Our cousin, Delia Byrne, believes that Thomas may have originally come from Ballymote, Co. Sligo and that his father may have been named Patrick and his mother may have been a McManus.  Thomas would have been born about 1835 and just prior to the famine that devastated Ireland and caused the disintegration of many families with over one million deaths and another million leaving the country.  Families were split apart at that time and family members were left to fend for themselves with many traveling the roads looking for food and work.  Many were put in poor houses or put to work on country roads in return for food.  The west of Ireland was the poorest part of the country and the hardest hit by the disaster.  There is a large famine burial ground behind the current Swinford hospital.  The memorial marker there was produced by our cousin P.J.Byrne .
 

 

The three pubs of Bohola (pictured above) at the old cross-roads of Castlebar, Swinford, and Kiltimagh.