The photo that started it all

The Golden Wedding

This is the photograph that started my research, back in the 1970's.  The original belonged to my grandmother, Dorothy MOSS nee BURRELL, and the challenge was to try to name all the people shown. Little did I know that 40 years later I'd still be researching these people and their ancestors!

The photograph was taken about 9th August 1901, in Bedminster, Bristol.  It shows my 2xgt grandparents, James BURRELL (1826-1919) and Mary Ann (nee COLLINS) (1826-1919) and their 7 surviving children (the numbers are clockwise, beginning bottom left of picture):
1.William James BURRELL (1852-1933)
2.George Samuel BURRELL (1867-1937)

3.Cornelius BURRELL (1857-1928)
4.Ebenezer Collins BURRELL (1872-1961)
5.William Charles BURRELL (1856-1939)
6.Ellen BURRELL (1859-1917?)
7.Mary Ann Kezia BURRELL (1854-1923)

Subsequent research has found that James was born in Enfield, Nth London, and his wife Mary Ann in Thorley, Hertfordshire.  They married at Lambeth Register Office, and their children were born in London, Birmingham and Bristol.

Emmett ancestors

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. 

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.

Under Construction

A place to post snippets of my family history, memories both first- and second-hand, and hints and tips for newer researchers.

Some of the surnames that I'll be posting about:

ANDREWS: How did a baker's daughter from Epsom, Surrey come to marry a banker's clerk from Nottingham?

BINDING: Originally from Somerset; stories of poverty and illegitimacy

BURRELL: Where it all started - who's in that photograph? 

CARNEY: Were they really once Kings of Ulster?

CATER: Can the link between my Gloucestershire family, and an earlier Bedfordshire landowner, be proved?

EMMETT: Would you Adam and Eve it?

MOSS: Not so humble as we once thought

THOMAS & DAVIES: Attempting to research the most common names in South Wales

THORN: Shoemakers and grocers from Norwich