Ancestors Magazine
November 2007
Good Will Hunting
Penny Law, deputy editor of Ancestors Magazine, recounts the excitement of shadowing our researchers on a quiet day in the office.
"Following
the airing of BBC One’s series Heir
Hunters, in which Fraser & Fraser
featured prominently, Neil received over
300 emails and letters asking for a job
with the company. Only three people
were lucky enough to get an interview,
and when I ask whether there might be
time for a fourth, he politely declines..." Click here to contact us for the full Good Will Hunting article.
BBC1 Lunchtime News- Live Interview
5 September 2007
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Fraser & Fraser was invited by BBC1 to comment on the National Archives' decision to close the Family Records Centre in North London. The National Archives (TNA) argued that a fall in visitor numbers has lead to the decision to close the centre, however Partner Neil Fraser argues that there is no adequate substitute being made available to the public |
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Fraser & Fraser was also interviewed live on the BBC London Drivetime with Eddie & Kath radio show in connection with this issue. |
BBC1 Documentary: Heir Hunters
The BBC chose Fraser & Fraser as its main focus in a 15-part documentary about Probate Research which was screened on BBC1 every weekday from Monday 4th June for three weeks. The series followed the firm to show how time consuming research positively impacts people’s lives. Click here for more information and to see the TV series on line
The Guardian
30 June 2007
The Heir Hunter: Is he looking for you?
It's the stuff of dreams. One day, out of the blue, you inherit a fortune. Lucy Atkins on the "detectives" who bring the good news, and the poignant family stories behind the fat cheques.
Daily Mail
20 June 2007
Money Mail: Are you due a Family Fortune?
Could you be in line to inherit a fortune from a long-lost or unknown relative? Specialist firms make their living attempting to reunite people with millions of pounds of unclaimed cash before the Treasury can claim the money. And Justin Harper spent a fascinating day with one such firm.
Click here to read more.
 House of Lords: School Sites Act
Fraser & Fraser won a precedent case in the House of Lords. We received a lot of media coverage, including a five minute piece on the Channel 4 evening news. Click here for more information.
Tree of Life Publishing
Fraser & Fraser of London constructed the first family tree for the book “The Gravener Family of Dover”, published in Australia in 2003. We are quoted and acknowledged in the book.
Solicitors Journal
22 September 2006
Fraser & Fraser contributed to a genealogy article and was quoted in it.
“Genealogy is the ‘science’ of using databases, archives, electronic records and censuses to track down relative of the recently deceased who are entitled o a share of an estate. In theory, the job can be carried our by a probate solicitor, and often is if the will is straightforward; however, with so many cases becoming time consuming and complex it is outsourced to genealogists…..”
Trust & Estate Practitioner
July 2006
“Probate researchers require a number of skills. As well as investigative powers, they need diplomacy, tact ad patience. Being told a long-lost relative or friend has died and left them an inheritance will obviously come as a great shock.
Each case can be difference and present its own challenges. Indeed in some cases, some people do not want to receive the inheritance. Probate researches, however, say their work is generally satisfying. Philippe Fraser of Fraser and Fraser cites one case in which they found a homeless Big Issue seller who received a quarter of a £1.2m estate. He had been living in a cardboard box in Soho but subsequently bought a castle in Wales.”
The Trust & Estate Practitioner then ran an article quoting a case study of a case which led us to China.
Solicitors Journal
21 April 2006
Fraser & Fraser were extensively consulted for a Genealogy article which appeared in the Solicitors Journal on 21st April 2006.
“The Gender Recognition Act means that a person can now simultaneously changer both their gender and their name, which can make them incredibly difficult to trace,” Fraser & Fraser says
Whilst the incidents of gender change, and the problems it they cause genealogists, may be few and far between, there were over 3,600 civil partnerships in the first month of the CPA coming into force. Whilst Fraser admits there are “currently no statistics” to intimate how complex it will make the tracing process, the indications are that it will give rise to, as Fraser calls it, 'a whole new ball game”.
“Traditionally, when couples have got married, it has been a safe bet that the woman will take the man's name,” he says. “However, with civil partnerships there are now four possible outcomes. Firstly, a man could keep his own name; secondly, take his partners name; or the other possibility is that the couple could opt for a 'double-barrelled' surname -and that could involve either surname first.”
Fraser also refers to “more people living overseas”, “an increasingly mobile workforce” and “ the baby boomer generation retiring and moving abroad” as reasons why the process of tracing beneficiaries is as complex as it has ever been.
The initial reaction might be to dismiss this notion, citing the Internet and its variety of search functions as the gateway to a simple life for genealogists. Fraser rejects this saying he “can't overemphasise the importance of not wholly relying on electronic records”.
“There is a very dangerous perception that electronic records are perfect, when in fact gaps in archives and transcription errors are all too common,” he says. “For example, there was huge excitement in 2002, when the 1901 census became available on-line, but the problem was thee were a huge number of transcription errors. This was because it had been put on-line by prisoners and they didn't particularly care about how accurately it was done. Eventually, it had to be completely re-done and was shipped out to Sri Lanka to be completed by an Indian firm.”
On top of this, Fraser says that whilst the benchmark aimed for with entering electronic records on the Web is 99.5 per cent accuracy, the 0.5 per cent inaccuracy can represent a huge number of faulty data entries. “If you consider that the UK has a population of 60m people, that 0.5 per cent is massive,” he says. “For example, there are half a million deaths a year in the UK, which could mean that over 60 years that 0.5 per cent adds up to 165,000 inaccuracies.”
This is not to say that the Internet has not improved things significantly for genealogists, it has, but Fraser says it should be “one small part” of a big jigsaw. “It is a great starting point, but it doesn't lead to an end point on its own,” he say. “We carry out extensive interviews with family members and do all sorts of cross-referencing before reaching a conclusion.”
However, Frasers' has taken the use of technology one step further and embraced it to stay ahead of the field. “We have recently started using DNA testing to prove familial relationships,” says Fraser. “There are often situations where paper records aren't available and in the cases of half-brothers or half-sisters, fathers aren't named on birth certificates. Now we can confirm these matters using DNA. We use a variety of methods, but often when this evidence is combined with anecdotal evidence and any records we can find, the case can be very strong.”
New Law Journal
Friday 24th March 2006
Philippe Fraser was invited to write a piece to explain
how probate research has changed with the development of new technology. The
article was too long to reproduce here.
Law Society Probate Section Yearbook
2006 Edition (Genealogy
Chapter)
Philippe Fraser, of Fraser and
Fraser, says that the amount of work coming from solicitors
is increasing. “One of the reasons for this is that there
are more and more nuclear families. People are more likely these days
to move overseas as individuals, whereas in the past whole families used to emigrate. Solicitors
generally need to be aware that just because the family doesn’t know what
has happened to one of their relatives, it doesn’t mean that no-one knows. We
get many calls a day from people wanting to know what is possible. We
need at least the name of the deceased, and as long as it isn’t something
like ‘Smith’ you can get a long way.”
… Fraser says the company does not like to give up. He
emphasises the importance of turning to professionals for
help. “It is very easy to miss somebody and not
know about it,” he says. “The professional
will do much more cross checking and rechecking. We
employ more than 40 staff in London and have a network of
eight European offices. We also undertake research
in countries like Japan.”
Law Society Probate Section Yearbook
2006 Edition (Recruitment
Chapter)
One young rising star in the profession
is Charles Fraser, of probate research firm Fraser and Fraser,
who at 33 is the youngest solicitor to be elected President
of the City of Westminster and Holborn Law Society. He is also
a member of the Council of the Law Society of England and
Wales, the Law Society’s Scrutiny Committee, Wills
and Equity Committee and Probate Section as well as a member
of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He
worked in the tax department of a London law firm specialising
in wills and probate before joining his family firm. “I
think it’s a great shame this area of law has been
taken off the compulsory study section,” he says. “After
all, it covers one of the two certainties in life: death
and taxes. Every solicitor is going to come across
the death of somebody they know at some point. I think
it’s an essential part of a solicitor’s education.”
Fraser is hopeful that the Training
Committee of the Law Society might be persuaded to consider
the introduction of this area as a core subject. It
is under consultation and there will be a report back.
“Private client work used to be part of the business
that subsidised a lot of firms. But there was not the
same money in it as other areas of law. Many firms
closed down their private client departments, through some
re-opened and then shut again. It fluctuates depending
on the current feeling. There is a mixture of big firms
wanting to specialise in City aspects of the work, and more
and more firms dealing with high net worth individuals and
all that it entails.”
Fraser is concerned at the number
of solicitors who do not appear to want to take on newly
qualified solicitors and train them. “They need to learn from a person
with experience, and those who are retiring need to be able
to hand over a successful and thriving department. If
work is delegated properly there is no reason why they should
not be able to teach and support young solicitors. There
is a general trend for small departments to get overrun with
work as it becomes more difficult to recruit staff, but it’s
not impossible.”
Though he was not the only one
of his contemporaries to choose this area of law, he was
in the minority. … “It’s
not a particularly joyous occasion and people don’t
like doing wills. They get nervous about it and it’s
surprising how many people have to redo it because their
hand is shaking so much they’ve messed up their signature. But
when they’ve done it, it’s like a huge cloud
lifting off them.
Elderly Client Adviser
November/December 2005
“Charles Fraser, head of legal at probate-research firm Fraser & Fraser,
has become the youngest president of
the City of Westminster and Holborn Law Society at the age
of 33. Fraser is already a member of the Council of the Law
Society of England & Wales, the Law Society Scrutiny Committee,
the Law Society Wills & Equity Committee, the Law Society’s
Probate Section, as well as the society of Trust and estate
Practitioners (STEP). He worked in the tax department of
a London law firm, specialising in wills and probate before
joining Fraser & Fraser in 2001.”
The Solicitors Journal
18 November 2005
Migration and Mongolia
The internet has not made things
easier for genealogists. Andrew Towler reports on today’s
obstacles and some very bizarre cases
The slightly obscure subject of genealogy has really hit
the headlines in the past few weeks.
The task of finding beneficiaries – so important to
solicitors working in wills and probate – gave rise
to a landmark House of Lords case and …. The Lords
case, reported in solicitors journal (News, 04.11.05, p1292),
involved a dispute between the Canterbury Diocesan Board
of Finance and leading probate researchers Fraser & Fraser
over who owned a school near Maidstone. Five law lords came
down on the side of Fraser’s, who had traced 18 descendants
of the original owners of the building and will now distribute
the proceeds of sale to them…
Data protection obstacle
"People think that because of the advent of electronic
records, the task of finding people has become very simple," says
Philippe Fraser, a case manager at Fraser & Fraser. "In
fact it has got harder recently due to new legislation, data
protection laws and families becoming more splintered."
"People are also far more hesitant to open up and give
you information about themselves," he continues. "Due
to all the coverage identity theft is getting, you really
have to build up someone’s trust before they let you
know details about them and their family."
Fraser says that the introduction of new laws has also had
a knock-on effect on the genealogy industry, and the introduction
of the Civil Partnership Act on the 5 December will give
rise to a new challenge for the profession.
He explains: "The current convention is that a woman
will usually take a man’s name upon getting married,
which makes families easier to trace. However, when same
sex unions become law, we don’t know if one partner
will decide to take on the other’s name, and if they
do, which partner will decide to do so."
Fraser predicts that this will
lead to "a lot of extra
work" in the future and has lobbied the government to
include an additional field on the civil partnership registration
form so the parties have to state which surname they will
be taking. So far, however, this has "fallen on deaf
ears".
Also in December the General Office
of Records will stop using the terms ‘spinster’ and ‘bachelor’,
reverting to only referring to people as ‘single’.
Fraser points out that this change – made for politically
correct reasons – will make it harder for genealogists
to tell if a person has ever been married.
Migration and new names
Fraser also highlights how the
nature of the work changes and reflects changes in society.
When Fraser & Fraser
was founded in 1923, he says that, as a rule, whole families
would move together – such as Irish relocating to the
US or Jewish families moving to avoid persecution.
"Now, however, individuals move on their own, whether
it be for retirements purposes or to take up a job contract
somewhere," he says. "You have to be alert to the
fact people move around alot more today."
This global migration has led
to some fascinating international cases for genealogists.
For example, Fraser tells of how up until 1997 the communist
government in Mongolia had banned surnames for the preceding
70 years. When this law changed, nationals had until June
this year to choose a surname – and
genealogists gave a sigh of relief that at last families
in the country would become more distinguishable and traceable.
However, when the new surnames were announced it emerged
that half the population had chosen the same surname – Borjigin – the
clan name of Genghis Khan.
Privacy laws abroad
Japan also gives rise to problems when tracing heirs, as
its data protection laws are some of the strictest ion the
world. For example, Fraser says there are no telephone directories
in Japan as it is considered a breach of privacy laws.
Trust & Estate
Practitioner
July 2005
The Trust & Estate Practitioner ran a three page technical
feature on Genealogists in its July 2005 issue. Not only
was Philippe Fraser quoted in the article, the publication
also asked us to provide them with some of our case studies,
to which they devoted an entire page.
BBC Radio Cambridge
11th July 2005
Simon Fraser was interviewed by
BBC Radio Cambridge on the 11 July 2005 on the “Mid-Morning Show” by
Andie Harper. One of our clients had contacted the Consumer
Affairs Programme of Radio Cambridge after having received
a letter from us; the client in question was not sure
if we were legitimate and was concerned he might be the
victim of a scam. The radio station investigated the
situation and was quickly reassured. They broadcast their
reassuring reply, which was greeted with so much interest
by its audience that the BBC station decided to have
a follow up programme on their Mid-Morning show on 11
th July. Simon Fraser was asked about the process of
tracing relatives and explained that we never ask beneficiaries
to pay us money up front. When we trace beneficiaries
on a contingency basis, we receive our fee as a commission
at the same time as the beneficiaries. The BBC radio
programme concluded by saying that we are so geared up
to avoiding scams, that sometimes we think legitimate
matters are scams too.
Trust & Estate Practitioner
On page 6 of the May 2005
issue of Trust & Estate Practitioner, there was a news
story about Fraser & Fraser opening its latest office
in Krakow. The article went on to describe the services we
offer.
New Law Journal
25th March 2005
The New Law Journal contained a
Wills & Probate supplement in its issue of 25th March
2005. Fraser & Fraser were extensively consulted and quoted
in the article.
We gave opinions
on certain research sources, gave advice for solicitors
looking for missing beneficiaries, highlighted our use of
our custom databases, as well as emphasising the advantages
of having many overseas offices.
The article also covered the fact that
some countries do not hold civil records, and again we were
quoted on this topic, as well as the implications on research
of changes in data protection legislation across the world.
The article drew to an end after explaining
the advantages of obtaining missing beneficiary indemnity
insurance, whilst warning its readers that “Mr Fraser
points out that [insurance] policies are never issued as an
alternative to professional research, and a full report is
required by the insurance company.”
We were glad to be of help to the
New Law Journal and its readers.
(unfortunately the article is too long to quote here)
Law
Society
Probate Section Yearbook
launched: 6th December 2004 at
the Law Society
When the Law Society Probate Section were preparing their
first Yearbook, they decided to have a chapter on Genealogy.
We were the firm they consulted and quoted in the article.
.... "Philippe Fraser
of Fraser & Fraser says that: ‘Irrespective of first
hand information, we would always conduct the research in
the order of first entitlement. This would mean checking for
a spouse, and then children (and any of their descendants)
and then parents, before moving on to grandparents. Spouses
sometimes part without being divorced, children are sometimes
disowned without being adopted out of a family – both
categories would have to be accounted for!’"......
Fraser & Fraser point
out that practitioners will receive a different level of service
if they are paying a professional: “Where the hobbyists
differ from their professional counterparts is that the latter
have decades of experience and know they have to work to a
higher level of accuracy. If a hobbyist misses a person from
a family tree, nobody might ever know. A professional offering
a legal service cannot afford to have any such accidental
omissions for all the obvious reasons. Furthermore, few solicitors
would tolerate the time-frame that hobbyists work to. These
points have helped solicitors realise that they themselves
are not the ones best placed to undertake research either
– and demand for the use of experienced professional
probate researchers has grown accordingly.”.....
"This chapter was
complied with the assistance of Philippe Fraser of Fraser
& Fraser. We are grateful to him for his input."
BBC
Radio 4
26th November 2002
Linda Pressly produced
and presented a series of BBC radio 4 programmes called “Public
Records”. In one programme she talked about Probate
Research and naturally it was us she turned to when she wanted
an experienced specialist to talk about the topic.
(click
here to listen to it with RealPlayer - we are 7 minutes
26 seconds after the start of this audio file)
Simon Fraser: “Anytime you
do research and get the breakthrough it is a great adrenaline
rush”
Linda Pressly: “Simon Fraser
has built his career and business on Probate Research, much
of the bread and butter digging is done at the Family Records
Centre”
Simon Fraser: “Especially
if it becomes difficult and you discover it for one reason
or another.. It gives you a great thrill, even now after I’ve
been in the business forty years.”
Linda Pressly: “Probate
Researchers track down the beneficiaries of people who have
died mostly intestate. It’s the kind of job where on
any one day you could find yourself consulting Crockford’s
Clergy list, a leather bound edition of the trade directory
for 19th century Staffordshire or Burke's Peerage. But the
starting points are usually the registers for births, marriages
and deaths and the census. Once a beneficiary is identified,
a researcher or a letter is dispatched to their home to tell
them they may be entitled to a share in the deceased’s
estate, and their reaction?”
Simon Fraser: “From being
absolutely incredulous. People say ‘it can’t possibly
be me. There’s nobody in my family whose ever left any
money whatsoever’ to absolute delight.”
Linda Pressly: ”You won’t
find a sanitised version of British History in the Public
Records, it’s there in all its raw and sometimes bloody
entirety. The professional researchers those who sit at the
same desks day-in day-out are acutely aware of the power of
the documents and the effects they can have on ordinary lives.
And Simon Fraser’s clients may even be lucky enough
to feel the impact of the records even more keenly.”
Simon Fraser: “We found
several members of one family. There was one member of the
family who the other members of the family hadn’t heard
from in years….. he was somewhere in London selling
the big issue. This is a magazine for the down and outs to
sell on the streets. We contacted the Big Issue and sure enough
they had heard of this person. He contacted us and sure enough
we were able to establish that he was who we thought he was
and at the end of the day he inherited about a quarter of
a million pounds.”
Linda Pressly: ”lovely”
The
Times, Weekend MONEY
Saturday
May 3 1997
"Fraser
& Fraser is one of the world's biggest firms of genealogists,
with offices in Rome, London and Warsaw. Nathan Fraser, a
partner with the firm, said that most work came from solicitors
trying to find the heirs to estates where no will had been
left.
However,
the firm is also involved in tracing the rightful owners of
other assets. Mr Fraser said: 'When the Ministry of Defence
sold off the married couples' quarters, the property first
had to be offered back to the people who sold the houses to
the Ministry of Defence in the first place.
He claimed
that the vast majority of beneficiaries of his tracing work
received no more than a few thousand pounds. However, the
firm had been instrumental in tracing the rightful owners
of shares worth more than £1 million in the Press Association,
the news agency."
Evening
Standard
25 November 1988
"Helen
Channing, who with her husband runs a Hampshire smallholding,
last year got a letter out of the blue, stating, 'We believe
we have found a sum of unclaimed money to which you may be
entitled.' It was from Fraser and Fraser of London, WC1, who
described their work as 'finding missing heirs'. They had
got Helen's name from her aunt.
They invited
Helen to sign an agreement authorising them to act on her
behalf and giving them a commission…. Until she did,
they said they could not disclose anything more.
Understandably,
Helen hesitated … 'but the firm seemed bona fide - they
even urged me to consult a lawyer.' .....
After
an interval, Frasers informed Helen the estate in question
was that of a Mrs Wood who had died in 1981 in a nursing home
leaving about £18,000.
Helen
had never even heard of Mrs Wood. Research established that
both Helen and Mrs Wood were descended from a couple who had
married in 1863 in Lambeth and moved to Yorkshire.
Helen
was 'a lawful cousin once removed of the whole blood to the
said deceased'. Fraser & Fraser took up her claim ...
and eventually Helen was informed that her share after deducting
Fraser' commission and VAT was approximately £1,500.
She was one of many beneficiaries getting this sum or more
- four received £2,000 and 16 others received between
£50 and £500 - the proportions being decided by
the degree of kinship."
full
article
The
Guardian
June 15 1985
"The
advice Citizens Advice Bureaux workers gave was to write back
and offer these genealogists a percentage share of any eventual
money you may receive, instead of a flat fee. That will sort
out the phonies...well established companies work on this
basis."
Daily
Mail Weekend Magazine
23-28
September 1976
"Legacies
worth millions are lying around unclaimed. But heir tracers
are helping to bring the money back from the dead."
Every
year about £500,000 is added to the estimated £5,000,000
held by the Treasury and, as 'dormant fund in Chancery', by
the Supreme court.
Most of
the money is left by people who have died intestate - that
is, without making a will - or whose heirs have gone missing.
This is
where the professional fortune hunters come into the picture.
It's pretty hard work, too. Simon Fraser, a partner in a top
London firm of genealogists says, 'The first step is to draw
up a family tree of the deceased. It can be a big ... and
expensive job, tracing back through several generations.'
Remember,
too, that the genealogical agent is taking a gamble. He has
to invest his own time and money and may not find any beneficiaries."
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