Following the letter of the law
Posted in Case Histories, For Relatives, For Solicitors
One of our promises to our clients is that we will always act ethically and lawfully. Among other things, this means that we never charge for birth, marriage and death certificates. It also means that, as a matter of policy, we check and double check our research results to make sure that estates pass to the correct beneficiaries. At Anglia Research, arriving at a legally sound outcome takes precedence over our own financial interests. In this article, Philip Turvey discusses a case that illustrates this principle.
Read moreResearch skills matter
Posted in Case Histories, For Relatives, For Solicitors
In this article, case manager Hannah Cooper discusses the importance of research skills and looks at one case that demonstrates that if you work methodically, search widely and refuse to give up, you will eventually arrive at the truth.
Read moreTogether again
Posted in Case Histories, For Relatives
The story of Britain’s Home Children is a story of unintended consequences. For about 100 years – 1869 to 1970 – orphans, children born under the stigma of illegitimacy and those whose parents were judged as unable to keep them were shipped from the UK to new lives in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Nowadays, reading what happened to some of these children can be terribly distressing. It can hardly be what the scheme’s instigator Annie MacPherson intended. Here Peter Turvey remembers one story that would probably warm Miss MacPherson’s heart.
Read moreShutting the workhouse door
Posted in Case Histories, For Relatives
It’s one thing to pick up Oliver Twist, written in the 1830s, and encounter a blistering description of a workhouse board: “eight or ten fat gentlemen” congratulating themselves on their own negligence. It’s quite another thing to stumble across a shocking dereliction of duty while leafing through workhouse records dating from the late 1920s. In this article, Dr Lisa Hill reports on a crime that no-one bothered to solve.
Read moreHow can something as big as a house be missed from someone’s estate?
Posted in Case Histories, For Relatives, For Solicitors
According to the most recent government statistics, there are currently over 200,000 long-term empty homes in England alone. Given that ‘long term’ is defined as over six months, it’s likely that many of these buildings are empty for quite mundane reasons, perhaps because they are awaiting new tenants or a sale. However, a small number of long-term empty homes fall derelict simply because their owner has died and – whether or not they made a will – for some reason the property has not been included in their estate. In this article, Chris Ferry discusses a case that shows how easily this can happen and the problems that arise when it does.
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