The name is Vontalee (all one word). I’ve only been able to trace it as far as Florida, were my great-grandfather had it as his middle name (his parents got it from an old family last name). After that, the trail stops dead. It doesn’t look like anyone else in the world has this name in their history (except my uncle, who also got it as his middle name). When I searched it in Google, for example, I only found 5 hits. FIVE. And get this- two were from me (things I’d posted on Flickr tagged with that name), and the three others were from local yearbook clubs and personal listings- with only my great-grandfather’s and uncle’s names. I’ve tried splitting the name in various ways (thinking the name might originally have be Von Tale or something), but nothings worked.
I know there’s a lot of Native American ancestry in that branch of the family, so the name might have simply been made up to sound more European (perhaps to avoid relocation?). If anyone has any ideas, I’d be happy to hear them.
P.S. I’ve tried genealogy websites- no good.