In today’s episode we explore the family history of Florence Addison who died in 2007 in Lancashire.

Finders were contacted by solicitors regarding Florence’s £350K estate. A will was in place, but unfortunately, as in a small amount of cases, the will was actually invalid! This meant we needed to find all entitled beneficiaries as soon as possble, or risk the whole of Florence’s estate being gobbled up by the government! And nobody wants that!!

Initial research suggested Florence may have some immediate family due to her adopting a child (Margret Mary) who then also went on to have a son (Brian), Florence’s grandson!

So far so good. Or not as the case was….

In very sad circumstances we discovered Florence had actually outlived both her adopted daughter and grandson, who died of heart and liver disease many years ago – so we were left with no further leads for immediate family, and it was back to the drawing board.

We desperately needed to find a nearest blood relative, and discovered Florence had 3 siblings and was the youngest of the bunch. The 1911 cencus provided vital clues – age, names, places of birth and occupations, and after some digging we focused in on the older sister, Eliza. Offering a second branch to the family tree, Eliza had married and went on to have 5 children, which in normal circumstances would be easy to trace – but unluckily for us Eliza’s surname was TAYLOR – one of the most common names in this country.

After some serious rummaging through various records and data, we pinpointed one of Eliza’s sons, James! (Florences nephew) At last, all our hard work had paid off….. We contacted James and he fondly recalled Florence as a smartly dressed lady with impecibble hair and a bubbly personality who really enjoyed life.

All in all there were 8 heirs to Florence’s estate – 6 nephews and nieces, 2 great nephews. And as in most cases, they truly wished they had spent more time getting to know her before she passed.

I’m sure there is a lesson for us all in here somewhere!
If you missed today’s episode, don’t fret – you can catch up here:  Heir Hunters Series 8 Whiteside_Addison

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