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 today if you’ve got the right surname!

The Government is currently taking care of the estates because the deceased passed away without making a will or with no next of kin.

There are currently 64 unclaimed estates in Derby and Derbyshire, spread right across the county bearing 63 different surnames (there are two Smiths)

They include land in Derby, Ironville and Eckington.

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 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 an sharp increase in numbers over the past few years because Government cuts mean that there is no search for a will before an unclaimed estate is added to the list.
These are the surnames of unclaimed Derbyshire estates:

Akinyeye

Atkins

Bannon

Barr

Bartosz

Berzins

Boyle

Brown

Bull

Caddick

Cannon

Chappell

Cholodowski

Collard

Connolly

Cooper

Davies

Day

Dodds

Gaunt

Goluwko

Goodwin

Hales

Hallam

Harrison

Harry

Hawkins

Hazeldine

Herring

Higgins

Hilson

Holt

Hudson

Johnson

Kennard

Lavelle

Lord

MacCabe

Matthews

McGee

Mcgowan

McPhail

Miller

Nightingale

Noton

Pietrzykowski

Robertson

Shaw

Slater

Slizys

Smith

Smith

Stasiolek

Stubbs

Sykes

Townsley

Trajkovic

Varsha

Vince

Was

Westwood

Williams

Attwood

Whitehouse

This article has been first published in Derby Telegraph