Heirhunters series 3

[dotty.]

I was watching several episodes on i-player last night catching up on the shows as of course it's usually aired weekday mornings, anyway, it has always interested me that the professional firms like Fraser and Fraser and Hoopers still systematically research the case using the microfilmed GRO index for birth marriage and death and go directly into the film to check the entries. They don't use any transcribed index like on ancestry or find my past. The fact that they continue to use this research resource rather than the intenet sites really does make sense. We are constantly asking and answering questions about missing birth death and marriage entries and finding variations between different transcription versions. Their speed and cinviction that they have found the right entry is amazing and having access to the original index in that format is the key.

[Count-A-Strong]

In the programmes I have seen, they seem to hVe a bit of a 'headless chicken' approach to finding heirs. In one, for example, they believed a man in the lake district may have had a million pound property. It turned out to be rented. Surely they could have researched this via the land registry or even local estate agents before trying to sign up relatives?

[dotty.]

I think they do have wild cards that drive them through greed/seeing pound signs. I also think they use Bailiff type field operatives and so how they ever get anywhere bemuses me!