New to this - help please!

[Guest taylorjtc]

Hi all, I am new to all this research stuff - my latent interest was sparked when I found a picture of my grandfather taken in Gustrow POW camp approx spring 1918.

His name was Andrew Quinn, born 1889, Dundee.

He was a merchant seaman working on various ships around & about New Zealand from 1910 or so - we have some records but far from complete however with some help from Australian researchers I have discovered that he was crew on SS Wairuna, captured by SMS Wolf and eventually taken to Gustrow.

(not bad for 3 days research eh?)

My question now is where can I find further records of merchant seamen?

We know he carried on at sea after the war & was still working at sea out of Blyth Northumberland during WW2 but we have no further records of his ships - where can I look?

Just as an aside does anyone know of similar records for Australia pre WW1 as we know he spent time there, he also travelled to the South Pole on the Terra Nova's first trip down there but when i researched this some time ago whilst in Christchurch, was informed that he had probably jumped ship & used a false name as m,any did then apparently!!

Well thats a starter - any information would be a great help - trying to find stuff out for my Mum.

Regards

[ph0ebus]

Hi Jill,

You might have a look here:

http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.u...title=MT_9/1179

Scroll down a bit for the interesting part...

Happy Hunting!

-Daniel

[Terence Munson]

Hi - Welcome to the forum. You may have this but just in case:

QUINN A. SAILOR (b 1889) 24 HAWKHILL. DUNDEE

PoW at Parchim, north of Berlin, on 1918 Merchant Seamen PoW list.

WAIRUNA O.N. 118495, 3947 gt. Cargo ship.

Built by Armstrong Whitworth at Low Walker, Shipyard Newcastle on Tyne

Ordered as MATOPPO yard No. 744

launched as LADY STRATHCONA 05/11/1903

Completed May.1904

1905 Renamed WAIRUNA

Captured by raider Wolf, 2 June 1917, off Sunday Island, Kermadec Islands,

(prize 2.6.17) Scuttled (sunk by bombs), off Raoul Is. 17.6.17

Photo Here: Link, Scroll down a bit!

Cheers, Terry

[sotonmate]

JillT

Welcome to the Forum !

That's great from Phoebus ! Straight to the document box number at Kew Archives !

I can add another snippet. It is possible that he has documents (ID card with photo and personal details) filed in BT372,also at Kew. I can't give a box number,yet,just the series in which these records are filed.

Sotonmate

Edit: there are 29 entries for QUINN A in the National Archives Catalogue:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue

Click on Search the Catalogue at bottom of the screen. On the three data lines which then appear enter QUINN A on the top one and BT372 on the lower one. That will give you the 28 entries.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Unfortunately, only merchants records for 1942 onwards can be found using the online UK National Archives Catalogue. The other records are offline. Here's the UK National Archives Research Guide: Merchant Seamen: Sea Service Records 1913-1972

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalog...?sLeafletID=128

[per ardua per mare per terram]

If he claimed his WWI medals, the details will be in BT 351 the Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Index of First World War Mercantile Marine Medals and the British War Medal. this is on microfiche at Kew.

[veronicasamson]

Hi I know you posted on this site in 2009 and I am unsures if you will ever view it again. My grandfather's name was Andrew Quinn (complicated story) he was born in 1889 in Dundee and was at sea he was also on the terra nova. My mum's sister was actually born in New Zealand. I wonder if you do get this message if you might contact me my email address is veronicasamson@msn.com. I live in Dundee Scotland and am trying to complete my family tree. thank you

[FROGSMILE]

Hi I know you posted on this site in 2009 and I am unsures if you will ever view it again. My grandfather's name was Andrew Quinn (complicated story) he was born in 1889 in Dundee and was at sea he was also on the terra nova. My mum's sister was actually born in New Zealand. I wonder if you do get this message if you might contact me my email address is veronicasamson@msn.com. I live in Dundee Scotland and am trying to complete my family tree. thank you

Go to his profile page Veronica and send him a private message (PM) and / or email. He is more likely to see that as he will receive a notification.

[BillyH]

Go to his profile page Veronica and send him a private message (PM) and / or email. He is more likely to see that as he will receive a notification.

A good suggestion Frogsmile, but I think that you need to have 5 posts before you can use the PM facility (it may have been reduced to 2 now though? - I'm not sure)

Veronica - post a quick thank you here for the suggestion, this may allow you to use the PM messaging service.

BillyH.

[veronicasamson]

Thank you so much for trying to help I don't know how to use the private message but will try and explore more of the site it's a lady (Jill t) who put the original post on.

[veronicasamson]

Thank you for your help I have managed to send a private message.

[KevinBattle]

JillT hasn't been active on the forum since Jan 2010 so you may not get a response.

It seemed as though she was in Australasia when making her single enquiry about Andrew.

It might be that she has started a Family Tree on Ancestry or similar sites so it might be worth seeing if you can get any hits on his details (Scotlands People would be worth checking too).

Rootschat seems to have global links whereas many Family History sites tend to have a more expensive global option, so maybe you can't view anything in Australia - unless some kind Antipodean Pal can help.

Also worth Googling his Name, sometimes it's surprising what you can now find compared to even 5 years ago!

And the references these Pals gave Jill should still be OK for you to follow up on - there may even be a record if she contacted them....

Good luck!

[veronicasamson]

Thank you very much appreciated ve