Missing Heirs

Can anyone advise me on what the protocol is for not being able to find a sibling of the deceased
when there are cousins with issue.

One of my cases had a sister who was born in 1926 and married in the 1940s in England, but there is no sign of her or her husband
after that, there were no children born in the uk to the couple and the surnames are common.

If there is no trace of either of them then it could mean that either they were amongst the War Dead, emigrated which was usual in the fifties/sixties when the 'Ten Quid Poms' left for Australia in masses. Or they may have divorced and remarried.

In this case there is nothing to stop you applying for administration using a cousin as claimant and then continuing your enquiries.

Just do not be in a rush to make any payments until you are absolutely certain that there is no closer surviving heir. You could well be contacted by another heir hunter once the claim has been removed from the BV listing who does has a closer heir.

Of course if the estate is valued in excess of £15,000 then the final decision will be taken by the solicitor appointed to carry out the probate.

William

Thank you William, I have tried looking for second marriages but nothing has came up so far, i have also tried searching abroad but to no avail. I have tried contacting the informant on the death certificate in case they knew anything but so far they have not gotten back to me.

I have been searching for this lady and what happened to her for about 3 months now and still nothing.

Does anyone know what happened in WW2 with the bombings in England, the sister was married in Headington and I have just realized that Headington was an American ww2 army hospital base so that might be a lead.

William,

I am sure I know all about that Have one that is getting more complicated by the day and I didnt get the first claim in although as it stands I have the closest kin signed up. Have also been told that someone who should be a heir but cant be because the dad is not listed on the birth cert has had a solicitor place a caveat on probate being issued in this case. I wasnt even aware a caveat could be placed on an intestate estate

Rob

I think your answer is in your own reply Shirley. There were a lot of air bases in the area surrounding Oxford the same as East Anglia. So the USA is the place to look or Canada of course as a lot of Canadians were in the air force as well.

As an aside the problems of finding 'War Dead' is not always easy as Churchill's Government's policy during WW2 was to hide the numbers of dead civilians so as not to affect the morale of the country.

William

Admin wrote:William,

I am sure I know all about that  Have one that is getting more complicated by the day and I didnt get the first claim in although as it stands I have the closest kin signed up.  Have also been told that someone who should be a heir but cant be because the dad is not listed on the birth cert has had a solicitor place a caveat on probate being issued in this case.  I wasnt even aware a caveat could be placed on an intestate estate

Rob

I have come across the odd case where there has been a Will and it is on the BV list probably because the only heir could not be traced. In that case a Will had been made and the estate had been left to 'my only son xxxxx' however xxxxx who had a fairly common name, did not have a fathers name on his birth certificate and the Will had not mentioned the Mother's name or any address at all. So he was never ever able to prove that he was the person entitled. This case dated back to my starting days in the early 90's and it is probably still lying in a dusty corner somewhere.

This was a case where a badly written Will was probably worse than a no Will at all.

William

William,

This is a case where no will exists. Has it stands right now have the closest known heirs to the deceased. The Half brother and half sister have both died so the neices and nephews of the half blood are next to inherit however the half brother had 4 children outside of marriage and whilst it is accepted in the family he was their father he is not listed on their birth certificates. Due to one of the neices mentioning the estate to the one surviving child of that union her daughter has instructed a solicitor who has placed a caveat on the estate.

To compound that another research firm placed the first claim to TSoL and were accepted. They are to be fair fully co-operating with me in regards to my clients claims and have also told me one of the cousins they had signed has mentioned that the deceased may have had a son and to that point they have placed newspaper adverts asking for him to come forward. That said my clients who knew Eric before he left his birth town (he would have been by then in his 40's) can not recall him ever having children. One thought he may have been gay but thats speculation. I have also been told (and I dont understand this at all) that if the estate is over £5000 pounds letters of administration have to be applied for as per instructions from TSoL. I am not sure if this is correct and I always thought TSoL only put this on when estates were over 15k. It is complicated when there is myself, the company who made the claim and another involved. I am at a loss as to why it is this third company advertising for the son and not the company who have been accepted (other than the hope they will get the commission to the whole estate)

I like challenges but this one is giving me a massive headache

Rob

this is the firm DS research use to admin estates so that they can distance themselves fro the admin and charges can be applyed.

It is vital that you the them to stop charging as you have closer heirs who wont authorise it otherwise, you could find the estate is charged several thousand pounds for looking for some made up children.

They have not said the estate is bellow £15k just that it is over £5k!