish contact and we can help you to do this, free of charge, if you have been working with us to receive an inheritance.
Once you have received this inheritance, you can send us a letter which we can forward to your relative. All that we ask is that you do not seal the letter as we need to able to check it to ensure that we are not passing anything on that is inappropriate.
Of course, your relative is not obliged to reply to the letter, but we have worked with a great many families where such letters have resulted in the establishment of contact and very happy family reunions. It is one of the nicest and most rewarding aspects of our work.
Another of the off shoots of our daily work is the production of detailed family trees. When we work on a deceased person’s estate, we undertake painstaking research to put together family trees – the deceased person, their known relatives and both sides of their family, their ancestors and their descendants are all part of this tree so that we can trace the rightful beneficiaries to an estate.
These days, there are many people who have an interest in family trees and they can be very fascinating and revealing of a family’s past and present. It can help people get in touch with relatives they had not known about and it can show how far and wide families can scatter.
If you would like a copy of the family tree we have compiled for your family, please contact us once you have received your inheritance and we will send you a copy free of charge (free for one copy per person who has retained our services). If you like the look of the family tree and you think other family members may appreciate a copy of it, then additional versions are available for a fee.
Because of our strict adherence to data protection, the addresses and contact details of family members will not be shown on the family tree and you can not post copies or pictures of it online as this will invalidate insurance cover.
For more information about the services we offer and how we can help you, please see the section on our website here.
