I'd welcome some advice on this:
I'm currently researching a man who was a former bank manager, had no dependents, never married,and I think lived in a rented house. He died at the end of 1980 - apparently he was found dead at his home. I have the death certificate registration (postmortem without inquest).
I cannot find either a will or an admon from the UK Probate/Administration indices. (I have already tried any number of name variants on probate searches etc so I think we can assume this is not a simple case of misfiling!). BUT there is a notice in The London Gazette, 12 January 1981 giving details of whom to notices of claims are to be given with names of Personal Representatives in brackets. When I checked, claims were to be sent into the Trustee & Income Tax Dept of the Nat West Bank - for the attention of the same person who registered his death who was from the Trustee Dept.
I know at the time of death that there were two younger brothers who could claim on the estate, one of whom also never married and was living in Australia.
Can anyone advise me whether the Nat West might answer an enquiry about the administration of the estate and a contact address? I should state that I have absolutely no claim whatsoever on the estate, but apart from anything else, I am very curious as to how this could be undertaken in the apparent absence of either a will or Letters of Administration. Where matters less formal then? I appreciate that probate/administration does not HAVE to be undertaken, but clearly 'someone' was sufficiently bothered to prepare an official notice for publication.
So all in all, it's rather a mystery - and rather too old to appear in any Bona Vacantia lists.
I'd be grateful for any suggestions as what to look at next!
I'm currently researching a man who was a former bank manager, had no dependents, never married,and I think lived in a rented house. He died at the end of 1980 - apparently he was found dead at his home. I have the death certificate registration (postmortem without inquest).
I cannot find either a will or an admon from the UK Probate/Administration indices. (I have already tried any number of name variants on probate searches etc so I think we can assume this is not a simple case of misfiling!). BUT there is a notice in The London Gazette, 12 January 1981 giving details of whom to notices of claims are to be given with names of Personal Representatives in brackets. When I checked, claims were to be sent into the Trustee & Income Tax Dept of the Nat West Bank - for the attention of the same person who registered his death who was from the Trustee Dept.
I know at the time of death that there were two younger brothers who could claim on the estate, one of whom also never married and was living in Australia.
Can anyone advise me whether the Nat West might answer an enquiry about the administration of the estate and a contact address? I should state that I have absolutely no claim whatsoever on the estate, but apart from anything else, I am very curious as to how this could be undertaken in the apparent absence of either a will or Letters of Administration. Where matters less formal then? I appreciate that probate/administration does not HAVE to be undertaken, but clearly 'someone' was sufficiently bothered to prepare an official notice for publication.
So all in all, it's rather a mystery - and rather too old to appear in any Bona Vacantia lists.
I'd be grateful for any suggestions as what to look at next!
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