[Nell]

I was idly messing about on my computer and put my mother's full married name Ruth Smoothy Gray into the search engine, figuring that Ruth Gray would produce too many hits.

There was one - from the London Gazette, listing my mother as the representative of a deceased lady. I recognised the name immediately and vaguely remembered. She lived across the road from us and I found her a bit scary, though she was just a lonely soul. Mum used to pop in to keep an eye on her and one day found her dead. I was horrified, but Mum said she always knew it would happen one day. I don't remember what happened about sorting out her estate but I do know my Mum got a dragonfly brooch for me which I sadly lost a long time ago.

I've found other lucky dip surprises by just googling - it tends to work best with unusual names of course.