'I inherited thousands from a relative I didn't know - I thought it was a scam'
A mum has told how she thought it was a "scam" when she was told that she had inherited a share of an elderly man's £180,000 fortune who she never knew existed.
George Anderson, 81, died in July 2019 in a nursing home in Kirkby, Merseyside having not made a will and he did not have a known next of kin to inherit his estate. But Danny Curran of Finders International, the UK's largest professional probate genealogy firm, and star of BBC TV's Heir Hunters series, was asked to search for relatives entitled to inherit George's estate.
And one of the beneficiaries found was Dr Anna Phillips, 65, an art teacher at an international school in Kyrgyzstan who has told of the "surreal" experience of inheriting part of the money. George, who was born in Everton in 1938, was an only child and he never married, or had children. Further research into George's family took researchers right around the world to Australia, Malta, Canada and Kyrgyzstan - eventually tracing all 26 beneficiaries to the estate.
Danny Curran of Finders International helped find the relatives (Finders International WS)"I received a letter from Finders International about George Anderson. I immediately thought it was a scam," Dr Phillips, told the Liverpool Echo. "I had never heard of him in my life. Then a bit later, while walking home from a day's teaching, I got a phone call.
"It was just surreal to hear that I was related to this man that I never knew and had been tracked down as a beneficiary to his estate. It was totally unbelievable."
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George was the son of Elizabeth Phillips and George Anderson who married in 1937. His father died in 1969, and his mother died in 1998. George's mother, Elizabeth Philips, was one of ten children, four of whom died as infants. One of Elizabeth's brothers, Thomas Phillips is Anna's grandfather. So George's mother and Anna's grandfather were siblings.
Anna said: "It is such a shame that I never knew him or that we never met. I now understand how I'm related to him but would never have figured it out myself. The whole process has helped put us back in touch with an extended family, and the opportunity to have a fully mapped out family tree is really something special.
"While the inheritance is not life changing, it was of course a nice surprise. We paid some into our mortgage in Tasmania, and then gave some to our children.
"It's all about helping the next generation and has helped them in that regard. This inheritance is also assisting us in the next phase of my husband Robert's and my life, we intend to continue being creative, making art and music, when we retire and continue our travels."
Danny Curran of Finders International said: "Families lose touch for a multitude of reasons. It happens frequently and situations like this are more common than one might expect.
"It also appears that George had some quite serious mental and physical health issues during his life, and this might have been a contributing reason for why he lost touch with family - but of course we will never really know. Without a will we have no idea what George would have wanted to do with his money.
"However, had we not found all these beneficiaries George's money would have gone to the treasury. It is great to see that instead it has been shared out amongst his relatives and has made a positive difference to all these people and their families."
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