Struggling financially in the new year? Well, you may be able to lay claim to an untapped fortune that the Government is taking care of for you.

There are more than 40 estates that people in Plymouth could claim before they are permanently handed over to the Crown, latest figures reveal.

It’s a little-known secret that the details of thousands of unclaimed estates are available online – and you could make a claim to one of them if you’ve got the right surname.

The details are on a Government spreadsheet that can be accessed by anyone. In Plymouth they include ‘widows’, ‘spinsters’, ‘bachelors’ and ‘unknown’.

The list of surnames of unclaimed estates below include people who were born or died in the city, or had some other family link to the area.

The Government is currently taking care of the estates because the deceased passed away without making a will or with no next of kin. The Government updated its list today – January 12.

There are currently more than 44 unclaimed estates connected to Plymouth.

Several of the estates have been listed by the Government for decades, and will revert to the Crown permanently if they remain unidentified.

According to Finders International – a specialist probate genealogist team – family members and heirs have just 12 years to claim an estate once it has been reported unclaimed to the Crown.

Any individual can check the Central Probate Registry to see if any of their next of kin are on the unclaimed list.

If you think that you might be the rightful heir to one of the estates listed you can find out how to make a claim for that estate here .

The list has seen a sharp increase in numbers over the past few years because Government cuts mean there is no search for a will before an unclaimed estate is added to the list.

See the full list below

Baker

Cartlidge

Clark

Clayton

Cohen

Davey

Davies

Dawes

Finch

Fraser

Freeman

Hall

Halloran

Hicks

Holden

Hunt

Iles

Jones

Kern

Lear

Little

Lowe

Mathews

McCarthy

McDonald

Morris

Moss

Parrott

Pickering

Smith

Temple

Thomas

Vincent

Vindevogel

Walker

Welsh

Wilson

Little

Vindevogel

Teague

Mathews

Parrott

Simpson

Clements

Mason

Steer

Baker

French

Grayson

Fairbarn

Tarrant

Harris

How to make a claim

Check your entitlement

If someone dies without leaving a valid or effective will (intestate) the following are entitled to the estate in the order shown below:

1. husband, wife or civil partner
2. children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on
3. mother or father
4. brothers or sisters who share both the same mother and father, or their children (nieces and nephews)
5. half brothers or sisters or their children (nieces and nephews of the half blood or their children). ‘Half ’ means they share only one parent with the deceased
6. grandparents
7. uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins or their descendants)
8. half uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins of the half blood or their children). ‘Half’ means they only share one grandparent with the deceased, not both

If you are, for example, a first cousin of the deceased, you would only be entitled to share in the estate if there are no relatives above you in the order of entitlement, for example, a niece or nephew.

Make a claim

If an entitled relative survived the deceased but has since died, that relative’s personal representative (the person legally entitled to deal with their estate) must make a claim to the deceased person’s estate.

If you believe you are entitled to claim an estate, send a family tree which shows how you are related to the person who has died, and include the dates of birth, marriage and death of all those on the tree.

If it appears that you may be entitled to claim the estate, you will then be asked to supply documentary evidence that proves your entitlement.

This article has been first published in The Herald