Thomas M. Marks was the son of Thomas Isaiah Marks (1798 Loudoun Co VA - 1864 Henderson Co KY) and Selah Melton Oliver (1797 Rutherford Co NC - 1867 Henderson Co KY).

Margara Jane Higginson was the daughter of Washington Higginson (1812 Warren Co KY - 1878 Henderson Co KY) and Eliza Crews (1813 KY - 1900 Henderson Co KY).

Thomas Marks was a grocer and a farmer and lived his entire life in the Mt. Lebanon area; he was Sunday School superintendent at Mt. Lebanon Church for the last thirty years of his life.