Was Thomas O'Neal Born in Ireland?

Since today is St. Patrick's Day, it seemed appropriate to check for Irish ancestors. I am not aware of any "for sure" Irish in the family.

Thomas O'Neal does seem one possibility. Thomas shows up in Indiana with a couple of children from a previous marriage and then he marries a widow, Sarah (Lollar) Brown, and they have at least 14 children together, including my ancestor, Commodore Perry O'Neal, who was born in 1835, and eventually moved to Oregon.

So I want to ask Thomas if he was born in Ireland. He didn't want to cooperate and died in 1847 so never appeared on a census where they asked for place of birth. But since he had so many children, maybe one or more of them listed their father's birthplace on the 1880 census or later.

When I checked Commodore Perry's listing, I find he stated his father was born in New York. In looking at others in the family I found a number agreed with the New York birth: Rebecca, Sophronia, James, Thomas, George, Mary and one of the children from the first marriage, Jesse. But there were two who were different. The oldest two girls from Thomas and Sarah's marriage, Martha and Leatha. both stated their father was born in Ireland.

So if majority ruled, New York would win. But the two girls would have been at least 20 years old before their father died, so why would they claim an Irish birthplace if there wasn't some basis for it. I may never know.