DUR-NBL-L Archives

From: "Ron Lister" <>
Subject: Lister/Benson
Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 11:59:28 +1000

Good morning everyone. This is my first query to this list (having "lurked"
for several weeks) and I hope that someone may be able to give me some ideas
on how to progress further with my reserarch.
My husband's gg-grandfather, Andrew Lister, was born c1826 in North
Shields, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland, to Andrew Lister (a Master
Mariner) and his wife Elizabeth (nee Benson). As far as I am aware, Andrew
and Elizabeth only had two sons, our Andrew and we don't know the name of
his brother. "Our" Andrew became a ship's carpenter and eventually settled
in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, in about 1854 after "jumping ship' to
follow the gold rush. There he married and he and his wife had a family of
10 children.
We know virtually nothing about his earlier life and family in England.
His mother, Elizabeth (nee Benson) was supposed to have been disowned by her
parents when she married Andrew senior as they felt she had married "beneath
her station." Our Andrew told his children that he remembered (from his
childhood) his mother taking he and his brother by the hand and walking to
stand in front of large gates outside a big home, and she was crying. I
would guess that they would be in front of her parents home.
Elizabeth (also named Aurora nee Benson, mother, on "our" Andrew's
marriage certificate) may have been the daughter of George and Harriotte
Benson of North Shields but I haven't been able to prove that ~ it's just a
maybe at this stage. There does not seem to have been any contact kept with
the family in England once Andrew settled in Ballarat. I live in hope of
finding someone who knows something of this elusive family! With best
wishes, Jeannie Lister.

This thread:

• Lister/Benson by "Ron Lister" <>