Hi Anna,
I am the person who first started this thread, being unable to believe that an heir-hunting company were looking into a case relating to anyone connected with me! After raising the topic on this board I took the advice of Rootschatters and rang you. You will be pleased to know that I was immediately reassured that everything was above board.
I thought others may be interested in the outcome of this case.
The deceased lady was called Mary -- she was Irish and the eldest of 10 children. She had apparantly died in Eastbourne some years ago.
The mystery was - no-one in the family had ever heard of her. My father in law was always reminiscing about his life in Ireland - you could never shut him up (!) -- but Mary was never mentioned.
Unfortunately all of her generation had passed away - so theories abounded that she had become pregnant and run away from Ireland, or - as the eldest of 10 - had to be a 'little mother' to her siblings - and just revolted and left home. Was it a case of 'her name must never be mentioned in this house again'?
5 other siblings eventually settled in England - but Mary was never included, or mentioned, in family meet ups. She had never married.
We went alone on this case, figuring that it would not be worth much and there were 24 cousins!
Administratively it was hard work - we had to produce all sorts of evidence and send it to the Bona Vacantia people. Once they had 'ticked' the boxes on the first batch - we had to produce the next batch and so on and so on. Postage cost a lot as well, as we wanted to send each batch securely.
The estate was worth only £1,800 - and there were 24 beneficiaries. The bona-vacantia people also took out their costs. However we wanted to go through with it, out of interest, just to experience what these things involved.
One of the cousins went down to Eastbourne and was taken to where Mary's ashes were buried in the local cemetery - and we all have a photograph of her final resting place.
It just seems SO sad that this lady had family over here, but appeared to have been estranged for so many years. It was certainly an intruiging discovery -- and we would never have known abour her had we not been contacted by DS Researchers. So thank you Anna -- your company gave us - as a family- a most fascinating time.
Thank you also to everyone who gave me advice initially at the outset of this case.
Regards June