Confederate Widows Update

I spent another Saturday at the Family History Library in Salt Lake trying to track down details on the lives of Confederate Widows. Now that I have pinned down my twenty or so names I looked at land records and probate records again. It was interesting to trace a case through the probate court. While there was not a lot of information about the family, it was interesting to note how long it took to probate the cases. In some instances they were drawn out more than four years. Can you imagine the lives of these poor widows while they were waiting to see what would actually be left to them? It must have been very difficult. I did find one widow who fared very well but her husband was wealthy to begin with. Another widow petitioned the court for the entire estate of her husband and was denied. The court suggested to the administrator of the estate that he try to provide the widow with provisions from the estate to get by with if he could. Poor woman!!