Dean Povey thought he was being scammed when he received an unexpected phone call about a long-lost relative. He was told he was due inheritance from a cousin he had never heard of, despite living only 90 minutes away. The cousin, Lilian May, was unknown to him, but the call was legitimate.
The Discovery
Dean, 52, from Lancaster, was one of 45 relatives entitled to a share of £24,000 inheritance, with each person receiving around £500. He had been married to Louise for 24 years and has one son. He said, 'Lilian is my dad’s cousin. My grandad, they called him Charley, his sister was Lilian’s mother. But I’d never heard of her.'
'She was from Liverpool, same as much of our family. We were only about an hour and a half away. It’s strange to think we were that close and didn’t know about each other. It’s quite sad really,' Dean added.
The Initial Call
The call came in 2024, shortly after Dean had lost his father to cancer. His mother was contacted first and passed his details on. The case was handled by Finders International, the UK and Ireland's largest probate research firm, instructed by private client solicitors and local authorities to trace next of kin when individuals die alone or intestate.
At first, Dean had no idea how much inheritance he was due. He said, 'I didn’t know what to think. I thought, is it £50, a night out, or something more? I started asking my mum questions about the family. I realised how much I didn’t know. I have so many cousins, but I only knew a few. Some of the family are overseas, one’s in New Zealand.'
The family tree provided by Finders revealed even more surprising details. Dean added, 'It turned out my great-grandparents had actually looked after Lilian at some point. I was like, wow. It’s something I never knew.'
A Difficult Period
The inheritance offered a lift during a difficult period. Dean lost his mother in January 2026, while also managing a rare and serious autoimmune disorder called Hughes-Stovin Syndrome, a condition affecting just 10 people in the UK. He said, 'I lost eight pints of blood in one go. They told me I should have died. I didn’t realise how ill I was at the time.'
Intestate Estates in the UK
Every year in the UK, thousands of estates are left intestate, meaning no valid will exists, leaving authorities and probate genealogists to trace surviving relatives. It is estimated that tens of thousands of people die alone annually, with many having little or no contact with family members.
Probate genealogist James Booth said, 'The research was quite complicated. Lilian was born illegitimate and spent large parts of her life in care. She later married while still in care, but very little was known about her husband. We had to carry out extensive searches to identify the correct records, which eventually led us to Dean and the other 44 beneficiaries.'
