Can grandparents get court-ordered contact if one of their own children has passed away?

Yes. The death of the grandparent's own child - the grandchild's parent - doesn't remove a grandparent's ability to apply for contact; if anything, courts are often sensitive to the value of maintaining a grandchild's connection to their deceased parent's side of the family, since that relationship can carry particular emotional and identity significance for the child. The legal test remains the same as any other grandparent contact application: showing a genuine relationship with the child and that continuing contact serves the child's best interests.

The surviving parent's position matters a great deal here, as it does in any grandparent application - a supportive surviving parent typically makes arranging contact straightforward without needing a court order at all, while an objecting surviving parent turns it into a contested application where the grandparent needs to show the relationship's value clearly outweighs whatever concerns the surviving parent raises. Given the emotional weight of these situations for everyone involved, grandparents in this position are often better served starting with direct conversation or mediation before moving to a court application, though a lawyer can advise on when a formal application is the more realistic route.