Fitzgerald (Thomas) is born in County Wexford, Ireland.

Thomas Fitzgerald arrives in Boston sometime between 1845 and 1855, lives and works initially on his cousin’s farm in Acton, moves. He moves to the North End by 1857, becomes a street peddler, and marries Rosanna Cox, the daughter of Irish immigrants, on November 15, 1857. The couple has 11 children, of whom nine sons survive infancy. Fitzgerald goes into business with his younger brother James, running a store at 310 North Street, in 1863. He dies on May 19, 1885 in Boston.