Would you Adam and Eve it? - Part 2 (Brick walls)

Tinney EMMETT, my elusive great-grandmother, was born in 1872.  Her birth certificate (on which her name was spelt 'Tinny' or 'Tenny') gives her birthplace as Clay Bottom, St George, Bristol, and her parents as Thomas EMMETT, a labourer, and Sarah (formerly BEAVER). Sarah, who was the informant, was unable to sign her name.

Tinney was one of 7 children, and during her childhood the family moved to the more pleasant-sounding Rose Green area. She seems to have been close to her younger sister Dorcas; both sisters later lived in Eastville, and Dorcas was an occasional visitor to her nieces and nephews.

Having followed Tinney's family back through the census records, gave me an approximate date of marriage and I found that Thomas EMMETT and Sarah BEAVER were married in St Matthias, Bristol in 1859. I had not previously heard of this parish; however Bristol Record Office have more information: The parish of St. Matthias, formerly The Weir District, was created out of St. Paul, St.Peter and St.Philip and St.Jacob in 1846. It was united with St.Jude in 1937, with St.Jude to be the parish church and St. Matthias to be demolished. The church was closed on the 24th June 1940.  

Thomas gave his address as Water Street, and named his father as Adam EMMETT, a labourer. Sarah was living at Callow Hill Street, and her father was Richard BEAVER, also a labourer.


Up until this point all seemed fairly straightforward: however tracing back a further generation took me some considerable time, luck and help from other researchers.


Thomas gave his birthplace as Stapleton on all the census returns after 1861, but despite several searches through the parish registers I couldn't find him. I did find several other EMMETT/EMETT entries, and spent some time following those in the hope that they might lead me to him, but without any success. There were also EMMETTs in adjacent Mangotsfield, but not my Thomas, who I was expecting to find baptised about 1840. I couldn't find Thomas in the earlier census returns microfilms either.


Then luck intervened. I was doing some research in Trowbridge, for a fellow researcher, when I came across the baptism of an  Adam EMMETT in Lacock, Wiltshire, in 1803.  This would be about the right age for Thomas's father, but was it the same man?  I spent some time looking at the registers, checking that this Adam hadn't been buried as an infant, and then looking at his family. I found siblings Luke, and two babies named Eve, and burials for Luke and the first Eve, but nothing further for Adam.


Going back to look for Thomas again, I widened my search further and eventually found his baptism in  Frenchay, north of Stapleton, in 1839.  His parents were Adam and Mary (nee GREENING). And a check on the 1841 and 1851 census found Thomas living with his parents in Frenchay.  Finally all the pieces fit together. 


I've been able to trace the EMMETT family back several generations in Lacock: however I found no further trace of Eve.  I wonder if she went to Frenchay with her brother? 


ETA [7/9/11] Today I found that Eve married (1) 1841: Mark LAMBORN, a domestic servant from Calne, who died 1853, and (2) 1855: William FRANCIS, a tailor and draper from Devizes. Eve died in 1877 and had no children.