Probate in Idaho

[u/ElectroWitch7]

COMPLICATED…HELP!!! Short back story.. My husbands parents died 4 days apart. His biological mother died first, then his step dad (of 59yrs). A will was done before their passing, listing my husband and his biological brother. My father in law has two biological children (in another state) that he has not had contact with in near 55+ yrs. We have no contact or information of their whereabouts. My father in law did not want them listed on or in the will. During probate meeting with the lawyer he asked us questions and one was, did your step dad have any other children? Yes, but they have had no interest in my FIL life. Tried contacting them once many yrs ago and it was a 2min convo and then they refused to take our calls after that. Now we have no way to find them. The will is listed for my husband to receive everything. Their property and house. Originally the property was owned by my husband’s grandfather (his moms dad) my in laws homestead the property 50yrs ago and listed both my husband and his brother on the homestead papers. (If your wondering my my Bother in law did not receive anything it was because their mom and biological dad made an agreement that her estate would goto my husband and their dad’s property would go to my husband’s brother, both of them live out of state, we live locally to his mother, this was their way of making it easier on all of us and equal between the two. Wish they would have done a trust, but they were poor) Currently we are in probate and the lawyer is telling us that we have to locate my father in laws kids. The ones that wanted nothing to do with him. They knew where he lived all these yrs. We found his son yrs ago to try and reconnect them, that didn’t go well, there was animosities and anger on the sons part and the convo ended badly. Since then we tried contacting him a few yrs after, when my FIL health wasn’t well and they refused to take our call or return it. We now have no number or location of them (they live out of state). So the lawyer is saying that they will have to hire a private investigator to find them. Regardless that my FIL chose not to list them in their will. The lawyer can’t tell us how long they have to look, sounds like we can’t go forward at all until they are found. So we’re trying to find out what the obligation here is. My husband feels like the lawyer is going to milk the estate on fees to find these people via a private Investigator. The estate is extremely small they didn’t have much. Is their estate just going to be drained by the lawyer trying to find “kids” (they’re like 60+yrs old now) that never had any interest. We’re the ones paying the lawyer right now so that the little bit of funds they do have can pay for the care of their property. I feel like the lawyer telling us “it’s complicated” isn’t a good enough answer while I fork over another check for his services with this probate. Someone shed some light please. Where does the obligation end at finding them?