While the ongoing pandemic made life difficult in 2021, Finders Ireland continued to run successful events and locate the beneficiaries of estates far and wide, writes Maeve Mullin, Finders Ireland’s director.

In 2021, we were the proud sponsors of 12 Law Society and 23 of the Solicitors Growth events. We hosted seven virtual webinars for local bar associations, bringing in some 800 viewers in total.

Our work continued to attract media attention, with the Independent (the article is behind a pay wall), BBC Northern Ireland, RTÉ 2FM, WLR FM, Cork FM 96 & Your Best Self podcast highlighting the great work of the Dublin office. You can listen to all the interviews here.

Probate genealogy – more than missing relatives

While we welcome the attention, press interviews are useful in that many members of the public do not realise there is such a service as probate genealogy and that it can help in cases where next of kin are missing, vital documents have gone astray or no-one knows the owners of abandoned, derelict properties.

As ever, we dealt with many fascinating family histories. In one case, a woman had passed away and the solicitor dealing with her estate needed to find her nephew. The woman’s brother had married in the UK, had a son but then separated. The nephew had married a woman from Northern Ireland, moved there and had a family.

They then divorced and the nephew moved to Australia. His ex-wife was able to forward our letter to him and he was thrilled to receive our correspondence, as he had searched for his father but knew very little about him. He is now in touch with his aunt and his cousin on his paternal side, as well as receiving his inheritance from his other aunt’s will.

Vacant properties

We also undertook work on behalf of a council where we found the next of kin of the deceased owner of a vacant property that was the subject of a compulsory purchase order by the council. The house will now be renovated and can become a home for a family.

In another case, five grandchildren were named in their grandmother’s will. We located the grandchildren in the UK and Australia, where they were heartened to hear from us as their mother had also recently passed away and they had lost contact with their grandmother and were pleased to hear that their grandmother had remembered them in her will.

We were asked to find a beneficiary in the UK, and it turned out that the woman had died a few years ago but her family didn’t know. Coincidentally, we had been asked to locate family for this same woman as she had an unclaimed asset. Her niece, who was administering her uncle’s estate, will now administer the estate for her aunt as well.

Community projects

One case that we took on will benefit the local community in the area. We were asked to research the land title in a property case, which will now facilitate a community project to proceed with plans for a Greenway cycling and walking path by the sea.

One client asked us to look into her grandparents’ family history as she wanted to a obtain passport. Our research revealed that the woman’s grandmother was a twin—something the woman hadn’t known and was delighted to find out, given that she herself is a twin.

As ever, our search for the rightful heirs to an estate took us all over the world as we located beneficiaries in every Irish county, as well as the UK, US, Canada, South Africa, the Philippines, Australia, Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg. Where there’s an heir, we will find them!

While there continues to be uncertainty as to what our working world will look like as the pandemic rumbles on, here at Finders Ireland we intend to build in the successes of 2021 and continue our work in 2022 as the “go-to” firm for solicitors, councils, members of the public and the media who need to trace a missing beneficiary or unknown next-of-kin.

Finders International Ireland trace missing beneficiaries to estates, properties and assets. To find out more, you can visit our website. Alternatively, you can email [email protected] or telephone +353 (0)1 5676940.