o'neills in Rakaia NZ

[Lucy2]

Hi again Jacky

.... gosh  ... I hope you don't have too much difficulty in viewing that file  ??   

[I tried it and got the following message :   "  There was an error opening this document.  The file is damaged and could not be repaired." ]   Holy smoke !!   

If any probs, let me know and I can investigate further with Archives.   

~  Lu

[jck1103]

 

hi lu you are an absolute star !! have read through leslie benjamins record and he gives his date of birth as the 25/1/1891 slightly different from wayboys date but he makes his will out and leaves his goods to mrs p mcloy benjamin leesons sister so thats good enough for me !!

have an awful lot of work to do now but am excited by the challenge !

cant thank you enough 

regards jacky

[jck1103]

hi wayne

have read leslie benjamins attestation papers and he gives his date of birth as 25/1/1891 but he makes his will out and leaves his goods to mrs p mccloy so have come to the conclusion that benjamin leeson and leslie benjamin are the same person.

perhaps we can share info 

regards jacky

[Lucy2]

Hi Jacky

Phew !!!         That's good news.

[And I had some male rellies who also "invented" odd birthdates when attesting.    I think some fellas really didn't care too much - near enough was good enough.   And lots of them didn't have copies of their birth certs. anyway.      ]

As I said, wasn't able to view the file, but there's a question there (on attestion form) relating to parents names and birthplaces.   Did Leslie not offer any information about them ?    (I'm guessing he just put his sister's details ? )

~  Lu

[jck1103]

hi lu
Leslie gave his next of kin as his father B O'Neill address Daniels Road, and his wife as Mrs F N O'Neill.  he also gave his place of birth as Leeston.

this must be of some help if anyone is doing the tree as it answers the question of what happened to Benjamin Leeson O'Neill.  I will be collating all the info and doing a tree here for Barry his grandson, he is over the moon.     i will be looking at the newspapers again they have been so helpful and have also helped me with my own family tree the Barnes of Masons Flats.

When you visited London think you bought the weather with you !!  its dull, grey and showery now !!

regards jacky

[jck1103]

Hi Lu

Just re-read Waynes message and the 15th of Feb 1891 was when Benjamin Leeson was baptised not born so birth date 25/1/1891 must be right 

regards jacky

[Lucy2]

Hi Jacky

So pleased there was all that other helpful info on Leslie's Army record.        [Had been going to ask who "Frances Nellie" was - she appears in an electoral roll listing 1919 at Daniel's Road, along with Benjamin, Lucy, and Leslie Benj. - so Mrs. F.N. (wife) on Leslie's record, solves that question.]

And incidentally, I think the "Lucy O'NEILL" (1919) is the lady who became Benjamin's 4th wife (married 1923).

Shout out if you need help with anything more for the "O'NEILL" family.    I found a few of the newspaper items a little confusing - some things didn't quite "stack up" (especially when compared with official records), but that's to be expected.  Newspaper reporters, didn't always get things right.

~  Lu 

[Lucy2]

Hi Lu

Just re-read Waynes message and the 15th of Feb 1891 was when Benjamin Leeson was baptised not born so birth date 25/1/1891 must be right 

regards jacky

Mmm ... his actual date of birth according to the NZ Birth Index (online version), is   ... 1st February 1891.   
[Date is not shown on index but we can work this out by a process of eliminating dates.  e.g. Type year and reference # in search box, start with 1st quarter, 01/01/1891 ... 31/03/1891 ... if birth entry pops up in that quarter, then reduce the last date - search to end of January, if it ain't there, try February  ... and so on. ]

But don't know why Leslie would have given a different day of birth ?      Maybe the attesting officer who wrote the information on the form, got it wrong ?   Doesn't matter too much though ... at least his parentage is confirmed.   

~  Lu

[jck1103]

hi lu

have to agree with you the birth date is wrong but everything else now tallies so am going with it. have 4 marriages for benjamin know three are correct but is the 1923 marriage lucy hodges the same benjamin ?
any thoughts ?

regards jacky