My dad’s been searching for his father for about 30 years, his mother never told him where he was. Finally his aunty gave him a cutting saying he died about 5 yrs ago. We found out despite the fact we’d been searching for 30 yrs and, he apparently lived round the corner from us. We thought he was in Rome, this is where he was born. He’s Italian and so are we. We live in UK though (born here)

My dad went nuts when he found out, nobody had the decency to say he was really close to him and only told him when he died. He discovered a brother, nieces and nephews and finally went to his fathers home and met his brother etc - however his brother got scared and stopped communicating with my father. He would walk past him in the street which was really rude. My mother spotted my uncle (his brother) going into solicitors and as my father is the oldest, he was obviously curious. My dad doesn’t want anything; he just wanted to discover his roots.

However my father wants to travel to Rome to visit his fathers village (where he’s originally from) and is trying to locate his fathers grave to pay his respects. He has asked his brother and he hasn’t replied so I asked my cousin. She said ''You've got a major cheek asking, I’m not telling you because he wouldn’t want you know.'' I don’t think that’s true as we know he was paying for my dads schooling, his maintenance etc right up until he was 18. He also tried so many times to take my dad back to Italy but dads family kept him away and my dad was of course far to young to really remember. This is what he was told when he got older. I told her I just want to pay our respects and for my dad to finally find his father so he can stand at his grave but they basically say we have no right. Can he also read the will?

... Can he also read the will?

If the will has been admitted to probate, sure.

But how do you know there is a will? If there is not, your father might be entitled to inherit equally with his step-brother, assuming that he can prove that the decedent was his father.

'My dad doesn't want anything.. '
Why not, if he's entitled to it? No reason to pretend he isn't interested. Just because his mother and father divorced doesn't change the fact that he's his son.

Yeah nobody is really helping - has he got a right to know where he is and how do we go about it?

If he was given a "cutting" Im going to make a leap and say it was from a newspaper and it was from the obituary section. If that is the case a little digging can lead to the funeral home that was used and they can tell you where he may be interned.

If he was given a "cutting" Im going to make a leap and say it was from a newspaper and it was from the obituary section. If that is the case alittle digging can lead to the funeral home that was used and they can tell you where he may be interned.

That's really helpful, that's great thanks.