Thomas and his siblings would have to get their fathers beer from The Garrison. While growing up in Small Heath, Birmingham, Thomas carried a switchblade and a screwdriver on him and would tell the other children in the area that he could lay curses, so they were afraid of him and didn't pick on or tease him because of it. It is also heavily implied that their father was a partial Irish Traveller. They also have Irish Traveller ancestry, this is because Polly mentioned that alongside Romani, they should not speak Shelta around Karl Thorne, which is the language spoken by Irish Travellers. It is implied by Thomas’ paternal aunt, Polly Gray, that the Lee Family are the Shelby Family’s kin, through their mother.
Thomas’ parents were both Gypsies, making him and all of his siblings full-blooded Gypsies as well.
Over the years, Thomas’ parents welcomed three more children, John, Ada and Finn Shelby. He was born on a boat, in a barge called ‘The January’ and had an elder brother, Arthur Shelby, who he was extremely close with as a child. Thomas Michael Shelby was born in 1890, to Arthur and Mrs.
