Thomas Shields was christened on 5 February 1854, in Caldbeck, Cumberland, England, United Kingdom as the son of Isaac Shields and Sarah.
English: variant of Shield 1 (and perhaps occasionally 2, 3, and 4) with plural or post-medieval excrescent -s. In the plural form, the surname may also be topographic, for someone who lived in or near some huts, or habitational, from a place so named, such as North Shields (Northumberland) and South Shields (Durham), though these are unlikely to be the main sources of the surname.
Irish: shortened form of O'Shields , an alternative Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Siadhail; see Shiel .
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