The name Benson has appeared in my research before. (see ‘Kane cluster’ and ‘Able to find Kane’)
Jane Kane was the mother of George Benson who was born in Ireland in (approximately) 1816. I have followed the Kane name via DNA and the published trees of those linked to me. There appear to be connections to Roscommon, but also, it must be said, to other parts of Ireland as well. The information is tantalising but inconclusive. It is enough to encourage me to keep looking.
The obvious next line is to follow the Benson name as far as possible. Which is not very far at all! Three people that share the Benson surname have already been identified as persons of interest. They share 41, 37 and 31 centimorgans of DNA with me. There are no clues about their relationship to each other. I can surmise that they are siblings, but they might be cousins. In terms of identifying the common ancestor with me, the further apart they are the better. (I can then start with their common ancestor, which might be a grandfather or great grandfather.)
I share 38 centimorgans of DNA with someone with the surname Poulos. Investigation reveals that the surname comes via adoption about a century ago. The biological tree follows the same Benson line as the others back in time.
There are five other people with the Benson name on my list of matches. The highest match is 10 cM, indicating at least another generation removed from the other three. That is a total of eight Bensons, but six of them have no family tree attached. A veritable Benson prairie! It is difficult to make progress with so little information at hand.
There is one substantial tree in the DNA cluster with the various Bensons. The title ‘Gill Family of Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland’ provides a major clue. Despite the name, three quarters of the ancestors come from Yorkshire. This connection has already been discussed in ‘Kane cluster’.
At present (August 2025) I cannot establish the connection between the Gill family and the Stanley family or either to the Benson and Kane family. I am not even sure whether it is Benson or Kane. There is a remote possibility that it could be both.
(6 people out of my 20,000+ DNA matches appear to have connections to both of my parents. I have not investigated in detail, but I suspect that the commonality is somewhere in Sussex due to the number of very large families that were common in the 1700s and 1800s.)
All that I can do at this time is to file the information away and review it at regular intervals.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WY_Redds_Great_plains.jpg