My mum is desperate!

Dimey

Looks like you've got to get the birth, marriage & death certificates to find contacts and investigate fast to find the daughter.

Did the solicitor think that would delay the sister's action ?

What did the solicitor say about your Mum staying in the home as a non-paying or paying tenant in the meantime?

Does your Mum understand that even if you find the daughter, your Mum will be really lucky if the daughter would want her to stay on as a paying tenant?

nom_de_plume

Sadly I can't see how any of this can help your mother. In the absence of the daughter the estate needs dealing with by someone and the sister sounds to be the correct candidate. Maybe armed with this new found knowledge and knowing there's unlikely now to be anything in the kitty for her, the sister may decide to walk away from it putting a temporary hold on proceedings. Ultimately however, unless your mother can make a claim on the grounds of hardship, I suspect that sooner or later she is going to have to move out of the property.

Xxwkd

Yes I think she may have come to terms with the fact that she will not be able to stay in the property. But she really wants it to go to the daughter rather than the sister as it is what he would have wanted and what should happen legally .

RAS

check the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed1462

She really has very very little time to do this and this may be why the sister has taken action now rather than previously.

An application for reasonable financial provision under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (I(PFD)A 1975) cannot be commenced after the end of six months from the date on which a Grant to the estate is first taken out without the permission of the court (s 4).

RAS

Taking the next point

Have you obtained a copy of the letters of administration from the Probate registry? That would indicate to whom the estate will be distributed (and that could be the ex-wife or the daughter).

If they are not included, then you need to speak to the Probate registry aand possibly provide them witrh photocopies of the evidence that the beneficiaries named are not correct.

marmitepotato

Has your Mum gone through every bit of her OH's paperwork? If not it needs to be done really thoroughly, there may be clues.......

RAS

Ok, having done a fair bit of FH research

Certificates for England and Wales can be obtained here https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate

Given that you know the mother's name and the DOB of the child I would start with the year and work backwards until you find the marriage.

That tells you who the mother's father was and where the couple lived at the time.

You have been told that the couple split shortly after the child was born and he only saw her intermittently? So work forward from the date when the child was born and see if you can find another marriage for the same woman. What was the new partner's name?

Go forward 18 years from the date of the birth and start looking for young women marrying with the daughter's name or her first names and the surname of the mother's new spouse.

Might be worth a letter to the papers local to the area where the daughter was born and where the mother lived before marriage asking for contact regarding both people?

Xxwkd

I will be speaking to my mum at some point tonight to get an update. I keep trying to stress to her how little time she has to do all of this but on top of all this she does have other, lets say, issues that she has to deal with. She has been through most of the paperwork, however I suppose there could be more that she has not come across yet. We have no birth certificate, I assume the mother would have this. All she has to prove the daughter exists or existed is newspaper clippings and photographs of when she was little. As for the letter of administration, all we have heard about that is from the sister and her solicitor so I will tell my mum to ask if she can get a copy.
I really do appreciate everyone's input thank you very much

RAS

If you know nthe date the child was borrn, then you can find the marriage certificate of the mother and partner.

I do not recall if the marriage records note that a marriage was later dissolved in England;I seem to recall that they do in Scotland.

It is quite possible that the mother re-married and the child was raise din her new husband's name. I know one poor kid whose mother had her raised under 6 different surnames by the time she was 16.

Xxwkd

I have found out about the marriage to the two parents but I cannot seem to do much past this although I am trying