It’s week 7 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge and the prompt is “Outcast”. This week I am going to tell you a sad story of Nellie Weiss. It contains some difficult information. It happened over 100 years ago, so I think it is okay to tell the story.
I came across Nellie in my research for my Weiss line. I’ve not been able to prove that she is part of my line, and suspect that she is not. Nellie’s father was William Weiss. It get’s complicated because my Weiss line is one of two that migrated to the area in the mid-1880s. Both men were named Henry Weiss, and both has sons named William. Sorting this out gets difficult sometimes. Anyway, back to Nellie.
When Nellie was 17 years old, she was sent away to a reform school. She had become difficult to control, sneaking out at night and leading a life of ‘waywardness. So she was effectively cast out.
What is sad to me is that Nellie was obviously acting out. Nellie’s father was in prison because Nellie was his victim of incest. Nellie needed help, and today she would get counseling. Unfortunately that was not the case in 1915. Instead she had a probation officer who sent her off to reform school. To be fair, the probation officer did seem caring, and was trying to help Nellie. Unfortunately, she was limited by the ‘help’ available at the time.
I do not know what happened to Nellie. I hope she was able to get the help she needed and live a happy life. I’ve been unable to find any mention of Nellie after the court case. You can read the full story here.
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