The missing heir

His ‘little black book’ seemed to offer no solutions. Each address was researched, carefully written out and the same crafted letter posted to it; yet not one was offered back. As a niece through marriage, she knew she wasn’t entitled, but Emilie Loraas was determined to find the beneficiaries to her Uncle Tor’s estate after stumbling across BBC One’s Heir Hunters one morning.

Many of us have family members dotted around the world, some to our knowledge, and others unknown, which can make tracing missing beneficiaries to an unclaimed estate a hard and arduous task. It requires thorough searching and meticulous attention to detail in order to provide an accurate and meaningful discovery – something which Fraser & Fraser can offer guaranteed, thanks to over 90 years of experience in the field.

Tor’s origins

Emilie contacted Fraser & Fraser and was put through to Vinnie Røbyre, one of our international case managers who has years of experience in dealing with Scandinavian cases. Armed with Emilie’s uncle’s black book and the belief he was adopted, Vinnie’s first task was to discover where in Denmark he was born. It became clear quite soon that the nuggets of information known didn’t seem to all make sense – although the addresses all pointed towards the same area, just north of Jutland in Denmark, not one had
the same surname as Tor. Perhaps he wasn’t adopted after all.

The discovery of Tor’s passport located his birthplace to Copenhagen, and after some digging around, an updated address to one of the black book’s listed names was placed. Vinnie then contacted Marius – the lengthy phone call explained that Tor was Marius’ father’s brother, but it was believed he was a foster child but could not be sure. The next steps were paramount to move on with this investigation: where in Copenhagen was Tor born, and was he adopted?

After a thorough and comprehensive search, Vinnie found Tor’s place of birth and discovered he was in fact fostered out and not adopted as originally thought.

Vinnie also discovered that Tor had two younger brothers and two half siblings, but they would not be entitled to inherit by UK law. His parents divorced just a few months after his youngest brother was born – records show that three years later, he was adopted out of the family. From Vinnie’s thorough search and a touch of speculation, it looked as though this brother was put into care as the mother remarried within six months of the divorce.

Tor’s mother then went on to marry again and had another daughter, but divorced once more after a decade of marriage, to jump straight back into another just two months after, where she had another son. Sadly, this son died within a day of being born – he would have been another half-brother to Tor.

Rightful heirs

Further research eventually discovered that one of Tor’s brothers stayed with his mother, had married and had two daughters, both who were entitled to Tor’s estate, although they had never even heard his name.

As genealogists and international probate researchers, Fraser & Fraser have offices around the world, including Scotland, Italy, France, Poland and Scandinavia, and so regularly work on international cases such as this. With their head office based in central London, conveniently located a stone’s throw from the legal district, the team provide their expert knowledge and support to solicitors and heirs alike. With an array of services for tracing missing beneficiaries, missing will insurance, asset and will searches and property management to name a few, the firm can help you with every element of estate administration, both in the UK and overseas – even if it does begin with a little black book.

To find out how we can help, call 020 7832 1430 or email legal@fraserandfraser.co.uk

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