Mary Lydon : Short Biography

Mary Lydon's father, James Lydon died in Kinvara 2/23/1888 when she was six. Her mother was Honor Fahy, but the marriage record in 1913 in Boston MA states that her mother's maiden name was Margaret Fahy.Perhaps this was her aunt. One record has a Margaret Fahy born to Mary's grandfather, Thomas Fahy, Honor's father. James Lydon's father was John Lydon. The parent's fathers of Mary are recorded in the Kinvara parish marriage record of  13th December, 1880. After age six, Mary may have been raised by Margaret Fahy (maiden surname), relation unknown, but possibly an aunt or grandmother.Mary called herself "May", and when she emigrated to Boston, MA, in 1908, her named changed to "Mae". Mae Lydon studied nursing, and that is hoe she met her husband, John Mark Smith Sr, who was studying Dentistry at the Harvard Dentist School. Mae Smith lived in Chelsea, MA her entire life in the US until she died in 1965 at age 83.

In about 1930 Mae and John Smith legally adopted Mae's neice, Phyllis Patricia Alexander O'Kelly, who was her sister, Bridget (Lydon) O'Kelly's daughter. The Smiths received Phyllis at age three in 1924 when she emigrated by ship from County Sligo, Ireland. Phyllis lived 92 years and died  in South Roslindale, MA in 2013. In the mid 1950s, Mae Smith took in and cared for her three grandchildren born to her son, John Mark Smith 2nd, after her divorced his second wife, Barbara Morris Smith. The three children were Johanna Narcia Smith, John Mark Smith 3rd, and Sydney Dodd Smith. These three children returned to their mother, Barbara, within three years and were later adopted by Sydney Dodd Frissell, Sr, when Barbara remarried in June, 1963 in Darien, CT..