O’Neil/O’Neal Family

I can’t really add much to the information I gave in your post about this family on the Co Down board. O’Neill is one of the most common surnames in Ireland. In the 1901 Irish census there were 6705 of whom 550 were named John. Narrowing it to Co. Tyrone, there were 613 of whom 50 were named John.

Plus there are hardly any records in Tyrone for births in the 1740s. It’ll be very difficult to trace this family without more information, and even if you narrow it to a specific parish, the chances are there will not be any documentation on them in Ireland.

I think I've found your family in the FamilySearch database.  It shows John as being born in 1744 in Ireland and Darius as being born in Virginia in 1764, as you said.  The family is traced back to the 1600's.  John's father, Constantine O'Neil, is listed as being born in Bunratty, in County Clare, in 1700.  Tracing back to the 1600's is rare for a Catholic family in Ireland, but it appears that they were landowners, so they may have converted in the 1600's in order to keep their land.

FamilySearch is operated by the LDS church, and is free to use.  If you want to check it out, the site is located here:  https://www.familysearch.org

You have to create an account to use it, but they don’t ask for much personal info, and no missionaries will contact you or anything like that.  The database does not have separate family trees, and is essentially one huge tree of linked records, in which there is a single record for each person, with a unique identification number.  You can search by name, but also by that number, and the number for John is KZFS-7Y1.  Once you are at that record, you will see how easily you can move up and down the tree by clicking on the names of other people who are shown.

Be careful as you search, because John had an older brother with the same name, and I got lost momentarily when going back in the tree and then coming forward again.  That John also had a family (he married three times, in fact), so it's not a matter of a child who died young, whose name was then used again.  They may have had different middle names.

Thank you both for your efforts on trying to find information. I should have mentioned that I did have a potential match for Darius, whom was John O’Neill, on my ancestry account and it listed his father as being Constantine. I thought this was the wrong line for my John as I had spoken through email with a gentlemen who had supposedly done extensive research and my John and Darius didn’t add up with his line. But, as you said his older brother was named John and he married three different times, and I believe that is the John his line is through.

I haven’t found any siblings for Darius or a birth record, which would be helpful in narrowing down the search. It is odd that the family would have been Catholic which you said they may have converted due to obtaining land ownership. I know my O’Neil line comes from a strong Presbyterian background. 

I had dug into military records for the war of 1812, since Darius fought, I though there was a good chance maybe John did too. There are many O’Neill’s state side and several being John, but not matching with area which would have been TN at this time. Thank you for the information, I will pursue it further  - :) 

I did wonder whether your John O'Neill had been added into that family by mistake, but I didn't want to prejudge the situation.

The O'Neill's were originally Catholic, of course, and most descendants with that surname still are.  Many who refused to convert fled from or were forced out of eastern Ulster (where the surname originated), so they are now found in many parts of Ireland (usually still as Catholics).  I have O'Neill relatives myself, from a group who fled to County Mayo in the 1600's (and are still Catholic).

The head of the "clan" (so to speak) in Ulster did convert in order to keep his position (not likely out of religious conviction, although one never knows), but he joined what became the Church of Ireland, and some of his direct descendants are Protestants still living there, and have been prominent in Ulster politics.  One of your O'Neill ancestors may have married a Scottish Presbyterian settler in Ulster and converted to her faith.  Most of the earliest Irish immigrants to America were Scots-Irish Protestants, and your family seems to have come very early. 

There is a man named O'Neill in Ireland to whom I am distantly related who runs an O'Neill ancestry project, not just for Mayo but for all branches of the family.  If you like, I will send him a link to this exchange and perhaps he can help in your search.

Yes, that would be great, you may give him the link. Maybe he will have some information that could help. Thanks again! 

Hi All,

My name is Sean O'Neill and I am the administrator of the O'Neill DNA project on FamilyTreeDNA.com

Please see the feed : https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/oneill/activity-feed

My Dad also did the genealogy of all the main branches of the in the book the Ancient and Royal Family of O'Neill. ( this is out of print ).

The O'Neill's were the last great defenders of the Gaelic Tradition in Ireland and with the defeat of Hugh O'Neill at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, resulted in the plantation of Ulster. Ulster is nine countries and six of these counties make up Norther Ireland today. Cormwell also had a major impact on Ireland in the mid 1650's.

There are three main branches of the family : Tyrone O'Neill's based in Tyrone and the the senior branch, the Clanaboy O'Neill's based in Antrim (and formed around 1200) and the Fews O'Neill's based in Armagh and is a sub branch of the Tyrone O'Neill's formed in 1420 by Aodh O'Neill. There are other septs of O'Neill's around Ireland including the O'Neill's Leinster. The O'Neill's in Cork can be connected to the O'Neill's of Ulster.

The O'Neill's of the Fews lost their lands in Armagh 1650's and ended up in Mayo.

There is also Lord O'Neill who is a Clanaboy O'Neill through the marriage of his ancestor to an O'Neill and has been very active in preserving the O'Neill tradition in Ireland. His family were heavily involved in the politics in Northern Ireland.

Concerning religion, the family is a Catholic family, however, it is not unheard of for families to change religion to retain land. Families have also changed names for various reasons. So, McShane, Johnson and Payne are all names with O'Neill backgrounds.

In the situation described above where there is really no reliable link to Ireland, a DNA test is worth considering. The sample set for O'Neill's now exceeds 600 samples and it is possible to identify the family branch from the test and possibly the location. You need a male O'Neill with a direct know line to your oldest known ancestor to take the test - Ideally a Y-111 and Big Y 700 tests. Unfortunately, these are expensive.

Regards,

Sean.

sean@oneill.ie

A descendant of my ancestor, Elijah Johnson (1811-1889), is a perfect match to the Niall of the NIne Hostages haplotype. His closest matches are Neals, but that's based only on the Y-111, which just came in. I'll be testing the M222 marker next.

So, I've heard the story of Neals who became Johnsons. I'd love to know more, if anyone else knows more.

Thanks!

Michael Cooley
http://ancestraldata.com/ahnentafel/36/

   There are some O'Neal immigrants to South Carolina in the 1760s listed in the book 'A Compilation of the Original Lists of Protestant Immigrants to South Carolina, 1763-1773' An online copy of the book can be found here .....  Ok it's not, this site won't let me post a link so you'll have to search for it..   John (aka Shane) O'Neal and his wife Margaret listed on page 105 are my 6th great grandparents.

   If I have my facts right they probably came from Antrim but the owner of the ship that they came on (the 'Dungannon' 1768) recruited in several places in Ireland so I can't be sure. Also if anyone knows about their lineage back in Ireland or how the other O'Neals in the book are related, I would appreciate it if they would let me know.

   John only had one son that I know of, Arthur who was called Barney and called Blarney by the Indians.  He was a frontier trader and traded a lot with the Indians in upper today Alabama and was a Commissary supplier to Col Lemuel Benton's forces during the Revolutionary War. Lemuel later became one of the first US Congressmen from South Carolina.  Arthur married Lemuel's sister Hannah and they eventually settled in Perry County, Mississippi. 

   John and Margaret O'Neal later had a daughter named Amy and she married Thomas Rigdon, a Revolutionary War soldier from Maryland, in Charleston in 1786 and a few years later they settled in Bulloch County, Georgia and many of their descendants still live there.  My branch of that family moved to Florida in late 1864 or early 1865 after being burned out by General Sherman during his March to the Sea.

    Joe