Odell/o'dell

[ronbolus]

William Odell (b. 1677) married Sarah Church(b.1681), in Westoning, Ist jan 1702. Family later moved
(or were sent LOL) to australia ----where there are now many Odells. But I am looking for any ancestry around Bedfordshire PRIOR to the above marriage.
thank you.......Ron Bolus

[WaltonAus]

Hello Ron,
I have spent a couple of hours on and off today looking for Odel/Church before 1700 in Westoning Beds and not found any, except William & Sarah. I was wondering if someone with local knowledge might know if a towns name was changed or modified to Westoning in the mid 1700's?

Kind Regards
Peter Euston

[Angelaj]

Hi,
As far as I know the place has been known as Westoning since Domesday, however because of all the farms and 'ends' in the area different names can end up being used for the same area. Try British History Online at www.british-history.ac.uk for background. It has a free service as well as a subscriber one and you can access a huge amount of historical info. from one place. The Victoria County History series are a good place to start and there are editions for most counties now.
Angelaj

[Peter Goodey]

Beds FHS has published transcripts of the parish registers of Westoning. I wouldn't recommend even trying the online IGI which is in a bad state for this surname.

[JPBeds]

The PR register transcripts were published by the Beds & Luton Archives service in hard copy form (& you can purchase these from the Archives). The Beds Family History Society have the same information available to purchase on microfiche - Westoning is only £3.00.
See http://mysite.verizon.net/brianmpayne/publications.html

If this enquiry look up request is still required by Ron (he last posted on this siite in Oct 2006), I can look up the published transcript at Bedford library on Saturday morning.

John Partridge, librarian BFHS