There are various newspaper references to indicate that Joseph McNeill and family were quite distinguished in the local context, for example this from 1965: O.B.E.: Mr. Joseph McNeill, of Redlands, Helen's Bay, Co. Down, who has been honoured for services to Ulster's potato industry, has been chairman of the Potato Marketing Association for over ten years. He is the Ulster merchant member on the liaison committee to the Potato Marketing Board in England and joint chairman of the advisory committee to the Northern Ireland Seed Potato Board. Mr McNeill is a Belfast Water Commissioner and a director of Hugh T. Barrie Ltd., the Belfast seed and potato exporting firm.
Other references are, I suspect, to children of the aforementioned Joseph and might still be living (and therefore I can't name them here in line with website policy), if I'm right, one daughter was a personal secretary to Lord Brookeborough and Captain Terence O'Neill, and a younger one was an Almoner at the Royal Victoria Hospital. Will wait for the OP to respond in case this is all barking up the wrong tree...
