"Heir Hunters" TV program #2

[davidft]

I think what is a problem in this case is it was not made clear whether the Soliciktors voluntarily closed or whether there was an intervention. If there was an intervention there are clear rules what the firm taking over the solicitors should do with the paperwork. However looking on the web one firm that does do interventions just said specifically about wills that they just file them ie they don't read them and write to people to tell them where the will is now held - not bvery helpful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like others I agree that I would have thought there would be rules - from the Law Society or the like, as to what happened to papers if a Solicitor voluntarily closed but I could not find out anything about this. It would have been useful if this was covered in the programme but I suspect it wasn't as its not straightforward

[MaryA]

1969 Birth and Death certificates printed in portrait instead of landscape, however date and place of birth would be on the certificate only if the person registering the death knew it. 

[fallenleaves]

So refreshing to find that someone else in the family had a letter regarding a adoption pre 1926 conducted by a solictor.. Mine was my grandmothers i am lucky i got both passed on to me the agreement and solictors letter that went with it so todays episode was well worth watching !!

[heirhound]

Adoption and inheriting surprised me when I read up on it. When you're legally adopted you're entitled to inherit from your adopted family but not from your blood relatives.


^(*)

My dad was recently contacted by an heir hunting firm after his brother died. My Dad thought he'd died 40 years ago so it came as a bit of a shock!



^(*) Moderator Comment:  advertising removed.

[sandiep]

referring back to the will and Solicitors going out of buisness.......noticed on todays programme that there was a copy with a solicitor but it was said that the original was needed to get estate released........fortunately eventually they apparently did go with the copy.....................so even if the will lodged with solicitor had been found if it wasnt the original it still might not have been accepted

[LizzieW]

I was a bit confused with today's search for heirs of the lady whose husband had died in a factory accident.  The heir hunter said his firm couldn't find her death certificate, presumably because she had a fairly common name and they didn't know when or where she'd died.  Then he said he decided to look at what bit of information he already had and, bingo, there was her death certificate, from which although the informant had since died, he spoke to the informant's daughter.

Whether this was a continuity problem, or what I don't know.  I re-ran that part of the programme a couple or so times to make sure it was as I thought.

Lizzie

ps.  heirhound - Once someone is legally adopted they no longer "belong" to the birth family, but to their adoptive family. 

[mshrmh]

I was a bit confused with today's search for heirs of the lady whose husband had died in a factory accident.  The heir hunter said his firm couldn't find her death certificate, presumably because she had a fairly common name and they didn't know when or where she'd died.  Then he said he decided to look at what bit of information he already had and, bingo, there was her death certificate, from which although the informant had since died, he spoke to the informant's daughter.

Whether this was a continuity problem, or what I don't know.  I re-ran that part of the programme a couple or so times to make sure it was as I thought.

Lizzie

Lizzie - we spotted that when we came to watch the recording last night. Hoopers man said something like they looked at what little paperwork had been passed on & that her sister-in-law was the informant and that speaking to informant's daughter enabled them to identify the correct death - meanwhile on screen was the death certificate with the focus on the informant's name! I think sometimes "they" don't check that pictures & words tally! As someone familiar with the area once they mentioned the industry I wondered if the firm was Richard Johnson & Nephew - again pausing when they showed the newspaper clipping & getting nearer the screen (small screen here) confirmed it was.

On the same case they said that as two of her brothers had died before her they were ruled out - in a current intestacy case that wouldn't be so if they'd left family - are the rules different for this sort of case or was this a case of details being omitted? I'd rather have proper information that chats to a former employee who wasn't there at the time of the accident.

I did find it dreadful that Norah had never had the benefit of the money that arose from her husband's death and then died within a few years, because of an outdated attitude that a widow couldn't handle money Why on earth had the relevant court waited over 50 years to search, I hope this isn't the norm!

[Riojatinto]

Jean, bloodlines only apply if there is no will.  When property was given to provide a school it fell under the ambit of the School Sites Act, so if such property ceased to be used as such, there was a right of reverter to the original descendants of the donor.  If one of these people left a will leaving their estate to a non relative then the bloodline is irrelevant.  Only if there is no will would a blood relative need to be found-

[LizzieW]

On the same case they said that as two of her brothers had died before her they were ruled out - in a current intestacy case that wouldn't be so if they'd left family - are the rules different for this sort of case or was this a case of details being omitted? I'd rather have proper information that chats to a former employee who wasn't there at the time of the accident.

I did wonder if these 2 brothers hadn't had children, so if the money had been available when the lady died, it would have gone to the surviving brother.  Then when he died he left his estate to his widow.  She made a will leaving everything to her nephew.  So in a roundabout way the nephew on her family line got everything. 

I know it's good to have background info but sometimes it seems to be to the detriment of giving full facts.