I realize this is coming quite a long time after your original posting, but it may interest you. I was searching online for information about my family and this turned up. I'm the great granddaughter of Cornelius and Josephine Geary, who Lydia Mars worked for in Fitchburg, MA. I'm named after her, actually. My family tells me that Cornelius, who was the medical examiner for Worcester County, met Lydia when she was working in one of the mills he was inspecting. She wasn't in very good health, and he offered her a job in the family. She pretty much raised my grandmother and was very well loved by everyone in the Geary family. I have a locket with her picture that my grandmother gave me before she died.