I am researching the following O'Neal Family I do have more on the descendants. I would be interesting in anyone connecting with this family. Sharon The legend handed down about the O'NEAL FAMILY is as follows: " In Ireland, the mother of 13 boys, on her death bed, exacted a promise from her husband that after her death he would take the boys to America. After coming to America, he bound each son out to a trade, as was the custom in those days." The names of the father or the boys is not known. But, it is presumed that one of these 13 boys was the father of our ancestor, Benedict O'Neal. Benedict O'Neal was born in 1801 in Delaware. He married Jemima Santee, about 1828, records state that she was a French woman from the Carolina's. Jemima was born between 1800 and 1810, she died about 1850 and is buried at Beck Cemetery, west of Fairfax, Mo. Benedict was buried in Fremont Co. Ia. on a farm, some years later Joseph M. O'Neal opened his fathers grave and re-interred the body in a cemetery in or near Sidney, Ia. It is believed that Benedict grew to manhood in Delaware and that he operated a ferry boat on the Delaware River and worked on the river a lot. The first record in the U. S. Census is 1830 Ind., Johnson Co. White River Twp. The 1840 Census also shows them in Johnson CO. Ind. The following children were born to Benedict and Jemima; Daughter, (no record) born about 1829 Samuel Santee O'Neal born 1-21-1833 William O'Neal born 1836 Son (no record) born 1835-1840 Nancy Emily O'Neal born 3-10-1840 Joseph Milton O'Neal born 6-2-1843 John O'Neal born 1847 Records indicate that shortly after 1847 the family emigrated to Atchison Co. Mo. and that Jemima died there in 1850. It was said that her son Samuel cut an O in a limestone rock to mark her grave. The marker has never been found. Some time after Jemima's death Benedict went to Dallas Co. Iowa. He is shown in the 1856 Census. The 1870 Census Iowa shows Benedict married to a widow by the name of Susan S. Taylor. We only know about the oldest daughter through the 1830 and 1840 census of Johnson CO. Ind. She would have been about 18 years old when the family left Ind. for Mo. So it is possible that she married there and stayed in Ind. when the family left, or she might have died and been buried there. Either case would explain the loss of her name to the rest of the family. William O'Neal , we know only from the 1856 Iowa Census. A son near William's age is known to us only from the 1840 Ind. census; a name for him does not appear in the later census from Iowa. It was said that two of the O'Neal boys went on the Gold Rush and were never heard from again, and two of them went to the Civil War and never came back. The census records are far from complete and as we know the family broke up after their mother died. It is however remembered that there may have also been a son named Dick. John O'Neal was born in 1847 in Johnson Co. Ind. He never married and after his fathers death he lived and worked many years for a family in Fremont Co., Ia. He spent his last days in the county poor Farm and is buried in a potters field at Sidney, Iowa. The only descendants known of Benedict and Jemima O'Neal are those of Samuel, Nancy and Joseph. You will find their families charted on the following pages. ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]