Probate genealogists - anyone met one please?

Allexie

ukric wrote:

A good way of finding out whether it's worth the effort would be to ask the company that has contacted you "what is the total estate worth" (lets face it they're not gonna do all that work for a % of £5.00 are they).

I doubt if they would tell you! Neither the title research firm nor the solicitors involved would give us any idea as to the size of the estate until things were practically wound up! Worth as try though.

coolbreezes

coolbreezes wrote:

when a person in the uk dies intestate it falls to the crown who in turn advertise for possible heirs. There is a website http://www.bonavacantia.gov.uk/ where you can seek help and conduct searches. Hopefully you can trace the deceased on your own and avoid paying a huge fee to the genealogists. Its worth a shot

This is not a scam I once worked for the Crown in Scotland dealing with Bona vacantia estates. The Crown do advertise the details of the deceased locally and await responses. Very often estates are passed on to the the heirs via genealogists.

Middlestitch

Thank you all very much indeed - thoughts and good sense much appreciated!