You will find Catholic Oneils and Protestant O'Neills in the records. My own Catholic O'Neills had their name spelled variously O'Neill, O'Neil, ONeill, ONeil. In the baptismal register for my ggrandfather, Hugh O'Neill, his name is spelled ONeil by the good Catholic priest. O'Neal, though, does seem predominantly "Protestant" - but spelling was often phonetic and of names whose owners couldn't spell themselves. So how the name was spelled was often a function of who was doing the spelling. There ain't no hard and fast rules about name spellings in Ireland - or anywhere else back in the 1700s - 1800s. Charles O'Neill Epanske@aol.com wrote: > > I've always been told that O'Neal was Protestant and any O'Neill spelling was > Catholic. > Emma