Anglia Research Services - Intestate Wills

madbadrob

Exctlly Potter. I give it freely but a bit of searching online would have given the details as well so its not as if I am giving anything away. There are things in the business I wont share but the majority I will

Rob

GrannyKate

My mother was approached a few years ago by one of these companies and eventually received a small pay out of around £400. They told her from the start who the person was and that the amount was likely to be small.


I have been an amateur genealogist for some 30 years and I watch the Heir Hunting programmes on TV. Whilst I call myself an amateur, I do take a professional approach to the research and I am often irritated by the assumptions apparently made on TV programmes. I guess a slick approach is needed for watchable TV but my years of experience tell me that just because I can't find something does not mean it does not exist somewhere. The TV programmes make it look a lot easier than it is in reality. eg Evidence of a missing marriage recently turned up for one of my direct ancestors which I had been looking for 30 years for.


I have a tree on an online site but access is restricted - I always answer queries sent via the site. I am aware that on line sites contain some really bad trees (and many owners refuse to amend them when provided with evidence that they are wrong) but I was quite surprised not to have been approached by the Heir Hunting firm dealing with my mother's case as the deceased person they were looking into was clearly on my tree with date of birth and death.


I had a pretty good idea why an Heir hunting firm might initially assume this case was worth more money but I knew it was not. They had evidently done a lot of research before contacting my mother but could have saved a lot of money as I had pretty much all the certificates which they needed. I have no real idea why this ended up on the BV list as my mother was in contact with the deceased up until his death although not advised of his death until a card was returned some months later.


I was quite happy to pay the commission and leave them to deal with it.

madbadrob

GrannyKate wrote: »

My mother was approached a few years ago by one of these companies and eventually received a small pay out of around £400. They told her from the start who the person was and that the amount was likely to be small.


I have been an amateur genealogist for some 30 years and I watch the Heir Hunting programmes on TV. Whilst I call myself an amateur, I do take a professional approach to the research and I am often irritated by the assumptions apparently made on TV programmes. I guess a slick approach is needed for watchable TV but my years of experience tell me that just because I can't find something does not mean it does not exist somewhere. The TV programmes make it look a lot easier than it is in reality. eg Evidence of a missing marriage recently turned up for one of my direct ancestors which I had been looking for 30 years for.


I have a tree on an online site but access is restricted - I always answer queries sent via the site. I am aware that on line sites contain some really bad trees (and many owners refuse to amend them when provided with evidence that they are wrong) but I was quite surprised not to have been approached by the Heir Hunting firm dealing with my mother's case as the deceased person they were looking into was clearly on my tree with date of birth and death.


I had a pretty good idea why an Heir hunting firm might initially assume this case was worth more money but I knew it was not. They had evidently done a lot of research before contacting my mother but could have saved a lot of money as I had pretty much all the certificates which they needed. I have no real idea why this ended up on the BV list as my mother was in contact with the deceased up until his death although not advised of his death until a card was returned some months later.


I was quite happy to pay the commission and leave them to deal with it.

Yes I will tell people who it is if it is close kin. That is the one part of the job I hate.

Why did it get to BV?

Well that will be because the local council will have taken the funeral on etc and after a brief notice in a local paper with no response they have to pass it to BV. Thats where we come in. A case I looked at in my local area showed how poorly local councils do this work. A guy died and he was living with a woman who claims she was his landlady but everyone suspects his lover. His children all attended the funeral the council laid on although the money came out of the estate yet this still went to the treasury. the first they knew of an estate was when I contacted them. Unfortunately for me the money I spent researching the case I never saw returned because one of the family put in the claim themselves. Those I signed have never paid me my commission and the value is so low it would cost me to take it to court.

That is why we dont like to name the deceased and the risks we take

Rob

potter21

mjdh1957 wrote: »

There is only a vanishingly small chance that anyone who reads these forums has had any dealings with a particular named company.

. The reason that I ask the question can anyone recommend Anglia Research is the fact that the forum was started by someone contacted by them in 2007 and five other people have asked about them so in total seven of us are directly involved and I was hoping that at least one of them would confirm that they had received the money and were satisfied with the service before I sign the papers. Regards Potter

mjdh1957

potter21 wrote: »

. The reason that I ask the question can anyone recommend Anglia Research is the fact that the forum was started by someone contacted by them in 2007 and five other people have asked about them so in total seven of us are directly involved and I was hoping that at least one of them would confirm that they had received the money and were satisfied with the service before I sign the papers. Regards Potter

In that case send them a private message and ask them.

John_Pierpoint

If you click on their posting identity, you will find out if they are still active on this forum.

potter21

Thank's to mjdh1957 for telling me about private messages and to John_Pearpont for telling how to do it. As a newbe its good to get help from you. I am obliged to all of you Potter.

4Napoleons

I was contacted by the company Anglia Research about 2 years ago. They told me they didn't know the amount but it was probably low value and that there were probably lots of relatives. I signed their form. They were right. It tunred out to be about £6000 in total, shared between 38 relatives. They managed to find everybody, and they looked after the adminstration too, and it took less than 12 months altogether. OK, I didn't get much, but nobody did so it's not their fault. In fact, I was impressed with everything they did, which was very professional, and they arranged to put me in touch with distant cousins which was worth more to me than the money.

madbadrob

4Napoleons wrote: »

I was contacted by the company Anglia Research about 2 years ago. They told me they didn't know the amount but it was probably low value and that there were probably lots of relatives. I signed their form. They were right. It tunred out to be about £6000 in total, shared between 38 relatives. They managed to find everybody, and they looked after the adminstration too, and it took less than 12 months altogether. OK, I didn't get much, but nobody did so it's not their fault. In fact, I was impressed with everything they did, which was very professional, and they arranged to put me in touch with distant cousins which was worth more to me than the money.

And that is all we heir hunting firms do. We havent known the estate value since 2009 although we can have a good guess at it. Am very surprised that Anglia got involved with such a low value estate. In Feb I have no doubt I will see the founder of Anglia and I will pass on your comments to him

Rob

secretheirhunter_2

All please note that Rob's advice regarding the method of intestate estate distribution is incorrect and should be disregarded.


SHH