A beginner’s guide to genealogy

We believe that genealogy should be a transparent process, guiding you through complex issues and making them easier to understand. We want you to have an exceptional experience with us, one that helps you become better off in every way possible and offer a quality service to all.

At Grafton Genealogy, our vision is to help solicitors, local authorities and individuals unravel complex cases of intestacy, probate and more. We take our responsibilities as genealogists very seriously. In an unregulated industry, we offer unrivalled expertise and quality of service.

We appreciate time is of the essence with Public Health Funerals, and we endeavour to trace next of kin within 48 hours.

We are focused on two key things in genealogy:

 1    Helping our clients establish where any assets from an estate should go to, in the case of intestacy, lost wills or complex probate cases.
 2    Giving our clients the knowledge to make informed decisions about estates and assets, and in many cases, their own financial futures.

More than a tracing agency, we can provide guidance when handling a complex case; we also work with fully regulated law firms who can provide legal advice. We will always approach our cases with our high ethical standards and as we operate in an unregulated industry, we ensure that there are checks and balances to what we do. For example, we never administer estates internally as that would present a conflict of interest.

What do genealogists do?

A genealogist is a researcher, who can establish family trees and living relatives, in order to establish who the beneficiaries are to an estate. This might be in the case of an unoccupied  home, a person who dies intestate or in the care of social services.

Our genealogists use a combination of publicly available records, such as census and electoral rolls and our own proprietary databases. In general, work is passed to us through recommendation by a solicitor’s firm or the relevant contact at a Local Authority.

If a solicitor comes to us with a case of a missing beneficiary, we can research that beneficiary. If they are deceased, we can help to establish a family tree and to advise on who inherits the unclaimed assets.

For councils, we can help to trace missing owners or beneficiaries of empty properties.
For families dealing with estate administration, intestacy, or probate, we can support and guide them as they work to establish the correct entitlement to an estate.

Sometimes, beneficiaries are missing, and we can also help to trace them.

Our research services are second to none; and our case managers are sensitive and experienced in what they do. We do all the heavy lifting, from research to contact with beneficiaries, so that you don’t have to.