death of father

[janet clayton]

My father died in feburary of year 2000 I am his daughter, hover my mother and father were never married. My dad had Two children by my mother he also was married and had another family I did attend his furneral but was treated as if I wasn't there only one of his other children treated me as if I was there. Both my sister and my self were listed in the obituary as his children how on earth will I ever know if my daddy left us anything. We are not even close to any of the family however we saw our dad only sometimes when we got older I do not even know if my dad had a will but I believe he had something knowing my dad. How on earth will we ever know if a will was read and if we recieved anything? would we have to be contacted? How would I go about find out this information? Thank You

 

[In the same boat]

Janet, My father died last week and I did not attend the funeral or even acknowledge his death, I was an only child of his for 19years then he married a woman with many children and had some more,He lived only 30miles away for over 20 years,but no attempt to contact me , I dont know why and now never will, I also would like to know about a will if there was one, I think you have to go to the probate court in the county in which they lived or maybe in his case the county in which he lived when the will was made, I just dont know yet.I am just starting to investigate, Let me know if you discover anything, or if you want to chat via e-mail my address is [email protected] I dont want his family to know I am even looking into this so I will remain unknown on this bulletin board, but do contact me as I could use someone to talk to sounds like we might help each other thanks,

 

[beenthere]

No legal advice here, but I can tell you this. When my mother died, the executor of her will had to probate the will. I'm pretty sure all wills have to be probated. This is what happened in my state, and I would think that all states are the same in this regard. Once the wills are probated, they are public record and anyone can see them. But, when the will is probated, the executor has to provide the court with the mailing addresses of all who are named in the will. Then the court sends letters to each of those people named in the will, telling them that they are in the will and who the executor is. It tells them if they have any objections, they must contact the court.
Now in your cases, the executor may claim that they have no knowledge of your addresses or whereabouts, so if I were you I'd be checking with the appropriate probate courts to see if wills have been filed. If your father's left you anything, then you should have it.
Good luck.