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
