We were recently contacted by a solicitor in the UK who needed our tracing agents help to track down a long lost relative in a probate case. This is a case we see very often at Vilcol, as people may be included in a will, or have a claim to the will, and need to be contacted before the will can be processed correctly. 

 

For many of our cases, our tracing agents are able to tackle the issue head on, but sometimes we have to employ a specialist genealogist. These probate genealogists are experts at tracing a family tree to find long lost relatives and missing heirs to an estate. They use a variety of methods to track down heirs including: searching marriage, birth, and death records, social media, and interviews with living relatives. They then provide solicitors with evidence that these missing people are legitimate heirs. 

 

The expert genealogist that was employed on our client’s case discovered that the long lost relative moved to Australia by boat several decades previously and had been completely uncontactable by their remaining relatives. Our tracing agents were able to locate the missing heir and provide the solicitor with their contact details so that they could move on with processing the will.