Author Topic: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird  (Read 1195 times)

Offline lyndahirst_1

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Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« on: Thursday 09 August 18 14:09 BST (UK) »
Hello

I have no idea what any of the information on this document indicates and so am hoping someone will be able to interpret the details and explain them to me please.

William Baird.

Cheers
Lynda
South Wales - main trunk family names - mam's side:-
Beard, Crandon, Clement, Lawrence, Langdon, Cartwright, Griffiths, Housego, Llewellyn, Stevens, Thomas. 

Father's side:
Williams, Rosser, Griffiths, Jones, Thomas, Llewellyn, Charles, Davies, Phillips, Powell

Offline cristeen

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Re: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 09 August 18 17:28 BST (UK) »
I am certain many more knowledgeable than me will provide more detail later. The place names and numbers in the first column relate to the various William Bairds registered. The subsequent columns record the ship's official number, name & voyage dates
Newson, Steavenson, Walker, Taylor, Dobson, Gardner, Clark, Wilson, Smith, Crossland, Goldfinch, Burnett, Hebdon, Peers, Strother, Askew, Bower, Beckwith, Patton, White, Turner, Nelson, Gilpin, Tomlinson, Thompson, Spedding, Wilkes, Carr, Butterfield, Ormandy, Wilkinson, Cocking, Glover, Pennington, Bowker, Kitching, Langhorn, Haworth, Kirkham.

Offline Westoe

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Re: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 09 August 18 20:42 BST (UK) »
Hello Lynda,

Please identify your source for this image.

WHICH? William Baird on this list is your person of interest? The numbers refer to his age at the time the record was made. The place names are reported places of birth.

The next columns give rank aboard e.g. cook, as (=able seaman), s (=seaman) etc. plus identifying the specific vessel by home port number and vessel rotation number.

Port Numbers are easy to interpret. There is a key to them here:
http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/ukportnos.html

Rotation Numbers are NOT EASY. To interpret them you need access to the Customs House Registers for that particular port for that particular year so best you forget about them.

Cheers,
Westoe

Offline lyndahirst_1

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Re: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« Reply #3 on: Friday 10 August 18 01:41 BST (UK) »
oh heck.... I had no idea that this referred to multiple William Bairds sorry - I thought all the entries pertained to one person .... durrrrrr....

The information came from FindMyPast - one of the BT's they offer -- I'll need to get the exact reference when I'm online later tonight sorry.

The ones of interest will be those with a Scottish place of birth but which one I don't know sorry - am trying to identify possibilities so will need to try and trace all of them through the BT lists and years once I can understand what the info here means and how to apply it in my searches.

Thanks to all for the insights to-date.

Cheers
Lynda
South Wales - main trunk family names - mam's side:-
Beard, Crandon, Clement, Lawrence, Langdon, Cartwright, Griffiths, Housego, Llewellyn, Stevens, Thomas. 

Father's side:
Williams, Rosser, Griffiths, Jones, Thomas, Llewellyn, Charles, Davies, Phillips, Powell


Offline Rosinish

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Re: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« Reply #4 on: Friday 10 August 18 02:00 BST (UK) »
"The numbers refer to his age at the time the record was made. The place names are reported places of birth"

This should help you to narrow things down from the dates you may have (his birth)?

Annie

Add, It's always a good idea, when columns feature, to give the heading for each column so people know what they're trying to decipher.
South Uist, Inverness-shire, Scotland:- Bowie, Campbell, Cumming, Currie

Ireland:- Cullen, Flannigan (Derry), Donahoe/Donaghue (variants) (Cork), McCrate (Tipperary), Mellon, Tol(l)and (Donegal & Tyrone)

Newcastle-on-Tyne/Durham (Northumberland):- Harrison, Jude, Kemp, Lunn, Mellon, Robson, Stirling

Kettering, Northampton:- MacKinnon

Canada:- Callaghan, Cumming, MacPhee

"OLD GENEALOGISTS NEVER DIE - THEY JUST LOSE THEIR CENSUS"

Offline lyndahirst_1

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Re: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« Reply #5 on: Friday 10 August 18 04:25 BST (UK) »
@Rosinish - unfortunately, there are no column headings of any kind which didn't help.

His date and place of birth are pure supposition at the moment as being a mariner, he wasn't home with the family for any census at all. :-(

He and his wife married in 1845 and his age is given as being 24 so DOB of 1821 is a guesstimate based on that.

His name is a mystery in fact as on his marriage cert, it's transcribed in BMD as being William Brown Bard (Swansea vol 26/P 745) with his father also listed as a mariner with exactly the same name. I can't find any trace of either of them other than this one reference to that name on the m.cert.

He signed the marriage cert as William Ba*rd and it could conceivably be Baird vs. Beard or Bard on that hence my grasping at this straw to see if I can find anything conclusive in the BT's.

Through the years, his wife and family were enumerated and BMD located which names them variously as xxx B Bear, xxx Brown Bear before reference to Brown dropped off and the name morphed into plain Beer or Bear and eventually Beard.

The only mariner I've been able to find any trace of with an approximate DOB range which might fit, is this William Baird from Scotland. 

I found a William Baird, 1821 ish, Scotland on the CLIP site who came off the Auricula in Swansea in early 1845 and as my William married in 1845 in Swansea, I'm interested in the BT's to see if there's possibly some clues to follow.

To compound the fact that he's not home for any census and no traces found for enumeration elsewhere so far, it appears he went missing between 1861-1871 according to a newspaper report where his wife is seeking Poor Relief due to her husband having gone missing in Cardiff.

The craft he was aboard ran into storms and a lot of gear went overboard -- according to the newspaper, he went ashore in Cardiff to buy a new sow'ester and was never seen again.  The report describes as a loving family man and describes him as having red hair - Scotland immediately came to mind! lol

It's a big mystery and a huge brick wall :-(
South Wales - main trunk family names - mam's side:-
Beard, Crandon, Clement, Lawrence, Langdon, Cartwright, Griffiths, Housego, Llewellyn, Stevens, Thomas. 

Father's side:
Williams, Rosser, Griffiths, Jones, Thomas, Llewellyn, Charles, Davies, Phillips, Powell

Offline Creasegirl

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Re: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« Reply #6 on: Friday 10 August 18 09:31 BST (UK) »
Hi.  I am no expert on this but used the same record for my many times great grandfather.  Think is for one person and numbers and places on left hand side the ports that he sailed from.  Other dates eg 5/43 are the voyage dates and the voyage info is the numbers wth dots.  Think you might find other info on findmypast as i got a record that showed my many times great grandfathers height complexion eye colour birthplace where he now stayed date he joined merchant navy which was as a boy aged 13.  It was an amazing find
Ferguson (st fillans, comrie)
Garnock (lothian, fife)
Valet (london, switzerland)
Butcher (ramsgate, glasgow)
Blackbird (durham,  newcastle)
Barr (ayrshire, ireland)
Fleming (paisley)
Crone, croney ,(dumfriesshire, ireland)

Offline Bookbox

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Re: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« Reply #7 on: Friday 10 August 18 10:08 BST (UK) »
I found a William Baird, 1821 ish, Scotland on the CLIP site who came off the Auricula in Swansea in early 1845 and as my William married in 1845 in Swansea

This is presumably the individual on your extract above, second from the bottom, born Edinburgh, working out of Swansea (= port no. 96) on ‘Auricula’ in 1843 and 1844.

I guess you may have already seen the Swansea Mariners database, where he's referenced under both BAIRD and BEARD (assuming it’s the same man) ...
http://www.swanseamariners.org.uk/swanseamariners.php

Offline lyndahirst_1

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Re: Information noted on merchant seamen record - Williams Baird
« Reply #8 on: Saturday 11 August 18 06:52 BST (UK) »
@Bookbox - yes, That's where I found the reference to the Auricula and started down this investigative road.

Thank's to all the responses, I now understand how to interpret the order of the details given on the BT and where to look up ports.

Now to try and make some sense of it all to try and trace Mr Elusive.

Cheers
Lynda
South Wales - main trunk family names - mam's side:-
Beard, Crandon, Clement, Lawrence, Langdon, Cartwright, Griffiths, Housego, Llewellyn, Stevens, Thomas. 

Father's side:
Williams, Rosser, Griffiths, Jones, Thomas, Llewellyn, Charles, Davies, Phillips, Powell