The 122 North East surnames that could inherit you a fortune in unclaimed money

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:

1. Husband, wife or civil partner
2. children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on
3. mother or father
4. brothers or sisters who share both the same mother and father, or their children (nieces and nephews)
5. 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
6. grandparents
7. uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins or their descendants)
8. 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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