Heir Hunters TV programme

[Lord V.]

If you live in the UK, you can catch the program again on BBC i-player 

[deesam56]

Thanks Nick for taking the time to reply.

I never meant the second part to seem as if I was questioning your relationship with your brother or your parents marriage although nice that he remained in contact with your mother.
Most families lose contact with someone as years fly and older generations pass on.

I just meant it is more difficult for heir hunters or genealogists to pick up on half-siblings from unmarried relationships.

I'm enjoying the current series.  I was a bit confused about Neil's comment the other day


 about tier 1, tier2 case etc, how can they classify them as such when they don't yet know the value.

They go on the place of death for example;  Westminster or  East London, which would probably be the highest house value?

[davidrigg3]

To save spoiling the ending of today's programme for anyone reading this who is planning to watch it later, I have PM'd Smeni with the closing info.

[Nick29]

Elektra - the Bona Vacania list does not give the value of the estates any more.  Heir Hunters have to try to establish the value by finding out if a person owned the property they lived in (by checking with the Land Registry), and by looking at the 2003 Electoral Roll (the last one that was published).  They can then allocate 'tiers' based on presumed values.  Of course, this is not infallible, as borne out by the man on today's show who had £40,000 cash stashed inside his council home.

[LizzieW]

Just a quick question, would a cousin have more claim to an estate than a half cousin if no will had been left?  That is the parents of the cousins and half cousins shared a mother but had a different father (two marriages)

Also how easy is it to get hold of a will from 1970?

Lizzie

[mshrmh]

LizzieW - for England & Wales "full blood" relation comes before their "half-blood" equivalent. There's a guide on the Court Service website that explains the rules (they changed in 2009) for England & Wales at:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/civil/probate/why_will.htm#chart
I'm aware that the rules differ elsewhere in the UK.

As regards the 1970 will - again assuming England & Wales it will cost £5 from the Court Service:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1176.htm
(After Ancestry added older probate calendars to their website last year the service via post slowed down - it used to be around 2-3 weeks, I don't know if they're back to those levels).

[Pennie]

Has anyone else noticed that during one of the F&F "stock shots" there's a large bound ledger-type book with the wording "1921 Census" on the spine?  (And I have rewound my Sky+ several times to check this!)

Wonder what that's all about?

Pennie

[genjan1953]

  

Very interesting!

[jaywit]

Did anyone watch this mornings programme?

One of the unsolved cases they showed was Zillah Joan Forge death registered in Lewes in 2000.

15 minutes have shown me
She never married
She had a twin sister who never married and predeceased her
Found her parents marriage
Found father's baptism together with 3 other siblings at one go
1881 census shows even more siblings for her father

Not even looked at her mother