When my mother sells her home, why does she have to provide family information about her deceased husband?

I tried to purchase my mother’s home from her a couple of years ago. When the title company looked at the property they asked my mother to fill out a form that asked for family information regarding my father, her deceased husband, that had died more than 20 years before she had built the home that I was going to buy from her. They said there was some sort of hold from a siding company that had worked on the home that used to be on the property but has since been town when the new home was built.