For what it's worth. In tracing my roots I found that the name Neal has the same problem as O'Neal/O'Neil etc. My family goes back to Peter Neil in Virginia 1750 ish. At least this is all that I have so far and some of his children took the Neal spelling instead of Neil. Same family different spelling. As far as religion I don't know anything about that. Most of the older Neil/Neal families were Quakers from the information I have. J. Neal ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken O'Neal" <kon@hhs.net> To: <ONEALL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2000 7:09 PM Subject: [ONEALL-L] Re; O'Neill- O'Neal > > Might as well add my 2 cents to this discussion. I live in Southwestern PA. I have records > of my grandparents where their name is spelled O'Neal, O'Neil and O'Neill on same paper,but > grandparents ALWAYS signed their name O'Neal. > My ggggGrandfather spelled his name O'Neale, the descendants of one of his sons still spell > it O'Neale. The rest of his children dropped the e. > I have gotten into the habit of spelling my last name when I give it to anyone , if I don't > ,90% of the time they will spell it O'Neil or O'Neill. I have even spelled it for some and > later found my name spelled O'Neill > I have also been told that O'Neal was Protestant spelling and O'Neil-O'Neill was Catholic. > Remember when you look at records the spelling is usually up to the writer. Look at old > census reports. > Good luck > Ken O'Neal >