Leslie Benjamin is not one of the issue of Benjamin & Mary (nee ROSS) ONEILL or his second wife Elizabeth CUNNINGHAM.
Hello Wayne....
Welcome to RootsChat :-)
I'm curious as to how many of the names of Benjamin's twenty-five (?) children you have. And is "Benjamin Leeson" one of them. Or any Benjamin at all.
Although the WWI Nominal Rolls at
Cenotaph only list Leslie Benjamin O'NEILL's father the attestation in his WW1 Army Service record should list both of his parents. So it's no real problem for the original poster to identify Leslie Benjamin's parents. He/she just needs to post a request to the
Wgtn Archives thread asking for the Service record to be digitised and posted on the web.
I think what needs to be sorted is if "Leslie Benjamin" is "Benjamin Leeson". My guess is that "Leeson" is just a transcription error of the birthplace "Leeston" (which is a mile or so from Doyleston). But that's just a guess.
I'd tend to agree with Lucy2's line of reasoning, namely "Leslie Benjamin" and "Benjamin Leeson" are one and the same. And that he is a child of Benjamin and Elizabeth. More than happy to be proven wrong (most likely by the Army Service record) :-)
I'd tend to agree because.....there is no Leslie Benjamin O'NEILL listed on the NZ BDM Births fiche from 1885 to 1905. The closest is the already mentioned Benjamin Leeson O'NEILL (1891/1757). His birth is registered in Ellesmere. According to the BDM NZ website he is a child of Benjamin and Elizabeth.
Some of the other O'NEILL's registered in Ellesmere are Lily (1888/1860), Ruby May (1889/3993), George Joseph (1892/1801), Albert (1894/4095) and Walter (1895/4161) - again, according to the BDM NZ website, all children of Benjamin and Elizabeth.
The original poster says
"Leslie was one of thirteen children possibly brother Albert who died WW1 and sister Lily who married G. H. Edgerton 1913 NZ". The brother is Albert James O'NEILL, died at Ypres in 1916. And the sister is Lily EDGINGTON m.s O'NEILL, buried with her husband George Henry in Ruru Cemetery, Christchurch. The burial record has her place of birth as Doyleston.
So
assuming that what the original poster says is true Leslie Benjamin is the brother of Albert and Lily who are children of Benjamin and Elizabeth. Benjamin Leeson, also a child of Benjamin and Elizabeth, must therefore be another brother to Leslie Benjamin. Or, more likely, one and the same person.
The only uncertainty for me is if the father (Benjamin who was married three times, second time to Elizabeth) is the Benjamin who died in 1927 and is buried in Ashburton Cemetery. It seems more than likely but I've yet to see a death notice or certificate.
Curious as to what proof you have that "Leslie Benjamin is not one of the issue of Benjamin & Mary [...] or his second wife Elizabeth".
Regards
Beg