Death Records Now

My ex-husband died in 2006 in Florida. We share two children together. When he died I was contacted by his father telling me that he couldn’t handle his son’s last affairs without me signing and allowing his father to do so. I am not sure why I was the one that would have been responsible but I signed the necessary form. Years later I can’t find any public records on his estate. He still has assets in his name. There was a vehicle that was restored. His father and I had a conversation after his death. We came to the conclusion that the vehicle would be auctioned and the proceeds would be distributed among his children. To the best of my knowledge the process hasn’t been completed and I believe that the vehicle is still in possession of a car club that he belonged to. I am now wondering if there is any legal standing for my children or if there is a statute of limitations.

The process did not require your signature unless you were still listed as a beneficiary, however the next of kin would have been the children and not the father so he had to be assigned as executor in order to file for probate, apparently the property is sitting in limbo and nothing has been done, you need an attorney to stand in for the children and get their share of the estate.}{

My father died 2 weeks ago in the State of Michigan. We have been estranged for 20 years and know nothing about his life in recent years. (I live 500 miles away from where he did) We have found out that he has an IRA and a savings account with Chase Bank. However; the state will not give me control of his estate unless I can be specific about his financial situation. i.e dollar amounts in the accounts and most importantly account numbers. Now here’s the source of my problem: He had an on again-off again girlfriend who has been living with him in recent months prior to his death. She conveniently cannot locate any of his mail, bank statements, IRA statements, tax records or anything that would help me determine the actual assets of his estate. We believe in total his estates worth to be less than $15,000 dollars. I’ve been told about a Letter of Authority which will cost me $150.00 do get. This supposedly will give me access to this information directly from the financial institution. Supposedly. And then I can proceed with declaring his assets for probate. Can any one advise me in this area? What should I do? Am I doing the right thing? Oh, and one more thing to note: the ‘girlfriend’ is not a legal tenant in my fathers’ apartment and is not on the lease. Can I assume that everything in his apartment is his and do I have the legal right to search it to get the information that I need? Thank you for any help you can give me.
Also, there was no will.

You would hire someone to do an accounting of the assets. There are people who you can hire to do that if the estate is large.

My grandfather died back in January and only now is the solicitor has decided to make a public record of his death in the paper to which asks if anyone wants to contest the will, is this standard UK law or is it an optional requirement to which the solicitor gets more money?

Never heard of this one.
If the will is written soundly why or indeed how could anyone contest it?
I obtained probate on the estate of my mother-in-law (UK) without doing this.
The will is a public document anyway.

Are all lawyers (by the State of Mississippi) required to file the last will and testament of their client after death to the court system? If so, how long do they have after a person dies to file? If they do have to file, are the records public or do you have to fill out proper forms to obtain? If you are a child of the deceased, do you still have to fill out the same forms?

Lawyers must do what they have been hired to do. If hired to write a will, they should write a will. If hired by survivors to get the will through probate, they should get the will through probate.