My grandfather Harry Burdette Thomas.

He was born on December 2, 1883 in Derby, Ct. His parents were Charles Thomas and Jennie Gorham. He had two sisters, Maude A. Thomas (1881-1958) and Alice May Thomas (1886-1910).

He married Bessie Alling Bronson on December 12, 1906 at the 1st Congregational Church in Derby, CT. They had 12 children. Click here to get to a tree listing their children.

Harry Thomas was a piano tuner by profession, and he also repaired phonographs. Before the family moved from Derby to West Haven in the early 1920's, he was a member of a volunteer fire crew in Derby. Driving into Derby from New Haven on Hwy 34, there is a fire house on the right (east). Son Gordon Thomas recalls everyone in the car saying "there's Dad's firehouse!" when they drove by on visits to Derby. Gordon remembers being told that the 'fire engine' was the type that was pulled by the volunteers.

 Harry Burdette Thomas died in 1939 at age 56. He is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, West Haven, CT.