This page should be a useful resource for United Kingdom ODELL (= Odell, O'Dell, Odle, Oadle etc) family historians.
For beginners the recent guide to the process of discovering your UK roots produced by the BBC is as good a place to start as any.
As you trace back your ODELL family history you are likely to find yourself converging on the area of northern Bedfordshire, southern Northamptonshire, eastern Buckinghamshire or north-eastern Oxfordshire. This appears to be the historical centre of the ODELL population. Particularly densely populated parishes in the 15th-17th century were: Mollington, Oxfordshire; Cranfield, Bedfordshire; Salford, Beds; and Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, where quite often the name ODELL appears in all the variants almost simultaneously. (This is partly due to differences in pronounciation of the vowels and partly due to this being the first time when many people had their names put in writing and there were no consistent ways of spelling.)
There is an alleged link between ODELL and Wodhull (at Thenford, Northamptonshire) or Wadehull/de Wahul. But for some researchers it still has to be conclusively established.
Resources unique to this site for the ODELL genealogist
1. If you are into everything about UK ODELL genealogy and are looking to share with fellow researchers, or want to receive announcements relating to this site then you can join the new UK based ODELL family history mailing list here! Enter your email address below, then click the 'Join List' button. You will be able to send messages about ODELL matters and receive the messages other people send. The list also benefits from a high level of committment to help ODELL researchers with individual queries:
2. For personal help with larger United Kingdom ODELL family research projects email us. Apart from particular experience of researching the surname, there is a large database associated with this site which is not published but can be interrogated on behalf of genuine ODELL family historians (Data Protection Registration No. Z7149439).
3. Alternatively you can leave a message and your choice of contact details on The ODELL noticeboard.
Notice board courtesy of
Other online genealogical information
A full catalogue of genealogical resources is available in Cyndi's list
Happy rooting!
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