Your surname could be worth a fortune if you are in some way related to one of more than 100 people to have died without passing on their estates in the North East.
The Government’s legal department keeps a list of these people who have died without a known heir. The estates have so far been unclaimed and it could mean a small – or not so small – fortune for someone who may not even know they are entitled to it.
As is stands, there are 122 unclaimed estates you might be in line for. This covers cases where someone has died without a will in place.
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There is a 30-year time limit to make a claim – though it’s only 12 years when it comes to money. Otherwise, the cash will disappear into Government coffers.
To inherit, you must provide a family tree that proves how you are related to the individual. The Government’s Bona Vacantia division encourages individuals who believe they may be an heir to the estate to check if they could make a claim for property.
The Government’s legal team has an order of priority to determine whether someone is in line for a windfall. The people to benefit from an unclaimed estate are given priority in the below order:
- Husband, wife or civil partner
- children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on
- mother or father
- brothers or sisters who share both the same mother and father, or their children (nieces and nephews)
- half brothers or sisters or their children (nieces and nephews of the half blood or their children). ‘Half ’ means they share only one parent with the deceased
- grandparents
- uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins or their descendants)
- half uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins of the half blood or their children). ‘Half’ means they only share one grandparent with the deceased, not both
To find out if there may be an estate you could make a claim on check out our list below. This features all those listed as having died in Northumberland, Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland and County Durham. Find out more about claiming on the Government website.
Unclaimed estates
The place and date next to someone’s name are their place and date of death. To see the full record held by the Government department, click here.
County Durham
Anthony Clarke, 21/09/2006, Peterlee
Harry Hedley, Coatsworth, 08/11/1994, Barnard Castle
Rose, Conlon, 14/10/1999, Sedgefield
Doreen, Gibson, 28/12/2006, Durham
Raymond, Gill, 11/10/2016, Durham
Mary Beatrice, Graham, 18/07/1997, Bishop Auckland
Eleanor, Howard, 02/10/2002, Durham
Geoffrey, Peacock, 31/07/2020, Billingham
Monica Jane, Price, 10/03/2016, Bishop Auckland
Erna Freda, Robinson, 17/07/2004, Chester le Street
Mary Ross, 24/03/2022, Peterlee
John Scott, 28/04/2002, Durham
Violet Scott, 25/10/2000, Durham
John Edward Stirling, 01/12/1996, Newton Aycliffe
David Terry, 20/06/2011, Durham
Marjorie Thompson, 03/04/2009, Trimdon Station
Mark Anthony Turner, 15/03/2008, Durham
Juris Zeme, 17/12/1999, Durham
Gateshead
Douglas Ashley, 27/11/1995, Gateshead
Elizabeth Bell, 08/05/1999, Gateshead
James Michael Campbell, 11/08/2004, Gateshead
Jean McKalvie Elrick, 11/09/1997, Gateshead
Leonora Thelma Leeson, 22/02/2002, Gateshead
James George McCormick, 04/04/2009, Gateshead
Reginald Joseph McGarry, 27/04/2009, Gateshead
Stanya Wanda Richardson, 30/09/2000, Gateshead
William Forster Slater, 23/07/2006, Blaydon
Norman Stobbs, 21/08/2000, Gateshead
Michael Walsh, 05/12/2006, Gateshead
Joan Alice Ward, 30/12/2013, Sherriff Hill
Ethel Watts, 11/10/2003, Gateshead
Newcastle
Harry Clark, 13/01/1998, Newcastle
George Craig, 08/12/2000, Newcastle
James William Davidson, 02/08/2005, Newcastle
Michael Dumphey, 21/05/1994, Newcastle
Anne Fraser, 31/05/2003, Fenham
Patrick Freeman, 16/03/2014, Newcastle
Robert Gibson, 18/01/2014, Newcastle
Margaret Bridget Graham, 13/08/2005, Newcastle
Wladyslaw Gumula, 25/10/1995, Newcastle
Ronald Horne, 07/07/1996, Newcastle
Aryee Jackson, 26/12/2007, Newcastle
William Kelly, 14/05/2018, Newcastle
Stephen Christopher King, 05/07/2013, Newcastle
Mary Lange, 08/07/2018, Newcastle
Colin Stuart Macdonald, 29/03/2010, Newcastle
Stuart McPherson, 04/05/1994, Newcastle
Brian Gerrard Murray, 25/01/2017, Newcastle
Michael O’Carroll, 06/04/2006, Newcastle
David Paul Robinson, 28/09/2020, Newcastle
Margaret Scott, 27/07/1999, Newcastle
Christine Simpson, 15/04/2004, Newcastle
David Charles Simpson, 08/01/2021, Newcastle
Joyce Simpson, 11/10/2006, Gosforth
Thomas Smith, 08/07/1997, Newcastle
Elsie Sparrow, 17/12/2000, Newcastle
Margaret Stephens, 23/03/2003, Newcastle
Mary Swan, 26/10/1996, Newcastle
Philip Haddon Wade, 04/12/2011, Newcastle
Michael Ward, 20/07/2009, Newcastle
North Tyneside
Mary Carroll, 12/09/2007, Whitley Bay
Margaret Foster, 13/02/2022, Wallsend
Antonina Harley, 28/03/2012, North Shields
Dorothy Henderson, 05/03/2021, North Shields
Charles Keating, 25/04/1999, North Tyneside
John Joseph O’Neill, 22/11/1999, North Shields
Robert Robson, 23/10/2012, North Shields
Maria Magdalena Rowntree, 24/02/2011, North Shields
Diana Clare Ward, 11/09/2009, North Shields
Mary Lindsay Waugh, 21/02/2015, North Shields
Northumberland
Evelyn Joan Blackmore, 02/03/2011, Northumberland
Charles Brigham, 09/09/2020, Berwick
Koon Yau Chan, 12/05/2018, Cramlington
Alexander John Clark, 25/04/2023, Ashington
Ramiro Gomez, 02/10/2012, Ashington
Lilian Griffiths, 13/08/1998, Northumberland
Rosemary Henderson, 26/10/2010, Berwick
Joseph Murphy, 15/05/1997, Northumberland
Peter Petruczek, 12/02/2019, Blyth
Georgina Ridley, 10/03/1995, Corbridge
Thomas Joseph Ryan, 10/01/1994, Stannington
Margaret Simpson, 07/07/2003, Ashington
Kathleen Mary Sisterson, 08/09/2018, Hexham
Elizabeth Stewart, 08/10/2005, Morpeth
Thomas Wilks Thompson, 16/10/2004, Berwick
Walter Thornton, 04/03/1999, Morpeth
Gladys White, 02/02/2023, Cramlington
Catherine Barnes, 29/09/1998, Blyth
South Tyneside
James Ernest Baker, 27/10/2010, South Shields
Thomas Balmer, 07/02/2022, South Shields
Anne Cairns, 23/05/2003, South Shields
John Gaffney, 02/03/2023, Hebburn
Catherine Kennedy, 23/05/2018, South Shields
Peter Brian Mason, 04/04/2014, South Shields
William Palmer, 21/05/2010, South Shields
Anne Roy, 16/03/2003, Hebburn
Ernest Henry Simpson, 05/09/1993, South Shields
Catherine Warner, 23/06/1994, South Shields
Stanley Wilson, 16/11/2021, South Shields
Sunderland
Joanna Andrews, 10/07/2011, Sunderland
Joseph Fernandez Bell, 14/12/1996, Ryhope
David John Bray, 06/06/2019, Sunderland
Maureen Clark, 05/09/2019, Sunderland
Penelope Clark, 24/03/2016, Sunderland
Raymond Clark, 22/03/1995, Sunderland
Olive Conway, 29/10/2001, Sunderland
Walter Dixon, 20/01/1995, Sunderland
Helen Elliot, 25/10/1993, Sunderland
John Dennis Haylett, 29/01/2001, Sunderland
Catherine Isabella Humphrey, 30/07/1995, Sunderland
John Johnson, 09/01/1997, Sunderland
Jean Jones, 01/07/2022, Sunderland
Margaret Marsh, 14/12/2006, Sunderland
Gary William McCann, 11/01/2020, Sunderland
Anne Melton, 12/02/2018, Sunderland
Catherine Melville, 24/04/1998, Sunderland
John Moran, 05/12/2007, Sunderland
John Potts, 23/07/2000, Sunderland
Tucker Emmanuel Ian Swartz, 11/07/2018, Houghton le Spring
Audrey Tyler, 03/09/2021, Sunderland
Ingeborg Dorothea Hilde Young, 25/12/1999, Sunderland
Magda Burnhope, 18/03/1996, Houghton le Spring
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