How are elderly sibling relationships?

Answer 1

This is a difficult question to answer because each family is so different. Siblings can be very close through their lives and keep in touch no matter how many miles are between them. Some siblings will lose touch with each other for different reasons even though they may live in the same town or city because some family aren't close and each gets on with their own lives. Then there are problems between siblings over incidents in their lives and one of the worst is over Wills in the family. They could be a criminal, drug addict, alcoholic, etc., sibling or siblings in the family that cause one sibling to stray away from the other(s) ... called 'black sheep of the family.' If siblings stray from each other because they don't get along this can make it very difficult regarding genealogy because there are 'skeletons in every closet' and often as people age they simply don't want to talk about that person.

EXAMPLE: I am looking up my mother's Scottish/Irish side of the family. She had 4 brothers and 2 sisters. I was able to research some, but one brother and one sister were alcoholics and there was a great debate in my mother's family at the time and not much was spoken of these two siblings. Like all families you hear bits and pieces that one or both of them were buried in a certain cemetery, but you can't find any records even by going to cemetery so that leads to a wide search of cemeteries to find out the date of death. Even going to Vital Stats is hard because my mother's sister was called Katie, yet this could have been her second name or obviously a nickname. Looking up Kathryn or Catherine didn't accomplish much. My mother said her sister Katie was buried with her parents, but there are no records regarding this burial so the search moves on.

Answer 2

This is a difficult question to answer because each family is so different. Siblings can be very close through their lives and keep in touch no matter how many miles are between them. Some siblings will lose touch with each other for different reasons even though they may live in the same town or city because some family aren't close and each gets on with their own lives. Then there are problems between siblings over incidents in their lives and one of the worst is over Wills in the family. They could be a criminal, drug addict, alcoholic, etc., sibling or siblings in the family that cause one sibling to stray away from the other(s) ... called 'black sheep of the family.' If siblings stray from each other because they don't get along this can make it very difficult regarding genealogy because there are 'skeletons in every closet' and often as people age they simply don't want to talk about that person. EXAMPLE: I am looking up my mother's Scottish/Irish side of the family. She had 4 brothers and 2 sisters. I was able to research some, but one brother and one sister were alcoholics and there was a great debate in my mother's family at the time and not much was spoken of these two siblings. Like all families you hear bits and pieces that one or both of them were buried in a certain cemetery, but you can't find any records even by going to cemetery so that leads to a wide search of cemeteries to find out the date of death. Even going to Vital Stats is hard because my mother's sister was called Katie, yet this could have been her second name or obviously a nickname. Looking up Kathryn or Catherine didn't accomplish much. My mother said her sister Katie was buried with her parents, but there are no records regarding this burial so the search moves on.