BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Primarily from the "Genealogy of the Bliss Family in America...," revised edition by Aaron Tyler Bliss  
  The earliest record of this Thomas Bliss is for his marriage to Margaret Hulins or Hulings in the St. Nicholas parish church, Gloucester, Gloucester, England on 18 Oct 1621.  No baptisms for children of Thomas and Margaret Bliss have been found in the St. Nicholas parish records.  The baptism record for Nathaniel Bliss, probably oldest child, was found at Rodborough, Gloucester, England on 28 Dec 1622.  This is the home parish of Margaret Hulins Bliss, and it was not unusual for the first child to be baptized in the maternal grandparents' parish. 
      The origin of Thomas has not been found.  Although the Bliss family at Painswick, Gloucester is numerous, there is no Thomas who was baptized during the period he likely was born.  There are no prior entries for any persons named Bliss in the Rodborough records, although the parish records surviving do not start until 1699 and the Bishops Transcripts that survive start in 1620 and cover only certain years. 
     It is believed that Thomas and Margaret Bliss emigrated to New England and settled in Hartford, Connecticut about 1638.  In February, 1640, his lands were entered into the Hartford records and reference is made to "One parcell on which his dwellinge house now standeth."  Thomas and his son Thomas, Jr., were mentioned in other land records in Hartford,
including lands received in a division of lands on the east side of the Connecticut River in 1641.
      He died in late 1650 or early 1651 at Hartford.  He had not written a will, but recited his wishes orally to his wife with his daughter Mary Parsons as witness.  Her testimony and the inventory of his estate was taken on 14 Feb 1651. At the time of his death he owned 58 acres of land and the house lot which is west of the present Lafayette Street in Hartford.  For more details, also see the chapter on The Bliss Lines in "Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his wife Frances Helen Miller," compiled by Mary Lovering Holman (privately published: Concord, NH, 1948).  The latter work was published before the discovery of the maiden name of Margaret, surviving wife of Thomas Bliss, or of the marriage record for Thomas and Margaret by Myrtle  Stevens Hyde as reported in the October, 1976 issue of The American Genealogist (Vol 52, pages 193/7),.