I was married twice. By my first marriage I had one daughter, now 40. My first husband died when she was 14. We had divorced some 11 years earlier and I had lost touch with my elderly ex aunts in-law. My father-in-law had died at 50 when my daughter was only 5 months old. We moved to France over 7 years ago and our son and daughter in law bought our house. Around 5 years ago we returned to the UK and I found a letter addressed to me at a yet previous address, asking for the whereabouts of my daughter.I was very dubious as to what it was. I telephoned and was given a very strange reply. It was on the basis of "something to her advantage" As my daughter was living abroad and fearing that somebody was about to demand money from her, I acted as a filter and passed mail on. Then it turned out that she was being sought as due to inherit from my ex-husband's cousin. He was divorced,an only child, with no children. Both parents were dead. 1 aunt remained (she will be 100 in 3 months) and also a half sister to my ex-husband. I presume she may well have children - she will now be about 50. The person doing the tracing was working for a solicitors firm and there was a time limit (3 months). I have no idea how much the agency may have earned. My daughter received just under £1000. Better than nothing, but not a lot, given that he had a house and, as to my estimate there were just 3 people to inherit (one in each generation) the aunt being nearest, my daughter the furthest Jean > From: Lcsearch3528@aol.com > Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:26:50 -0500 > To: bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [B&S] Heir Hunters -- new series starts this morning on BBC One at 9.15a.m. > > Hi Roy, > > Oh dear I hadn't looked at it that way, thanks for pointing that out > Roy.......I can see what you mean..........but will still watch it anyway. Who > knows they may be looking for me with some vast fortune waiting! Highly > unlikely with my bunch of ancestors being either agri labourers, dock > workers or miners!. > Lin > > > In a message dated 21/02/2011 20:15:34 GMT Standard Time, > roy.stockdill@btinternet.com writes: > > On 21 Feb 2011 at 14:30, Lcsearch3528@aol.com wrote: > > > Hi Josephine > > > > Thanks for letting us know, I love this programme and often think I > > would like to work for Fraser & Fraser, it would be fascinating. > > > I hope you will forgive me but I beg to differ! > > In my book, these people are what I would call "ambulance chasers", much > like no- > win-no-fee lawyers. They are interested only in profit and have no > interest whatsoever > in genealogy for its own sake. > > I happen to know also that the percentage of an estate they demand when > they sign > people up can be very substantial indeed - sometimes as much as 30-35 per > cent - > and they refuse to release any details whatsoever until they have got mugs > to sign on > the dotted line. > > I would not call them genealogists at all - more like commission agents, > i.e. > bookmakers, since they take advantage of people's greed and desire to get > rich quick. > > I used to see them operating at the dear old Family Records Centre when it > was open, > and they were more like spivs than genealogists and family historians. > > -- > Roy Stockdill > Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer > Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: > www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html > > "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, > and that is not being talked about." > OSCAR WILDE > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in > the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message