You may not know it but, if you have the right surname, you could be about to come into some serious money.

If somebody dies without a will and their family cannot be traced, their money and property pass to the Government. However, relatives may be entitled to a share of the estate.

The unclaimed estates list was updated this week.

There are currently 86 unclaimed estates in Derby and Derbyshire and there is a chance you could make a claim to one of them today if you’ve got the right surname!

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

Attwood

Bannister

Bannon

Barr

Bartosz

Berzins

Boyle

Brown

Bull

Caddick

Cannon

Cephlitis

Chappell

Cholodowski

Clegg

Connolly

Davies

Day

Dodds

Ellis

Frajmut

Fraser

Gaunt

Glowaki

Goluwko

Hales

Hallam

Harrison

Harry

Hawkins

Higgins

Hilson

Holt

Hudson

Jakowicz

Johnson

Kennard

Knight

Krumins

Lavelle

Loach

Lord

Lowe

Lowry

MacCabe

Matthews

Mayne

McGee

McGlynn

McGowan

McPhail

Miller

Milne

Nightingale

Noble

Noton

Perehinec

Pietrzykowski

Rennie

Robertson

Shaw

Simpson

Slater

Slizys

Smith

Stasiolek

Struzik

Stubbs

Sykes

Tarasiewicz

Thompson

Townsley

Trajkovic

Varsha

Vince

Was

Watson

Weston

Westwood

Whitehouse

Wild

Williams

Wilson

Wright

This article has been first published in derbishirelive