Hello, Everyone ~ I'm interested in whatever information you might have on the ODELL (later spelled O'DELL) family of Grafton, Berlin and elsewhere in Rensselaer County. They arrived from Rhode Island as part of the Seventh-Day Baptist Migration during the last decade or two of the the 1700's. My fourth GGF BENJAMIN ODELL was born in Rhode Island in 1782, and he died in 1871 in Grafton. His wife was Betsey E. BUTTON, born in RI in 1788; she was probably a daughter of Daniel Button and she died in 1871 in Grafton. Both of them are buried in the Stewart Family Cemetery. Benjamin's father was George ODELL, born in 1745 in RI. Before 1769 George married Elizabeth RANDALL, daughter of John Randall. George's father was Joseph Odell junior, the son of Joseph Odell senior, the only son of Austin and Sarah (surname unkown) or Joanna (possibly LEWIS) Odell. The family lived in Westerly & Hopkinton, RI circa 1660-1750. Benjamin and Betsey ODELL had eight known children: (1) Sarah ODELL, born in 1808; she married Asa KENYON. (2) Sophia ODELL, born in 1810; she married a Joel Palmer RANDALL and died in 1903 in PA. She left many, many descendants in both Pennsylvania & Minnesota. (For any of you who might be interested, I have a picture of Sophia and her family taken about 1900: it can be emailed to you). (3) Stephen Van Rensselaer ODELL, born 1812. He married Angeline HAKES; they have many living descendants. (4) Daniel ODELL, bn 1815. He married Charlotte STROUD, and they had many descendants; my sister, several cousins and myself among them. (5) Rhoda ODELL, born 1816. She married James WEEDEN junior; they also have many living descendants. (I also have a touching, sober portrait photo of her ~ it can be emailed.) (6) Amasa ODELL, born in 1819. He married Polly (surname unknown), and he volunteered early in the Civil War. (7) Benjamin ODELL junior, born in 1825. He married a "Clary SHERMEHORN" (as it shows in his Civil War Pension file). He was a faithful Seventh-Day Baptist and lived in Berlin. A Civil War soldier, he was discharged as critically ill in 1863. (8) Ezekiel ODELL, bn 1829. He married Amanda BURDICK. The 1850 Census shows five members of the Odell family living around Grafton: Amasa, Benjamin senior, Benjamin junior, Daniel and Stephen. Sisters Sophia, Rhoda and Sarah had been married for years, but Ezekiel was too young to have a farm. By the 1855 Census, Daniel had lost his farm ~ probably for failure to pay his rent to the Van Rensselaers ~ but Ezekiel and his wife Amanda had acquired a farm of their own. A number of NY historians report that several branches of the Odell family were among the scores of Rhode Island settlers who travelled to Rensselaer County during the thirty years following the Revolutionary War. "A History of New York State" by David Ellis reports that by 1820, 65% of the people living in NewYork State had been born in New England, largely because those states had become overpopulated, over-taxed and over-farmed. Both before and after the Seventh-Day Baptist families came to New York, a great number of marriages took place among them. One source in another Hudson Valley RootsWeb group suggests these emigrants included BABCOCKS, BURDICKS, BUTTONS, HAKES, WEEDENS and RANDALLS ~ together with several lines of ODELLS. The recurring use of identical forenames tends to show that some of these families were related for generations, both in Rhode Island and New York. Any information you have on the ODELLS named above (or any of the associated SDB families) will be much appreciated. I am primarily interested in Daniel ODELL (bn 1815), his wife Charlotte STROUD, & their children Daniel Andrew (a veteran of both the 7th NY Cavalry & 125th NY Infantry in the Civil War), Jabez (who served in the same two units), their sister Lucy and a baby brother, Abram, who appears to have died as a child. Here are two unusual questions for you: Was the STROUD family local, from somewhere in Rensselaer County? Could it have been a Native American (Mohican or Mohawk) family, at least in part? I'd be glad to share whatever I have on the Anglo-Flemish origins of the ODELLS, a fine old Bedfordshire (UK) family. Good luck to each of you, with your own family research. Prof. David E.P. O'Dell, SAR Adjunct Communications Faculty Rochester Institute of Technology Fairport, New York