Series 12—Finders International on Heir Hunters

The Finders International team is back on the small screen this week as the 12^th series of Heir Hunters continues week-day mornings on the BBC.

As ever, the show pulls together some of the exciting cases we’ve worked on over the last year. Narrated by Michael Buerk the episodes include:

Elizabeth Dean. We find most of our cases through the Bona Vacantia list, but Elizabeth’s case came through a tip-off. We didn’t receive much information, but case manager Suzanne Rowley took on the case and moved quickly, knowing she needed to stay ahead of the competition. Elizabeth’s family had common surnames (Dean and Bell) and we encountered conflicting information, making this one of our more complicated cases.

Eileen Holmes. Eileen was one of our Bona Vacantia cases, and we knew this would be a competitive one thanks to the value of her estate – £140,000. Eileen died aged 92, and she’d been married twice. Case manager Amy Moyes realised Eileen might have had a daughter from her first marriage, but she carried on her research as if the daughter didn’t exist to stay ahead of the competition. Will her risk pay off?

John Hoyle. Instincts play a part in probate research, which was the case with John Hoyle. Case manager Camilla Price found two John T Hoyles in the records and had to decide which one to pursue if she was to find his heirs ahead of the competition. After some false starts, the heirs are found. Another successful case for the Finders International team!

Maureen Gallagher. As you might guess, Maureen’s Gallagher name hinted at Irish connections, but the team couldn’t find the vital evidence there so all research had to concentrate on English records. The estate was extremely competitive, valued at £250,000. The team finds her father was one of seven, and that her grandfather was indeed Irish. Like many of our cases, this one results in a family with a renewed interest in investigating their family tree.

We hope you’ll tune in!

Heir Hunters is scheduled for broadcast from 16 July onwards at 11am on BBC One.