Thomas Oates was born at Traboe,
near St Keverne, Cornwall in 1835, the son of Thomas
and Elizabeth (nee Williams) [1, 2]. The seventh of a family of ten, he
was christened on May 22, 1835 at St. Keverne.On April 23, 1858, Thomas embarked at Plymouth for Australia on the Fitzjames arriving in Sydney on the 28 July 1858. His elder brothers, William and John, were already in Australia, having departed some five years previously in 1853 aboard the Blundell on the same ship as his future wife. Others of his family followed. His sister, Millicent, and her husband, John Martin, arrived on the Agincourt in 1862. His mother, Elizabeth, and sister, Grace (nee Pascoe), arrived on the Hornet in 1865.
On March 25, 1864 at Guyong Methodist Church he married Elizabeth Thomas. It was the first wedding ceremony performed in that church. Elizabeth was born in St Keverne, Cornwall on January 21, 1843, the daughter of William Thomas and Mary (nee Coplin) . She was baptized in St. Keverne on March 5, 1843. She had arrived in Australia with her family aboard the Blundell in 1853.
In 1866, Thomas and Elizabeth settled on a Property called 'Rosewick' (named after a property of the same name near St. Keverne in Cornwall) near Spring Grove (later to be called Millthorpe), NSW. Thomas and Elizabeth had eleven children (Elizabeth Mary, Millicent Ann, Thomasine Grace, Eliza Jane, Thomas Henry, Samuel James, William John, Annie Ursula, Christopher Francis, Emma Isabella, and Bertha Lovda). Thomas is listed in Greville's 1872 Post Office Directory under Guyong where his occupation is given as farmer.
