Thomas Joseph Brennan — Tulie Wheeler Taylor

Tom Brennan (1873-1926), my father’s paternal grandfather, was born in Augusta, Georgia to Irish immigrant parents.

March 2, 2023

Thomas Joseph Brennan and Martha Tallulah “Lula” Swindler McGuinn Brennan with their children, Harry McGuinn and Talu Brennan, about 1902. Lula and Tom Brennan were my father’s maternal grandparents and my great-grandparents.

My great-grandfather, Tom Brennan, was born in Augusta, Georgia on January 12, 1873. His parents, Thomas and Hanorah O’Brien Brennan, had immigrated to the United States from Ireland as children to escape the Great Irish Famine (1845 to 1852). While it’s not known where each of their families initially settled in North America, Nora’s older sister Mary was recorded in the 1860 federal census in Ward 4 in Augusta, Georgia along with her husband, Thomas Battle, and their four-year-old daughter Mary.

In the 1870 federal census in Ward 4 in Augusta, Georgia, Thomas Brannon, 31, his wife Nora, 28, their son Willie, 2, and Nora’s father, William O’Brien, 66, were recorded as residents. Both Thomas and his father-in-law were day laborers and US citizens. Thomas, Nora, and William had been born in Ireland. Young Willie had been born in Georgia.