Could your surname be worth a fortune? With thousands of unclaimed estates throughout the UK, it absolutely could be.

The government recently released the list for the entire country - and it is rather large. Over 7,000 have gone unclaimed so far.

An unclaimed estate refers to the assets someone without a legal will leaves behind after they die, including their money, property and any other personal effects.

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In the past five years, there have been eight such cases in Buckinghamshire but there remains a total of 48 unclaimed estates in the county.

The most recent five years worth are listed below.

When someone dies without having written up a legal will, their assets become unclaimed.

From that moment on, their family members have 30 years to prove that they are the rightful heir to the inheritance. If nobody is successful in that time, all assets are turned over to the Crown and the Treasury.

If you believe you have a claim to one of the estates listed, you must first contact Bona Vacantia Division.

You will then be asked for proof of your relationship to the deceased as well as personal documents to prove your own identity.

But in order to ensure the estate goes to the right place, a hierarchy remains in place. The spouse of the deceased remains at the top, followed by children and then grandchildren.

Although estates such as these are often worth around £150,000, the value of individual ones is not revealed until a successful claim has been found.
