Thomas was probably born in Washington County, as that's where his father, Daniel Heath, was living in the 1820, 1830 and 1840 censuses. Daniel was a widower as of 1830; in 1832 he married second wife Nancy Tison, daughter of John Tison, Sr., in Washington County. Sometime in the 1840's the Heaths and Tisons and some other families related by marriage moved from Washington County to Emanuel County - land surveys there are recorded for Thomas (1846), his younger brother William H. Heath (1848) and his father (1853 and 1854). Around 1845 Thomas married Elizabeth Tison, daughter of Noah D. Tison, Sr., and first cousin to Thomas's stepmother, Nancy. I haven't yet found a marriage record for them in either Washington or Emanuel county. Thomas may have been the first Heath to make the move to Emanuel, with Daniel possibly remaining in Washington County till after his son William's marriage there in 1847. By the 1850 census Thomas and Elizabeth had moved on to Wilkinson County though the rest of the Heaths stayed in Emanuel. Daniel apparently died sometime in the 1850's.
By 1860, Thomas and Elizabeth had made their way to Pulaski County. The Nancy Heath living two doors down from them in that census, in the household of Griffin and Sarah A. Heath, is almost certainly Daniel Heath's widow, even though the age (40) is all wrong and it shows South Carolina as her birthplace. Griffin must have been a nickname, as this is clearly Thomas's half-brother Moses (J.) Heath, who married Ceney Ann Forehand in Pulaski County on 20 Aug 1857. Griffin Heath is 27 in this census, the right age to be Moses; he has two kids - John Daniel, 2, and Samuel Malachi, 6 months. Griffin Heath did not survive the war but in the 1870 census his 12-year-old son Daniel Heath and 8-year-old daughter, Mary Heath, are living with their mother Sena Bradley and grandmother Letta Forehand. Griffin's widow Ceney/Sena/Sarah had obviously remarried around 1866 but was widowed again by 1870.
Isaac T. Heath, Thomas's other half-brother, married Martha Roland in Pulaski County on 16 Jul 1857. In the 1860 census for Pulaski, Isaac, Martha and their 2-year-old daughter, Nancy, are living in the household of Elizabeth (Heath) Johnson, 42, Thomas's sister, who married Henry Johnson on 20 Mar 1851 in Emanuel County. Next door to them is Thomas's other sister, Polly Ann (Heath) Thomas, who married John Thomas in Emanuel County 30 Nov 1853. Isaac Heath survived the war but he apparently died soon thereafter as his widow Martha remarried to Silas Smith on 3 Jan 1866. The Smith household in 1870 includes Isaac's 12-year-old daughter, Nancy Heath.
Nancy Tison Heath's sister, Mary, who married Joseph H. Anderson 16 May 1844 in Emanuel County, is also living in Pulaski in 1860; her household includes their father, John Tison.
Children with Elizabeth Tyson:
- William D. Heath, b. ca 1846
- Winford Heath, b. ca 1848
- John Ira Heath, b. ca 1850; m. Sarah Elizabeth Wynn
- Noah Griffin Heath, b. 29 Jan 1853; m. Julia Ann Anderson
- Jacob Thomas Heath, b. 22 Apr 1855; m. Mary Catherine LaFavor
- Henry Hugh Heath, b. 17 Jul 1858; Dollie A. Unknown
- George L. Heath, b. ca 1861
- Lucinda Heath, b. ca 1863
- Dorinda V. Heath, b. ca 1865
