Locate or prove a will

---
type: "Service Family"
title: "Locate or prove a will"
description: "Search personal, solicitor, storage and probate sources, preserve competing documents and obtain legal advice where validity, interpretation or family rights are disputed."
status: "population-complete"
assertion_status: "normalized"
jurisdiction: "nation-specific"
observed_at: "2026-08-08"
sources:
  - id: "death-and-bereavement-source-register"
    title: "Death and bereavement"
    resource: "../source/domain-registers/death-and-bereavement.v1.yaml"
    author: "organisation:okf-uk-living"
    observed_at: "2026-08-08"
---

# Locate or prove a will

## Place in the process

This topic sits within **Identify and administer an estate** in the **Death and bereavement** life-course
domain. What comes before depends on the person's situation and nation; the first
safe step is to select the current official route rather than assume one UK process.

## What this family covers

Search personal, solicitor, storage and probate sources, preserve competing documents and obtain legal advice where validity, interpretation or family rights are disputed.

The ordinary discovery journey is to select the jurisdiction-specific route, follow
the responsible authority or provider's current instructions, and retain the
confirmation, referral, decision or next-step information it produces.

## If the ordinary route does not fit

If a route is unavailable, the circumstances fall outside it, or the source signals
an urgent, safeguarding, clinical or legal boundary, stop and follow that authority's
exception or complaint handoff. The bundle records this branch but does not decide it.

Where a non-public provider is needed, start with the current public regulator, register or commissioning route; this bundle does not recommend providers.

## Official routes

- [England: Search probate records for documents and wills](https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate)
- [Scotland: Births, deaths and family in Scotland](https://www.mygov.scot/browse/birth-death-family)
- [Wales: Search probate records for documents and wills](https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate)
- [Northern Ireland: What to do when someone dies](https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/information-and-services/births-deaths-baby-loss-marriages-and-civil-partnerships/death-and)

These are links and original navigation summaries. A national discovery page is a
handoff to the current service, not evidence that eligibility, evidence, costs,
deadlines or remedies are identical across nations or providers.

## What may follow

The result can feed the next family in **Identify and administer an estate**, another enclosing
process, or a provider-specific review or redress route. Use Graph to inspect the
ordinary and exception episodes, sources, actors, requirements, outputs and outcomes.

## Review status

This record is population-complete for discovery and requires specialist review
before any legal, clinical, safeguarding or high-impact operational claim is
described as release-grade.