52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 22: Conflict

It's Week 22 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. The prompt for this week is ‘Conflict’. I could write about multiple conflicts I know of in my family, but I’m going to reach way back for this one. This is an excerpt from the will of my 4x great-grandmother, Catharine Peterson.

“As to my daughter Mary Lippincott and my Grand daughter Catharine Weiss, my will is that neither of them are to have any of my property or any of the proceeds arising therefrom.”

Catharine Weiss was my great-grandmother. I do not know why she was written out of her grandmother’s will. From this abstract, it is clear that Catharine Weiss and her aunt, Mary Lippincott, were the only ones left out of the will. 

 But why? I have no answers, but it seems logical to me that there must have been some kind of conflict here. Was Grandma Peterson unhappy with the marriages of her daughter and her granddaughter? Did they leave the family church to join another denomination after they married? Catherine Weiss moved all the way from New Jersey to Illinois a few years after her marriage. Did Grandma feel abandoned and want to punish Catharine? I have no answers right now. I haven’t done a lot of research past Catharine Weiss, so it’s possible I will find an answer at some point. It’s also possible that there was no conflict. Maybe Grandma thought that Catharine and Mary were well provided for. Maybe she thought that her other children and grandchildren needed her help more. It’s possible — but I don’t think that is what happened.

I know it i little silly, but I feel a little abandoned by Grandma Peterson. It feels like she also wrote me out along with over 150 (and counting) other descendants! Catharine and Henry Weiss had 11 children and at least 22 grandchildren. Only 5 of the grandchildren were born while Catharine Peteson was living, but it appears that she wanted nothing to do them. This makes me sad. I wish I knew why. I’m sure there is an interesting story there, and I hope that some day I find it!

Note: These documents were found in 2009. Sadly, I was not as good about noting where I found information as I am now. I don’t remember where I found these images. I know that the excerpt of the will is from Ancestry. I’m not sure where I found the printed extract, I think I found it much earlier on HeritageQuest.