o'neills in Rakaia NZ

[jck1103]

hi lu

sorry just read your bit about 1919 electoral roll which answers my previous question about lucy hodges. are the electoral rolls online ?

am still wading through newspapers !!

regards jacky

[Lucy2]

Hi Jacky

Yes, e/rolls online at ancestry.com :    Indexes free-to-view
but you need a subscription to see actual address.

OR  ... if you've got access to AncestryLibrary (at a local library) then you can view rolls in full via that.

~  Lu

[Lucy2]

... oops  ... just to add, not all electoral years are shown on Ancestry and some that will be relevant to this wider O'NEILL family, can only be accessed via the microfiche records (held at NZ libraries).

I'll be at the library this week, so will take a look at the rolls for those "missing" years.

~  Lu     

[Lucy2]

  ... ooops again !        Just noticed on the scribbles I made when I looked for O'NEILLs on Electoral rolls, that in 1919,  Benjamin O'NEILL and Leslie Benjamin O'NEILL, are both shown as being in two electorates for that year !

[Enrolment in two electorates (generally) means that they had changed addresses, and usually you'd find the most recent enrolment (with new address), was listed in a supplementary roll in the electoral district to which they had moved.   No so in this case.   Rolls were printed in 1914 and then due to war, the next electoral registers were published in 1919.]

     see next   >>   

[Lucy2]

1914 - Selwyn Electorate

O'NEILL - Benjamin - Rakaia - farmer
[No sign of the (3rd) wife, Emily.   Nor a listing for Leslie Benjamin who would have been entitled to vote from 1912.]

1919 - Kaiapoi Electorate

O'NEILL - Benjamin - Daniel's Road, farmer
O'NEILL - Frances Nellie - Daniel's Road - married
O'NEILL - Leslie Benjamin - Daniel's Road - farmer

O'NEILL - Lucy - Daniel's Road - married


1919 - Riccarton (Canterbury) Electorate

O'NEILL - Benjamin - 10 Sawyers Arms Road, Papanui - farmer

O'NEIL [sic] - Lucy - married ... same address ^


1919 - Ellesmere Electorate

O'NEILL - Joseph George - Doyleston - farm labourer
O'NEILL - Leslie Benjamin - Doyleston - soldier (farmer) *
O'NEILL - Walter - Doyleston - farm labourer

[* Leslie's entry has "soldier", with "farmer" entered in brackets. ]


I'll get the 1922 & 1925 entries from the microfiche record.

[Lucy2]

Though Benjamin O'NEILL died in 1927, he still appears on the following roll :

1928 - Avon (Canterbury) Electorate

O'NEILL - Benjamin - Dennett Street, farmer
O'NEILL - Lucy - Dennett Street, married


also  --  Mid Canterbury Electorate

O'NEILL - Leslie Benjamin - Lake Coleridge - farmer

[Didn't see a listing for Frances Nellie ?]

O'NEILL - Walter, Brookside, farmer    (brother ?)
O'NEILL - Elizabeth - Brookside - married

[Lucy2]

hi lu

.... . have 4 marriages for benjamin know three are correct but is the 1923 marriage lucy hodges the same benjamin ?
any thoughts ?

regards jacky

Hi Jacky

Yep, have to say that I'm satisfied that this 1923 marriage is Benjamin O'NEILL, (the father of Leslie Benjamin  ... and numerous others. )   

*  there is, as I recall,  the testimony from Emily (3rd wife) in one of those newspaper articles (though I must re-check ), which states that her husband (Benjamin) was in the company of another woman (at .... ?) and there was "evidence" a of a baby (or babies) present at the address at which he was living (after their separation).
[Have some possible children for Lucy but need to check firstly, when & where they were born.   Will get back to you on that.]

*   the electoral rolls show the presence of "a Lucy O'NEILL (O'NEIL)" at same locations as Benjamin O'NEILL and whilst "married" is appended to her entries (1919), I tend to think that they were just living as man and wife, and that the formal marriage came in 1923 (probably following the death of Emily ?)  [Need to find Emily's death.   Can't see evidence that Emily and Benjamin actually divorced. ]

*   there seems only to have been one "Benjamin O'NEILL" living in NZ at the time of these documented events.    And there is just the one "Benjamin O'NEILL" who appears on the NZ Death index .

~   Lu                                                      see next   > >

   

[Lucy2]

Lucy HODGES

Although Benjamin was old enough to be her father, I think the following Lucy, is the "bride in question".   

NZ Birth

1891 - HODGES - Lucy

Parents:  Mary Augusta Jane & Josiah HODGES

[There's a marriage notice for the parents in 1882 showing they were from the Christchurch area. ]

[Lucy2]

And this I think, is the death of  Lucy (w/o Benjamin).

Waimairi Cemetery (Christchurch)

O'NEILL - Lucy - widow

Died 21 December 1986 ... aged 95 years   (b.c. 1891)

Buried :   8 January 1987