Until yesterday, I had never heard of NAUPA. It is the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, which is an association of state treasurers, and similar state officials, who administer unclaimed property in each of the states. NAUPA offers a free search tool, which directs you first to the appropriate state site, which then permits the entry of a name to determine whether the state is retaining unclaimed property belonging to someone with that name.

I learned about it after a friend of mine in Hawaii went to the site and discovered that the states of Hawaii and New Jersey were holding unclaimed property belonging to his decease brother-in-law and deceased aunt, respectively. He had written to me, because he thought that he also had found the name of my deceased mother at the Jersey site.

I went to the NAUPA site and navigated to the New Jersey Unclaimed Property Site, and determined that the person in question did have the same first name as my mother and was from the same town, but had a different address. However, I was sufficiently intrigued to pop in the surnames of grandparents, and up popped the name and address of an aunt, who is very much alive, but who had moved away several years ago from the address listed for her in the search result. I dropped her a note directing her to the site, which contains the instructions for making a claim.

You might want to give it a look. One never knows.