Fostering of children is a centuries old Irish tradition. Sometimes children were fostered by the parents' siblings or near cousins, while other times they were fostered by known 'enemies', almost as hostages to assure some degree of peace between warring factions. Just as with fostering relationships today, some foster siblings would have been very close and treated as true brothers and sisters while others would have been barely tolerated, with every possible variation between the two extremes. Rather than comparing John Finn to the widow and children, my suggestion would be to compare him to James' birth brothers and sisters. If John was mentioned and known birth siblings were not, or if the birth siblings fared worse than John then it's probably safe to conclude that John and James were fairly close. L -----Original Message----- From: irl-cork-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:irl-cork-bounces@rootsweb.com]On Behalf Of Judie Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 10:04 PM To: IRL-CORK-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Foster Brother. Hello everyone, I have a will written by James Thornhill in 1796 wherein he leaves a sum of money to his "foster brother," John Finn. It was a small amount, equivalent to that bequeathed to his staff and much less than the legacies left to his wife and children. It seems to me that John was not a brother in the way that a foster brother would be today - if this were the case I feel that he'd have fared better in the will. Is anyone able to enlighten me as to the probable relationship between James Thornhill and John Finn, in Cork, in the late 18th century? Judie Morris, Victoria, Australia. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-CORK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message