When Thomas John Richards was born in June 1840 in Dublin, Ireland, his father, John Richards, was 20 and his mother, Mary Francis, was 20.

By the time he was 20, Thomas John Richards was living in Sydney, New South Wales and he married Selina Teresa Travis on 11 March 1870. Selina was 23 and she had been born in the Sydney suburb of Castlereagh in 1847

Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney; Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Baptism, Burial, Confirmation, Marriage and composite registers in the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney Archives

They had six children in 11 years. He died on 6 November 1923 in Redfern, New South Wales having lived a long life of 83 years, and was buried there.

Thomas and Selina’s only daughter Henrietta Selina Richards married August ‘Frank’ Hoschke and they would have 5 children.