The Mary Ann Smith Estate

From The New York Daily Tribune, April 12, 1897.

Note: "Thomas Q. D. Smith" in the above article should read "Thomas J. D. Smith" (Thomas Jefferson Davis Smith)

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

"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.