Thomas Welsh : Short Biography

Thomas Welsh, born between 1825 and 1831 (conflicting ages on later documents) and his sister Bridget, born C1833 were Bounty Immigrants to Tasmania, Australia in 1856. Per the shipping records of the 'Alice Walton' they were natives of Tipperary. A Patrick Quinn, another passenger on the ship, was the applicant for their passage.

Variants of the surname - Walsh, Walshe, Welshe, Welch, Walish, Wailsh etc. have made it impossible (so far) to trace Thomas or Bridget's birth records or parents in Ireland. Their surnames were clearly WELSH on the shipping record but on later records in Tasmania the spelling sometimes varied as WALSH and WELCH.  Thomas' two children's birth records had all surnames as WELSH and that spelling has remained through the six subsequent generations in Australia.

Thomas married Bridget Boland in Launceston, Tasmania in 1860. Bridget and her family were also immigrants (natives of County Clare). They both may have died around the 1890s in Launceston. Their children John and Mary settled and had farming families in the area of Turner's Marsh and Karoola in north east Tasmania, fifth generation descendants still own land there.

Bridget Welsh (Thomas' sister) married John Hewitt in Launceston in 1858 and lived at Low Head on Tasmania's north coast. She died there in 1882.