Thomas and Bridget Welsh/Walsh

Thomas Welsh, born between 1825 and 1831 (conflicting ages on later documents) and his sister Bridget, born C1833 emigrated 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. It’s been impossible to trace their origins further due to the very common names, I have no idea of their parentage. Their surnames were clearly WELSH on the shipping record but on later Tasmanian records the spelling sometimes varied as WALSH and WELCH.

Thomas married Bridget Boland in Launceston, Tasmania in 1860. Bridget and her family were also immigrants (natives of County Clare). Thomas worked as a milkman; he died in Launceston in May 1875. Their children John and Mary settled and had farming families in the area of Turner's Marsh and Karoola in north east Tasmania. Bridget moved there with them when she remarried James Lyons in 1880 but died just five years later in May 1885.

Bridget Welsh (Thomas' sister) married John Hewitt in Launceston in 1858 and lived at Low Head on Tasmania's north coast. John was a respected coxswain at the Pilot Station. They had a daughter Sarah and son John. Bridget died there in 1882. She was buried in the Launceston Catholic Cemetery in Glen Dhu, as were her brother Thomas and his wife Bridget.