You need to know if you’re entitled before making a claim on an estate. The general rules are:
if there’s no will, the person’s spouse or civil partner and then any children have first claim to the estate
if there’s no spouse or child, anyone descended from a grandparent of the person is entitled to a share in the estate
if you’re related by marriage you have no entitlement
Find out if you’re entitled to a share of the estate.
Adopted people
If you’re adopted:
you have the same rights as if you’d been born into your adoptive family
you have no rights to an estate of your original birth family
Only the adoptive family have rights to the estate if the deceased person was adopted.