Daniel Curran, director at Finders says: “Most cases we deal with are for inheritance values of only £1,000 or £2,000 – high values passing to individuals in the style of a lottery win are very rare. If it’s easy to solve, we solve it easily and the bill will reflect that”… When looking for someone abroad, Mr Curran says, one should firstly exhaust all possible avenues within the UK first… Speaking to or writing to people and taking note of rumours or speculation may be very useful – although you must be prepared to have a great deal of your time wasted! “Once you move into overseas territory, research can be a minefield… it can save time and money to use [genealogy] services from an early stage”… “Pre-1983, most life events such as birth, marriage and death are not on any searchable data. After 1983, we must buy or subscribe to a variety of online databases and searchable research media. Other than that, long slogs through manual records and dusty books are not yet consigned to history”.

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