Good luck all with finding records of the McNeelance surname! This is a very rare surname. I've been trying to find the parents of George McNeelance born 1788 in Northern Ireland. His parents immigrated to the United States when he was a baby or a very small child. He had a sister Mary & a brother John both older then him. The parents died shortly after arrival in America and the children were separated. George had no memory of them. The farm family George was indentured to told him this. Early documents record the surname as McNeelance, in later records the name is shortened and became McNeelan, all known descendants of George now bear the name McNeelan. Records of the sister Mary have been found. Her name is recorded as McNeelance. John has not been found.
The source of the above information merely tells us he was born near the boundary of Scotland and Ireland. The reference to Scotland is thought to mean The Ulster Plantation of Northern Ireland that was settled by Scots. United States census records also list his birthplace as Ireland. Source information was a letter written in 1904 by George's son John Davis McNeelan to his niece Susan George and the 1850 U.S. Census record for Columbiana, Co., Ohio.
I have seen these McNeelance family records in India as well. I have no known connection to a common ancestor between our McNeelance families but given the rarity of the name I find the possibility very likely.
I have seen a few other McNeelance or variant spellings in America who came before and a few afterwards, besides these families, the largest & most consistent concentration of families I have found with this surname can be found in Tyrone County, Ireland. PRONI (Public Records if Northern Ireland) have this name along with variant spellings listed in their Ecatalogue. The earliest reference is around 1720. They are also mentioned in the Letters from the Abercorn estates. The access to PRONI is online and free. Be sure to search the name McNeilance as well, the spellings seem to be interchangeable. There were really no established rules about spelling before the late 1800's, whoever was doing the recording spelled it the way it sounded.
Interestingly, these records from PRONI mention the town of Strabane whose River Foyle is the boundary between Northern Ireland and what is now the Irish Republic. This would fit quite nicely with the statement that my George McNeelance was born near the boundary of Scotland, presumably Ulster Ireland, and Ireland. Also, many immigrants from Tyrone County are found in and around Allegheny County, Pennsylvania where the earliest records of George's adulthood can be found.
I have been trying to discover the name of George's parents for at least 35 years. Sadly, the letter written by his son does not mention the parents by name, it only refers to them as his "parents".
There will be a DNA surname project in the near future for the name McNeelance. Any males who carry the surname are invited to join. The surname project traces the DNA that is carried only by the direct male line of descent. It will establish a common ancestral origin if one exists and predict the number of generations from the most recent common ancestor. The surname project will be found under McNeelan at FamilytreeDNA. We have the kit but have not yet submitted DNA. I am a female, my brother will be contributing the DNA. Variants will be any possible spelling of McNeelance, McNeilance, McNeelans, McNeilan, McNeelan, etc.
If any researching the McNeelance surname stumble upon records from my family please post!! I will do the same. I haven't seen any records of the India McNeelance familes that aren't already spoken about in these posts. If I find additional information I will do the same.