NOTE:  Thomas wrote a family history just before he died in 1910. In it he identified his grandparents, their children, including his mom and dad, brothers and sisters and their families. This current web site is but a modern update of the work Thomas started 100 years ago. Thanks Thomas. He gave a first hand account of the family migration in 1853 aboard one of the last of the great passenger sailing ships, the "Margaret Evans" and then overland to Payson, where I will let him take up his own description of his career as a nurseryman:

"After coming to the United States with his parents in 1853, Thomas Sinnock worked at shoemaking in his brother George's shop in Payson, Illinois, during the summer and in the fall attended school taught by Mr. Metcalf. And on May 1, 1854, he engaged to work in the Nursery for Mr. William Stewart Sr. at a salary of $5.00 per month and board where he worked for two years. In the spring of 1856 he was employed by William Stewart and Sons at Quincy where he worked for several years. In the spring of 1860 he started in the Nursery business for himself, locating in Griggsville, Illinois, where he stayed for five years when he sold out and come to Quincy and entered into partnership with J. H. Stewart of Quincy Nursery. After a few years, Mr. Stewart sold his interest in the business to Mr. Artemis Curtis, and the business was conducted under the firm name of Sinnock & Company. They continued the business until family health caused them to close it out and dissolve partnership in 1885. Since then Thomas Sinnock has lived on his farm near the city. On April 24, 1907, his large house burned to the ground. He then rented his farm and retired from business and spent the following winter in California, and returned in the spring and prepared to rebuild on the old foundation, putting up a bungalow cottage and moved into it October 21, 1909."

Thomas has nearly 200 known descendants, including two sons, Edwin Ralph and Herbert Whipple. Two children died young, Arthur at 11 months and Olive at age 5. He is brother of (in order of birth): George, Sam Jr., Mary Ann, Harriett, Charles Wesley, and James William; and youngest son of Sam and Mary Lindfield Sinnock. Four years after Eliza died in 1891, Thomas married Martha Mariah Kay, a 46 year old spinster and cousin of Sarah Ann Kay, wife of Thomas' brother George. They had no known children, so perhaps he took her in more as finacial protector, perhaps in exchange for a cook-housekeeper, perhaps for pure love, perhaps both.