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