A History of the O’Neal Families in Harrison and Mercer County, MO

 

 

Earliest O’Neals in Mercer County – Jesse O’Neal

A number of O’Neal families called Harrison and Mercer ‘home’ during the second half of the 19^th century.    The first occurrence of an O’Neal family in this area that I have found in the records is in the 1850 Census.   Prior to that census, there are no records of O’Neals in the far northwest section of Missouri.    In the 1850 Census, the following entry is found in the Mercer County section:

 

·         Household 184          Jesse O’Neil   (actually Jesse O’Neal)

 

Since first identifying this census entry, I’ve come to learn quite a bit about Jesse O’Neal and his family.  I’ve even been in contact with a number of his descendants, one of which has written an extensive book on the history of that O’Neal family.     Jesse did not stay in Missouri, as he left for California, eventually making his home in Mendocino County, California. 

 

Throughout my research, I’ve attempted to determine if this Jesse O’Neal, who apparently migrated to Mercer County, MO in the 1840’s, while northwest MO was largely a wilderness area, is related to my earliest O’Neal ancestors who also came to that area during the 1850’s.   Although I suspect they are related, as of yet, a firm connection between the families can not be identified. 

 

Hugh O’Neal

In addition to Jesse O’Neal and his family, Hugh Alonzo O’Neal brought his family to the area, settling in Harrison County, Missouri, possibly as early as the 1860s or 1870s.   Hugh or “Lonzo” O’Neal, moved around quite a bit, but several of his children were born in the Harrison County, Missouri area in the late 1870s and 1880s.    I’ve been able to trace Hugh’s ancestry to an extant as well, which I will post on this site soon, but have not been able to make a firm connection between Hugh O’Neal’s ancestors, Jesse O’Neal’s ancestors and William O’Neal’s ancestors.   As this is an ongoing “pet project” of mine within my overall genealogical research activities, feel free to contact me if you’d like to participate in this research or feel you may have knowledge or information about these potential connections to contribute. 

 

Other published research on these O’Neals

A fair amount of research information has been published on the internet on these families.   I’ve listed a few links here to some of the available genealogy information on these individuals if you would like to review it.

 

 

Individual	Information Published by:	Link
Jesse O’Neal descendants and researchers
Jesse O’Neal	Kathie Chambers, a descendant of Jesse	Family Tree at Rootsweb
Jesse O’Neal	Janet Miller, a descendant of Jesse	Family Tree at Rootsweb
Hugh Alonzo O’Neal descendants and researchers
Hugh Alonzo O’Neal	Shawn O’Neal, a descendant of Hugh.	Shawn’s info at genealogy.com
Charles Henderson O’Neal         (One of Hugh’s sons)	Unknown	Charles Henderson O’Neal
Hugh Alonzo O’Neal	Karen Sue Allen	Karen’s info at rootsweb.com
Hugh Alonzo O’Neal	Dennis O’Neill, a descendant of Hugh	Dennis inquiry at rootsweb
Aden O’Neal         (One of Hugh’s sons)	Unknown	Aden O’Neal

 

 

 

© Copyright  2004, 2005 by Steve O’Neal.  No portion of this website may be copied or reproduced without the author’s express permission.

 

 

Site Information

This Site was originally created on:     Mar 2, 2005

This Page was originally created on:   Mar 4, 2005

This Page was last Updated:               Aug 1, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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