St. Charles Cemetery

Death Certificate – Ethel Loretta Reilly

Ethel Loretta Reilly (nee Powers) was my dad’s paternal grandmother. I received her death certificate in the mail today.

Born on 27 January 1903, she died on 26 September 1955 at 1:50pm. She was only 52 years old at the time. She passed away at Queens General Hospital in Queens, New York, and following her death, an autopsy was performed.

Accordng to the death certificate, she died as a result of cardiac failure, due to rheumatic heart disease.1 Her health was complicated by the fact that just two and a half months before her death, she suffered a fall in her home resulting in a fracture to her right femur. 2 Since femur fractures are quite traumatic and take months to heal, I would assume that she was in the hospital from the time of her fall until her death, but the death certificate doesn’t confirm this.

Here burial was attended to by Queensboro Mortuary and she was buried on 30 September 1955 at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.

The death certificate also features the following information about Ethel:

  1. She was living at 107-25 Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens at the time of her death.
  2. She was married to Lawrence Reilly.
  3. Her occupation was that of a housewife.
  4. She was born in New York
  5. Her father was named John Powers, and her mother was named Mary (with no maiden name noted).

Biography of Sadie Donnelly

Sadie Donnelly was born to Patrick and Bridget on December 14, 1875 in New York. She is my 2nd great-grandmother on my paternal grandfather’s side of the family. She married John Reilly on April 30, 1893 in New York. She gave birth to 5 children while married to John: Arlington, Madeline, Lawrence, Helen and Adele. Both Helen and Adele died in infancy or as young children. Lawrence was the only one of her children who married as an adult. Madeline was engaged, but her fiance was killed overseas during World War I, and she never ended up marrying.

(more…)