Hi Ken-Not sure what birth dates you are looking for--but here are a few--(Joannes and Johnanes are Johns, Jacobus is James). Not sure where Keadue is? Janet BENSON, Joannes Christening Gender: Male Christening Date: 22 Mar 1829 Recorded in: Athlone and Drum, Roscommon, Ireland Collection: Roman Catholic Father: Michaelis BENSON Mother: Annae CURLY Source: FHL Film 989750 Dates: 1826 - 1832 BENSON, Johannem Christening Gender: Male Christening Date: 18 Jun 1836 Recorded in: Boyle, Roscommon, Ireland Collection: Roman Catholic Father: Johannis BENSON Mother: Elizabethae KEVANY Source: FHL Film 989743 Dates: 1816 - 1864 BENNISON, Jacobum Christening Gender: Male Christening Date: 1 Jul 1851 Recorded in: Ardcarn and tuamna, Roscommon, Ireland Collection: Roman Catholic Father: Bernardi BENNISON Mother: Elizabethae MC HUGHE Source: FHL Film 989746 Dates: 1843 - 1861 _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

Hello Janet! You are wonderful to give your time to all of us. I'm curious; do you have your own microfilm, or do you have a computer database? Your point is well taken that I didn't include a lot of information. We believe my great-grandfather was born about 1834 in Keadue, which is about 9 miles north of Carrick-on-Shannon, in Kilronan Parish. The year 1834 is on his gravestone here in Canada, so it's a "give-or-take-a-few-years" date. We know about the village of Keadue, because one of James Benson's sons visited there while on leave during WW1, and letters from that visit survive to this day. We don't know much about his brother, John Benson, other than records have him living in Canada in the 1860's, and then a wedding invitation about his daughter getting married in Chicago. A few John Bensons who list Ireland as birthplace died around 1910 in Chicago, both of them elderly. Various clues and bits have surfaced, but nothing to take me further back, or even sideways from James. €nothing, factual or anedotal has yielded anything about James' parents €James listed himself as Anglican in the 1871 census here in Canada €I haven't found a definitive James or John in the passenger list of any ship to Canada or the northeastern USA seaboard in the time range €current Keadue Bensons are RC but one recalled her father saying that his grandfather converted to the Catholic church, leading me to think that England is the origin of my line, centuries ago €I had checked both Protestant and Catholic records of Kilronan and Ardcarn Parishes, but I somehow missed the Boyle ones; thanks for the numbers, I'll get back to my local LDS FHC. I had the last birth you mentioned, but not the first two, both of which would fit the time frame €I strongly believe that the actual house that my great-grandfather lived in, and that his son visited in 1916 is a mile south of Keadue, just inside Ardcarn Parish €church records for Kilronan between the years 1829 and 1835 were lost forever, years ago