The
O'Neal Family of the Caribbean (BVI)
The
O'Neal's in many of the Caribbean islands are believed to have stemmed
from one family. There are variations in the spelling of the
surname, based on where each family is located. In the British
Virgin Islands, you might find some O'Neal's and O'Neale's who
are all related to each other. There are also those O'Neal
families that migrated to Spanish countries/islands and their surnames
are now "de O'Neal."
According to the O'Neal Family Legend in Virgin Gorda
(which is where my family is from), our O'Neal blood traces back to an
O'Neal Caucasian Irishman who came to Virgin Gorda many years ago to
work at the copper mine which was built in Virgin Gorda around 1837.
(Ruins of the famous copper mine, located on the south eastern point of
Virgin Gorda, were declared a
national park on March 28, 2003. The Honorable Ralph T. O'Neal
- then Chief Minister - was among those present to commemorate the
historical event.)
This O'Neal Irishman left a notorious trail of children
which he fathered with many Negro women in Virgin Gorda. Over time,
there was eventually a large O'Neal population - all related to each
other through their blood connection to this Irishman.
While the O'Neal family is most prominent on the island
of Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, there are O'Neal's from this
same family residing in Tortola, Anegada and other British Virgin
Islands, Antigua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin
Islands - and a few are scattered throughout other islands in the
Caribbean and in the United States.
The
O'Neal's of Virgin Gorda
To date, the eldest O'Neal of our family I have learned
about is a man named James O'Neal. I am told that James
O'Neal was the father of six boys and four girls. I only know
about three of his sons:
(1) Charles O'Neal - was a member of the
BVI's Crown Colony Legislature in the 1860's. He was the father
of 12 children (names unknown to me at this point). He is the
great grandfather of the late Joseph Reynold O'Neal of Virgin
Gorda.
(2) Edward O'Neal (called Uncle Eddy) - No
information known about Uncle Eddy as yet.
(3) Alexander Agrippa O'Neal - "Grippa" or
"Captain Sandy," as he was known, is the grandfather of many of the
O'Neal's in Virgin Gorda today. Grippa was a shipwright and
carpenter. He was the father of 12 children. Three that I
have information on are:
[a] Alexander Severious Anterious Urban O'Neal:
"Sevy" was born in Virgin Gorda. He died while trying to
rescue his farm animals from a fire on his family farm. He is
buried in a tomb in the O'Neal Family Burial Ground, South Valley,
Virgin Gorda. Sevy and his wife, Janetta (died about 1926),
had 10 children together; all 10 children are now deceased.
Sevy also had a daughter with my 2nd great grandmother,
Messelita Vanterpool; their daughter was Ida Malissa (O'Neal)
Vanterpool, born in 1911 and died in Oct. 2004.
[b] Otho Emele Alexander Victor O'Neal:
Otho is buried in the O'Neal Family Burial Ground, South Valley,
Virgin Gorda - right beside his brother "Sevy" and his sister "Testa"
O'Neal. To date, I have learned that he had at least 10
children (four girls, six boys), including the Honorable Ralph T.
O'Neal of Virgin Gorda.
[c] Lucina Antesta Matilla O'Neal (nee O'Neal):
She married Hubert O'Neal of Virgin Gorda. (Hubert was the
brother of Maude and Benny O'Neal and Adolph White of Virgin Gorda.)
"Testa" and her husband Hubert had at least five children. She is
buried in a tomb next to her brothers "Sevy" and Otho O'Neal in the
O'Neal Family Burial Ground in Virgin Gorda.
(The funeral booklet of her daughter, Dorothy Millicent O'Neal-Lizama
can be found online.)
I am still searching for information on Agrippa O'Neal's
other children, and the name of the three children I do not know of:
[d] Alexander Augusta Victoria Barone: I am
told that although this child did not carry the O'Neal surname, he
was the son of Agrippa O'Neal.
[e] Alicia Agrippa O'Neal
[f] Athelstan Arthur Stanley O'Neal
[g] Henry Alexius Rufus O'Neal
[h] Frances Alexandrovina Marie Cleopatra O'Neal
[i] Ovid Omar O'Neal
The names of three other children are unknown
to me.
Ruth
O'Neal of Virgin Gorda
My 3rd Great Grandmother
In 1878, my 3rd great grandmother, Ruth O'Neal,
gave birth to a daughter, Messelita L. Vanterpool. Her
birth was reported by Susannah O'Neal of Virgin Gorda. (Susannah is more
than likely an O'Neal family member as well.) Messelita's father (Vanterpool)
was not listed on her birth record; to date, his name remains unknown.
I am told that Messelita was her mother's only child. I am still
searching for information on Messelita's parents.
According to family stories, Ruth O'Neal died, and
Messelita went to live with her guardian, Maude "Tan Tan" O'Neal in
South Valley, Virgin Gorda. Maude O'Neal was the aunt of the late J.R.
O'Neal, and daughter of James and Jane Anne O'Neal, nee Wellcome,
of Virgin Gorda. (Maude is now deceased.)
Messelita Vanterpool never married, but she did have
four children. Her first three children were fraternal twins and a
daughter by a Tortolian man,
John Alfred
Malone:
(1)
twin Ruth Ann Elizabeth Malone is my great grandmother. She
was born 06 Feb 1905 in South Valley, Virgin Gorda and named after her
grandmothers (Ruth O'Neal and Ann Elizabeth Lettsome). She lived
briefly with an O'Neal family member (Benny O'Neal) in Tortola and
gave birth to one of her daughters there. She soon grew homesick
and returned to Virgin Gorda. Ruthie never married, but she had
two more daughters and a son born in Virgin Gorda. She lived in
Virgin Gorda until the 1980's when she migrated to St. Thomas, U.S.
Virgin Islands to live with one of her daughters. Ruthie died 24
June 1995, and was buried July 1 in the Western Cemetery 3 on St.
Thomas.
(2) twin Ferdinand Frederick "Ferdy" Malone was born 06 Feb
1905 in Virgin Gorda. He was the fraternal twin of my great
grandmother Ruth A. E. Malone. He lived most of his life in
Anegada, raised by a woman named Miss Delly Norman. As far as we
know, Ferdy was never married and had no children. When he died,
his twin sister Ruth brought him home to Virgin Gorda to be buried.
(3) Ellery Esterline "Eloise" Malone was born in Virgin Gorda,
but lived in St. Thomas from the time she was just three months old
with an O'Neal/Flax family. She married the late Hans Guiler but they
divorced. Eloise later married Andrew Pike who is also deceased.
She died in the late 1970's and is buried in St. Thomas. She was the
mother of two girls and four boys, and the adoptive mother of one
girl.
Messelita Vanterpool also had a daughter with Alexander
Severious Anterious Urban O'Neal of Virgin Gorda (Sevy was the son of
Alexander Agrippa "Grippa" O'Neal, also of Virgin Gorda):
(4)
Ida Malissa (O'Neal) Vanterpool: Ida was born 15 March 1911 in
South Valley, Virgin Gorda. She lived for a brief period in Tortola,
BVI and in St. Thomas, USVI, but spent most of her life in Virgin
Gorda. Ida died in October 2004 and is buried in the O'Neal
family burial ground in South Valley, Virgin Gorda. She was the mother
of four daughters and one son (one daughter, baby Irene, died in
infancy).
Messelita Vanterpool met a tragic death. On 25 Nov
1931, her children found her body at the foot of the Towers Rocks - a
few feet across from the O'Neal burial ground in South Valley, Virgin
Gorda. According to the records in the BVI registry, Messelita
experienced "sudden death from a fall." The person who informed the
local authorities of her death was a black man named Samuel "Sammy" Flax
of Virgin Gorda. (Mr. Flax was also the godfather of Messelita's
granddaughter.) Her children wrapped their mother's body in a sheet, and
her daughter, Ruth Malone, dug a shallow grave and buried her at the
spot where she was found.
The
O'Neal's are a well-known family and prominent land owners in Virgin
Gorda. They are the owners of much of the choice parcels of land in
Virgin Gorda, including the world famous Baths - a secluded beach with
snow white sand and pristine waters hidden amidst magnificent boulders.
The
late Joseph Reynold O'Neal, better known as Jose or J.R. O'Neal
of Virgin Gorda is also the namesake of another national park on
Tortola. Established in 1986, the J.R. O'Neal Botanical Garden
is situated on a 4.5 acre site in the middle of Road Town and features a
lush selection of exotic and indigenous plant life, including palms,
orchids, cacti and local herbs.
**Note** My study of the O'Neal family is in its very beginning stages.
There is much that I have yet to discover about this line.
If you know more about the O'Neal's of Virgin Gorda, please write to
Monifa Marrero at
CaribbeanKingdom@yahoo.com. I thank all the O'Neal's and
Vanterpool's that have assisted me thus far!
