We often say that Finders has an international
reach, but why is that so important?
Families can often scatter far and wide, or it
may be that branches of the family end up on the other side of the world which
is why we need to be able to call on resources and tracing agents across
far-flung places. Different countries have different systems and offices for
recording information such as births and deaths, so knowing how these work is
also very important to probate genealogists such as ourselves.
This week's BBC Heir Hunters programme
which included one of our cases focused on the story of Derek Lynsdale. It
truly did demonstrate how far and wide families can disperse and how important
it is that we as an organisation are able to explore all avenues in our search
for the rightful beneficiaries to an estate.
Although he died in the UK, My Lynsdale had been
born in Burma. At the time of his death, he was living with his mother, he had
no siblings and he had never married nor had any children so there were no
heirs to be found through Mr Lynsdale's direct line.
To find the rightful beneficiaries, Finders case
manager Ryan Gregory had to look at the options for tracing further
members of the family who might also have been born in Burma.
Derek's family history, which Ryan was able to
trace through records of Burmese life at the British Library, was
incredibly fascinating. His paternal grandfather had been a British Army doctor
working in the country in one of the prisons. As well as Derek's father, there
were other siblings too and they had gone on to have children – Derek's
cousins.
As you probably know, Burma was invaded by the
Japanese in December of 1941 during World War II and many of the British
families living there were forced to flee. This had been the case with both
Derek and Susan's families as Ryan was able to discover from passenger lists of
boats. Their journeys back to the UK had taken them to different destinations,
however, and they had not seen each other for many years.
Susan was able to remember her early years in
Burma with happiness, but that had come to an abrupt end when the Japanese
invaded the country.
Finders founder and managing
director Daniel Curran said in the programme,
that one of the most rewarding aspects of the work that we do is that we often
bring families very good news – either that they have inherited life-changing
sums of money, or that we are able to put them in touch with family members
they might not have known about, or have lost touch with.
This was the case with Derek's cousin Susan. She
remembered Derek from their younger years in Burma, and she hadn't known of the
other family members.
Probate genealogists, or heir hunters, such as
Finders are often asked to look into estates by local authorities or local
solicitors. We also keep an eye on the Bona
Vacantia List, a document kept by HM Treasury which lists all
of the estates where people have either died without leaving a will (called
dying “intestate”) or the beneficiaries aren't known.
We look at all angles of a case to find those
heirs – studying both sides of a person's family, searching out birth, marriage
and death certificates and contacting prospective heirs wherever they may be.
