The Will was never updated, and the estate had to be dealt with under Intestacy rules.

Crescent Research were tasked with identifying any/all living relatives who would become the legally entitled beneficiaries of the estate. Through extensive genealogical research we were able to identify that the deceased had 6 paternal branches and 5 maternal branches to her extended family tree.

As part of our research process, potential beneficiaries were contacted and only 3 people had a distant memory of the name of the deceased. This was an estranged extended family tree, with each branch being unaware of any other branch.

With research completed, Crescent Research had identified and contacted 38 living relatives of the deceased, who will now inherit from an estate belonging to a lady they didn’t know, despite being first cousins or first cousins once removed. No-one within the extended family knew why the aunts and uncles of the deceased has become alienated from one another.

Sadly, family from one branch of the family tree resided less than 3 miles from the deceased’s last known address and advised that had they known of the deceased, they would certainly have had contact with her.

On a positive note, Crescent Research has assisted in reconnecting several cousins from different branches of the family tree.

Three cousins were members of the same Bowls club and had met several times but were unaware of the relationship between them.
Two cousins had worked together in the same shop for over 10 years and, despite having the same surname, didn’t realise they were related.