Genealogy Chat

Hi folks, have any of you had any experience drafting up a family tree for a solicitor whose dealing with a relatives estate. Sadly my cousin has died and I've managed to give info on remaining cousins on one side but hit a brick wall with the other. The solicitor said she would employ a genealogist to fill in gaps, do they use their own or one of the heir hunters you see advertised? It's all becoming a bit of a headache :-S

I'm sorry to hear of your cousin's death.

No personal experience of this, I'm afraid. The nearest was when my father's cousin died some years ago. Her estate was to be divided among 13 cousins. The solicitor knew their names, bur didn't have contact details for all of them. Not sure if it was specified in the Will or not, but if the "missing" ones weren't traced within two years, then the search for them was ended, and the estate divided among the people the solicitor did know about. He asked the known cousins if they had any knowledge of the missing ones' whereabouts, but I don't know if any professional tracing service was used or not.
Sorry that's not much help!

There's this, on a solicitor's website:

http://hewitts.co.uk/news?id=31

But your solicitor would be the obvious person to ask about what will happen.

I don't know the answer, but whichever thay use it will be expensive, and will come out of the estate.

As far as brick walls go, I'm sure there are people on here who would enjoy helping you solve it, if you give a few details.

Good hunting!

Bless you for your reply, I've managed to trace most remaining cousins but I'm still learning about my family tree. His fathers family im hitting a brick wall with and family rumour was his father had no brothers or sisters. That would mean no remaining cousins on his fathers side. I'm just trying to find out for sure and give the solicitor ( who is very grumpy) as much info as possible. Im also three weeks post op from a hip replacement so using the spare time to research , it's a mind field out there :-( :-(

Would you care for some help?

Have you checked freebmd for details of his father's birth?

I would be most grateful Jacqueline but don't want to put people out. I've found out his fathers date of birth but can't see a way of finding out if he had siblings and they in turn had children ? :-) :-)

If you could give his father's name and date of birth and area of birth (by pm if you don't want to put the details on here) then someone could have a look and see if we can find the family. Depending on when his father was born you can search for the surname with mother's maiden name to see if he had any siblings.

Kath. x

I am sure the ladies who look could help you Carolyn and be only to pleased to.

Don't forget the solicitor is working for YOU so tell him if he is grumpy!!! :-P

Thank you Kathleen :-D

Carolyn

The solicitors would pass it on to one of 'those firms', adding to the costs. They would also put notices in certain papers.
I was very lucky when I did this a few years ago. We didn't have to find the other family as there was a birth before marriage and therefore the siblings couldn't inherit .
I still haven't found that 'other family'.

Take up those offers.

Good luck

When my aunt died in Scotland ,where she lived, she didnt leave a will but left a small amount of money .

One cousin and his dad went to Scotland to sort things out re a funeral etc but were told by the solicitor handling her effects that they couldnt act for the family as my cousins mum was a half sister only . Neither could his dad who went because his wife wasnt able to make the journey being an elderly lady

Auntie and i used to be in contact by phone and letter so she had my address somehow they found I was a niece so the solicitor wrote asking me about her siblings and my dad her brother , he had already passed away so his share was to his children all 7 of us . Sadly this letter was when I leant that auntie had died I had rung her the previous week but got no reply but she was very deaf so I would have to wait and wait for her to answer the phone, on that I occasion I gave up thinking she must be out
I wrote back giving family history and the names of my siblings and their addresses and they each got the same letter from the solicitor . WE all had a chat and said this is daft each letter will be charged for so it would better for the solicitor to go through me and I would liaise with my siblings and get back to him

He agreed so thats how it was done

Was only a small estate and we each received £800 plus But the solicitor had had his dibs of over £1000 before the final settlement . goodness knows how much more he would have charged if he carried on sending out 10 letters to each of the heirs every time.

I must have answered at least 6 of his queries by individual letters

Gosh can't thank you enough for your info, interestingly @namelessone my cousin was born before his parents were married. So does that mean any relatives on his fathers side are not counted as next of kin? The plot thickens x

But doesnt the parents marrying legitimize a child ??

Give us the details of what you do know for certain, lots of people have resources and will help you for nothing!

Whether the father's relatives are considered would, I imagine, depend on whether he was recorded on the original birth cert

BUT.........the Solicitor should know the answer to that.......surely!

You won't be putting anyone out if you ask for help................that's what we like

This query just illustrates how much trouble is caused by people not making a Will.........it's the ones left behind who have to sort it all out.

Thank you again, should I put the names up publicly or private message you nice peeps? X

You can send me a PM if you would feel more comfortable

Very true Jacqueline , it's been quite stressful to say the least plus dealing with the sadness of his death. He was a solitary soul who never talked about much and I wished I'd known more about him. We all desperately tried but he shut many doors and now he's gone we have to try and sort out what's what :-(

This was our experience re a distant relative of my husband who died without leaving a will. Scotland in our case.

The first we knew was when the deceased persons Solicitor got in touch with us asking for proof re husbands birth.
The solicitor informed us that they were putting the search for family members who would be entitled to a share of the estate into the hands of a research firm.
The whole procedure took 3 years & more than 200 relations from all parts of the UK & beyond were found to be entitled to a share of the said estate.
Have to say we were gobsmacked at the number of entitled claimants! we had tried to add up those we knew would be entitled but never did we think that it would reach in excess of 200!
We were given a list of names for each of those entitled to a share.

Unfortunately both the solicitors & the research people took a HUGE chunk of the money before the rest of us received our share! with each of the family members receiving just £99 each!! also some money was deposited into a bank account for the 1/2 dozen or so family members (or their issues) that they had not managed to locate!

I would suspect that Solicitors in these cases are more likely to want to use a proffessional firm of researchers rather than "amateurs" as there could well be more family members than you think that are found to be entitled to a share of the deceased persons estate! the solicitors couldn't afford to make a mistake!!

The Solicitors concerned in our case are based in Scotland, but they hired a firm of researchers in London!!

Joan.