Mary Ann Reilly Smith

Husband: James Smith 

Children:

Philip 8/18/1853-1899 

Patrick 11/24/1855-11/23/1911

John William 7/29/1857-7/4/1912

Charles Henry 5/30/1859-4/22/1906

James, Jr. 1861-1862? (mentioned in an 1883 letter)

James Edward 2/23/1863-1/18/1901

Thomas Jefferson Davis 5/7/1865-7/30/1958

George Washington: 2/5/1867-2/9/1896

From The Sun (New York City), March 24,1897

Below: The Sun, March 25, 1897

The following is from a 1999 genealogy article by George G. Morgan writing about the use of estate information to find genealogical information:

"Mrs. Mary Ann Smith," declared the New York Herald, in her obituary dated
Wednesday, March 24, 1897, "one of the best known and wealthy business
women in New Jersey, died late Monday night in her home, No. 63 Market
Street, Newark, of a complication of diseases. She was sixty-eight years
old, and had been a widow for a number of years." Her obituary further
states that she was an immigrant from Ireland, having arrived and settled
with her husband in Newark in 1847. Following the death of her husband in
1872, she took her money out of the grocery business and began what became
the American Glass Bending and Beveling Works in Newark. Mrs. Smith was the
sole owner of the business at the time of her death, and she was considered
to be one of the wealthiest women in New Jersey.

Mrs. Smith had six surviving sons at the time of her death, all of whom
were in some way involved in the business. Her sizable estate was left in a
trust, administered by her youngest son, Thomas D. Smith. In simple terms,
the estate was to be divided into seven equal shares: one for each of her
children and one for a Catherine Burke. Her estate would be distributed on
the death of her last son among all of her grandchildren and the children
of Catherine Burke. If some issue of these seven individuals died before
that time, their portion would be distributed among their siblings. If
there were no issue by any of the seven, or if all his/her issue died
before that time, that portion of the estate went back into the pot.

What Mrs. Smith had not reckoned on was that her youngest son would survive
until July 30, 1958. Over those years, during her sons' management of the
business and Thomas' management of the estate, its value had reduced
significantly. However, there was still an estate, and sixty-one years
later, it became the job of lawyers to determine who were the rightful
heirs, and for the probate court to determine Mrs. Smith's intent and how
to distribute the residue of her estate.

The lawyers began an extensive research campaign to locate every potential
heir. They determined that Catherine Burke had died without issue, and so
her share went immediately back into the estate. They next determined the
names (including spouse's name) of each of Mrs. Smith's children,
grandchildren and, after all these years, her great-grandchildren. Each
person's birth date, status--living or deceased (and date of death) as of
July 30th, 1958, and, if living, the current address was ascertained.
Careful research determined that Mrs. Smith had twenty-eight grandchildren,
sixteen of which were still living, and seventeen great-grandchildren
living as of July 30, 1958.


Below from The Newark Daily Advocate, Friday, May 21, 1897