De Guinney appears to have been born at St Petersberg. He was in Australia in the 1890s, and is thought to have accompanied Henry Lawson and James Gordon on their walk form Torale shearing shed, near Bourke, to Hungerford, which they made in December 1892 and January 1893. In the mid 1890s de Guinney worked as a seaman. He also briefly lived at the New Australia colony at Cosme, in Paraguay during 1902-1903. Further biographical details remain to be established.
