Mr William Carbines was born in early 1893 in Nanjivey near St Ives, Cornwall, England.

He was the son of Nicholas Wallis Carbines (b. 1857), a farm labourer, and Jane Wedge Paynter (b. 1864, St Ives natives who were married in 1884. and went on to have fifteen children, twelve of whom survived infancy.

William's surviving siblings were: Nicholas Wallis (1886-1944), John Paynter (1887-1923), Robert Richards (1889-1938), Elizabeth Humphrys (1891-1984, later Mrs Thomas Curnow), Jane Paynter (1895-1995, later Mrs John Couch), Annie Richards (1897-1975, later Mrs William Stevens), Thomas (1900-1990), Lily (1902-1969), Richard Paynter (1907-1944) and George Bryant (1909-1912).

William, known as Willie, was shown on both the 1901 and 1911 census records living with his family at Nanjivey, St Ives and he was described as an unmarried general labourer. His two brothers Robert and John had previously moved to Calumet, Houghton, Michigan and worked there as miners.; another brother, Nicholas, lived and worked in Akron, Ohio.

Willie boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger (ticket number 28424 which cost £13) with his friend William John Berriman and they were planning to join Carbines' brothers in Calumet, Michigan.

Willie died in the sinking and his body was recovered from the sea by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett (#18). 

Both William's parents continued to reside in St Ives; his father passed away in 1938 and his mother in 1955.

His brother John died in Michigan in 1923 and his other brothers living in America, Robert and Nicholas, both returned to England. Robert died in 1938 and Nicholas in 1944. Another brother, Richard, later joined the RAF during WWII and was killed in action on 17 April 1944. 

Another three siblings would later cross the Atlantic, all settling in Detroit, Michigan. His sister Annie arrived in New York on 21 June 1922 aboard Olympic and in July of that year married William Henry Jenkins Stevens (b. 1898), a painter originally from St Ives, and had two sons. She died in 1975 in Detroit.

His brother Thomas emigrated in 1920 and also settled in Detroit where he married and had two children. He later moved to Florida and died there in 1990 aged 89.

Sister Jane was married in Cornwall in 1920 to John Couch (b. 1896) and emigrated in 1926 and had three children. She died in Naples, Florida on 1 January 1995 aged 99.