73. Scarcity of Early Irish Records

   It seems like we're never going to get a good record source for pre-1810 Irish genealogy records. Time after time a new records group is announced with a big splash by some website, but when I check it out the start date is disappointing--1837, 1845, 1866, etc. Since our folks left Carlow in 1805, we may have a long wait for new sources. Thank goodness we have the family Bible. Without that we would still be groping for a connection in Ireland.

72. Visiting Fred Next Week

   OK, update report: We will be going over to West Virginia and eastern Ohio in a few days, and we plan to visit Fred in Marietta. Looking forward to enhancing my O'Neill data. I'm also going to a high school reunion, but that's another story.
   With any luck, we will visit Summerfield, the home pod of the Carlow O'Neill's in the New World. My problem is I could camp out in the area for a month, just to do genealogy. I've never had that chance, but perhaps someday. Too bad I did not do genealogy during the 18 or so years I lived over there. Ain't that always the way?

71. Fred O'Neill of Marietta, OH

I received this great email earlier this month. 

Hello Ron.

            I am Fred O'Neill, great-great-grandson of William and Rhuama O'Neill. I live in Marietta, Ohio and am active in historical research. This is the first that I knew about great-great-grandfather's war record extending to the war's end (June, 1865). I had assumed he mustered out earlier. I did know that he served in Nashville during the Hood attack. My copy of his mustering-out paper says that he was in "ordinance."

            My grandfather was the Reverend Charles C. O'Neill (died 1973) of Maineville, Ohio, son of George W. O'Neill, author of the noted family history ... Do you have any information on the O'Neills of Leighlin (sometimes spelled "Lagin") near Carlow. I know that Hugh (born 1696) had a wife named "Catrine" and a brother named Morgan. His son John married Esther Ashmore whose family owned the plot in All Saints' Church at Fenagh.

            I know that great-grandfather George's speculations about the O'Neills of Tyr-Owen is highly speculative (old Hugh of Tyrone may have been the offspring of a smith named Kelly), but what might be our relationship (if any) to the "O'Neills of Magh-da-Chonn"? ... Is that pronounced "Mack-da-Kohan"?

To answer Fred:

1. I do think Hugh's family lived in Dunleckney Parish, near Old Leighlin. there are many O'Neill burials in the cemetery at Leighlinbridge, but I do not have the connections to us.

2. Where did you get the name "Catrine?"

3. I have the Magh-da-Chon book; can't find our connection; have no idea how to pronounce it (Irish language is a mystery!).

Ron in Indy

70. O'Neill Blog Still Active

I am still monitoring this blog, but have been preoccupied with other work. Suggestions and comments on the O'Neill family are welcome.