How do you connect two known siblings without knowing the parents?

Question

In my family it is known that two brothers came to America from Ireland in the 1840's and I can source the ships they came over on, where they lived in America, all their children and when they died. However, the names of their parents are not known. How do I display them as siblings without creating an [unknown] father with just their surname and an educated assumption for a born before date for the parent? Is this the only way to link them as siblings? I've looked for the parents and hit a brick wall.

Comments

I appreciate the idea of using ==Research Notes== but that seems more like a work around or stop gap measure and not very elegant. Also, there was a similar question asked on Mar 21, 2021 (see https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1207702/want-sibling-great-grandfather-have-their-fathers-name-that?show=1207702#q1207702) with answers that said clicking Add Sibling in Edit mode would work but maybe Wikitree has changed/removed that ability. I would rather see siblings linked at the top of the profile with all the other relationship info than have to hunt/scroll down throughout the biography to find the siblings.

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Then your only choices are to wait until you find more information on one parent, or to create a profile for the father using guesstimated dates (or at least one guesstimated date - and use the estimated date template).

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Yeah, I was afraid those were my only choices. I dislike adding to the list of [Unknown] surname or John [unknown] profiles we already have on Wikitree but like I said, I would rather see siblings linked at the top of the profile with all the other relationship info than have to hunt throughout the biography to find the siblings. Thanks Melanie.

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Better "Unknown Known-surname" than "Known-firstname Unknown" - at least in my opinion.

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Absolutely. Since I know the brothers, I know their last name and will be able to do that.

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One consolation.  Having an unknown parent profile attached to known children profiles allows others to better collaborate, and assist with the research.

Answer 1

You can create them as separate profiles and link them as siblings. Their parents will show as unknown mother and unknown father on each profile with no last name. When you find their names then you can create a profile for each parent and connect them to the children.

Comments

How? That was my original question. If I edit a person to add a sibling (i.e. click "add sibling") Wikitree responds with "[this person] has no parents. Please first add one before adding a sibling."

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You can create the link to the sibling in the bio or research notes . To do this use the Wiki id enclosed in brackets   [[LNAB-XXX| name of brother]].

Do this on each of the brothers' profiles. They will be linked together but you will not be asked to create a profile for a parent.

Answer 2

You could create a == Research Notes == section on each profile and state that the parents are unknown, but list the known sibling(s).

Answer 3

Someone has probably said this, but when I come up against that problem, I add siblings in order of birth under ===Biography===:

SIBLINGS:
*[[Joe Blow-1 |Joe Blow]] born/baptised 1871 (e.g.) and any other relevant information
*[[John Blow-2 |John Blow]] born/baptised 1872 (e.g.)  '''This Profile'''

Reverse the order of the statement '''This Profile''' on the other profile.  This links the brothers / or sisters without the need for profiles of parents.   

Hope this helps.