As we are in the business of seeking out missing wills and the next of kin when people die intestate (in other words, without a valid will), our research often means we encounter families torn apart by different circumstances.

From wars, to emigration to the more mundane and common place losing touch when life gets in the way, families drift apart for all sorts of reasons – and this is something that is particularly common in Ireland.

But often this drifting apart is something that people wish to alter or do something about. As an example, if your grandfather fell out with or lost touch with a sibling, you may want to discover more about this person and their family after your grandfather has died.

Or it might be that a relative who has recently died talked about a long-lost cousin and expressed their regret for not getting back in touch with that person before they died? You may now feel duty bound to seek out that relative on the person’s behalf, but such a task can seem daunting from the outset. Where do you begin?

Finders International can help you. If you have suddenly become aware of long-lost relatives or previously unknown family members, you may want to establish contact with them. We can help you to do this, free of charge, if you have been working with us to receive an inheritance.

Once you have received your inheritance, you can send us a letter which we can then forward to your relative. All that we request is that you don’t seal the letter as we need to able to check it to ensure that we aren’t passing anything on that is inappropriate.

Of course, your relative isn’t obliged to reply to your letter, but we’ve worked with a great many families where such letters have brought about the establishment of contact and extremely happy family reunions. We think of it as one of the nicest and most rewarding aspects of our work.

Another of the by-products of our daily work is the production of detailed family trees. When we carry out work on a deceased person’s estate, we undertake painstaking research to put together family trees. We look at the deceased person, their known relatives and both sides of their family. Their ancestors and their descendants are all part of this family tree so that we can trace the rightful heirs to an estate.

These days, there are a lot of people who are interested in putting together their family tree and they can be very fascinating and revealing of a family’s past and present. It can help people to get in touch with relatives they hadn’t known about and the tree can show how far and wide families scatter.

This is particularly the case in Ireland where wide-spread emigration took place.

If you would like a copy of the family tree we have compiled for your family, please feel free to contact us once you have received your inheritance and we’ll send you a copy free of charge (free for one copy per person who has retained our services).

If you think other family members will appreciate a copy of the family tree, then additional versions are available for a fee.

Because of our strict adherence to data protection, addresses and contact details of family members won’t be shown on the family tree and you can’t post copies or pictures of it online as this will invalidate insurance cover.

To find out if you could be the heir to an unclaimed estate in Ireland, visit out unclaimed estates website.