Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847. He was born in Milan, Ohio. Thomas Edison's parents were Samuel and Nancy Edison and his sister's name was Tannie.

His father called him a problem child . One day Thomas was in the barn and he started a fire. This made his father so mad he gave Thomas a public spanking. His father also called him a problem child because he left one of his friends at a creek and his friend drowned.

 Thomas Edison's family moved to Port Huron, Michigan when he was seven. Thomas did not go to school until he was eight years old because he got scarlet fever. He only went to school for three months because his teacher said he was not able to learn. Even though his teacher said he couldn't learn he read and studied about science on his own and he also loved to experiment with electricity. Thomas got his first job as a candy butcher when he was twelve because his family needed the money. He also ran a newspaper stand. The news of the Civil War in April 1862 gave him his first wealth as a news boy because he was able to sell a thousand newspapers.

 Thomas Alva Edison became a pioneer by inventing electric locomotives. In 1878 he invented the phonograph. On February 19, 1878 he got the patent for his phonograph. Thomas Alva Edison also invented the transmitter that is in our telephones today. He invented a stock printer for Western Union and a device for stock tickers for the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company.

 Thomas invented the phonograph because he heard his voice echo when working on another project. This echo gave him the idea to invent a machine that would record and play back sound. He also invented the transmitter so we could hear voices more clearly when talking on the telephone. He invented the stock ticker device so it would control errors.

 Tom got married to Mary Stilwell on Christmas day in 1871. In 1874 Tom and his wife Mary had a baby named Marion Estelle. They had a two sons one named Thomas A. Edison Jr. and the other named William Leslie. His wife Mary died in 1884 of typhoid fever at the age of twenty-nine. On February 24, 1886 Tom got remarried to Mina.

Thomas died in the year of 1931. Thomas Alva Edison died from gastric ulcers, diabetes, and uremic poisoning. Tom's best invention years were 1869 and 1910.