Would you Adam and Eve it? - Part 1 (or, what's in a name?)

Tracing my EMMETT ancestry was a challenge from the first. My grandfather, Reginald MOSS, was raised in Bristol (together with two of his three siblings) by his father's family after his parents separated, and I wasn't even sure of his mother's full name. Alfred MOSS, Reginald's father, married for a second time in 1920 to a Fanny SIMPSON, and I can just about remember meeting my step-greatgrandmother, a large elderly woman in black clothing.  There were vague family stories that she hadn't been in good health (which gave the even vaguer impression that she drank more than was good for her!)

Reginald's birth certificate showed me that his mother was Tinney, nee EMMETT. From that, I was able to find the marriage of Alfred and Tinney in 1892, and that her father was Thomas EMMETT, a groom. The marriage certificate gave no clues to her birthplace, however, merely stating that both parties lived in Redcross Street, Bristol, at what appeared to be a lodging house.

Then when tried to find more evidence of Tinney, things started to get really challenging. At the time, BMD indexes were on microfiche, census on microfilm, but you could look at original parish registers (many of them quite filthy!) at Bristol Record Office. I couldn't, however, find any leads despite the unusual forename.

After a search I found husband Alfred on the 1901 census in Eastville, Bristol, along with Reginald and his elder siblings Elsie and Frederick. His wife, however, was clearly written as Fanny MOSS. She gave her birthplace as St George, Bristol:  her age as 29. Now I was really confused! Was this the first wife or had the second wife made an early, unexpected appearance?

1901 Census

Again I checked the parish records of St George, I couldn't find any trace of Tinney; and trawling through earlier census records for Bristol produced two possible Thomas EMMETT candidates for her father. Then the lucky break: a birth registration for Tenny (sic) EMMETT revealed her parents were Thomas and Sarah (nee BEAVER) and that she had, indeed, been born in Clay Bottom, St George.

Index of Births, June qtr, 1872

Eventually the correct family was found in earlier census returns, living in St George, but she was enumerated with a variety of spellings of "Fanny" on each. I can only assume the enumerators, faced with such an unusual name, assumed it was a spelling error by the family. Here is the 1891 census, where she's 'Fanney', with a very faint 'i' added in later, as if the writer is hedging his bets!

1891 census

1911 census

Above is Tinney in 1911, and her eldest daughter Elsie, then living with her, has written 'Tilly'! Tinney died in 1918, and I think hers is one of the sadder stories in my tree.  Whatever the reasons for her marriage breaking down, it could not have been easy to live apart from her younger children.

As for the unusual forename, I have found nothing to suggest its origins, certainly there's nothing like it in the previous generation, but perhaps it is a maiden name from an earlier generation.