Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois

It depends if the house is in joint tenancy or tenancy on common. If the latter, then spouse takes 50% and the children take 50%.

A lawyer will be able to give you his/her opinion by seeing how the title is held.

I am sorry for your loss. There are different forms of ownership for real estate. Just like your father and his wife may have had a joint bank account to which she would have survived, there is some likelihood that the home was held such that she survived to it. An attorney could look at the real estate records through a title search and advise. If the home or at least a half interest do not automatically pass to the wife, then the part that belongs to the father's estate would pass one-half to the wife and one-half to the children (including the descendants of any deceased child, if any). Note, what may become important here is for the surviving spouse to meet with an attorney to review her estate plan.