Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S.
Honor Code SignatorySigned 18 Feb 2021 | 8,742 contributions | 180 thank-yous | 1,032 connections
Signed 18 Feb 2021 | 8,742 contributions | 180 thank-yous | 1,032 connections
tested
Lorraine I. O'Dell M.L.S.
Born 1940s.
Ancestors 
Daughter of Leroy Frances O'Dell
and Georgiana May (Beismer) O'Dell
Sister of
[private sister (1950s - unknown)]
Descendants 
Mother of
[private son (1970s - unknown)]
Profile last modified
| Created 8 Oct 2011
This page has been accessed 5,575 times.
Lorraine's current to-do list.
Contents |
Biography
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. is a member of the Beismer Name Study Project.
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. is a member of the Wormuth Name Study Project.
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. is a member of the Flower Name Study Project.
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. is a member of the Butler Name Study Project.
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. is a member of the Swartwout Name Study Project.
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. is the descendant of Palatine migrants.
Lorraine has completed the Profile Improvement Project's Voyage
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. is a member of the Rockland, New York One Place Study.
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. is a member of Project New York.
Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. has German Roots.
Birth: I was born November 22, 1948 in Walton, Delaware County, New York. I'm the daughter of Leroy O'Dell and Georgiana Beismer. Walton is a small town and village in rural upstate New York. The population of the village is still just over 3000 as it was when I was growing up there.
My Name
- May be an interesting story... I find the origins and meanings of names, both surnames and given names, interesting. The story is: my parents were driving somewhere and on the side of the road was a gas construction shovel with the name Lorraine on the support for the shovel - actually it would have been Lorain since that make of shovel was manufactured, I found later, in Lorain, Ohio. See the photo I found. A name had already been picked for me but my mother liked the name, Lorraine, when she saw it on the shovel, so the other name was abandoned and later became the name of one of my cousins. Perhaps interestingly, the unit my father served in during World War II, the 79th Infantry Division, is also called the Cross of Lorraine Division. My father says it had nothing to do with the name. My middle name comes from one of my maternal aunts who is, of course, in my tree.
Marriage: I have never married.
Children: I have one son, Jeremiah and one granddaughter, Ella.
Education and Career I attended and graduated from Miller Avenue Elementary School which no longer exists. I attended Townsend Avenue School in Walton for about two years during what would now be called Middle School; then, Junior High. I Graduated from Walton High School, 1966, Walton, NY.
I Attended SUNY Fredonia for 2 years, 1966-1968. I left college and relocated to California. After a couple of years, I gained residency and attended CSU Stanislaus, Turlock, CA and graduated with a BA in Spanish in 1972. I completed a MLS at San Jose State University in 1974.
I'm a retired librarian. I've lived and worked in four states: New York, California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The M.L.S. I added the degree initials to my profile because it's always irritated me that some degrees and some professional designations (mostly male dominated professions) have them but not others (female dominated professions). I have a Masters in Library Science. I earned it. I invested a lot of time and money into getting my degrees and advancing my career until I reached my career goals. I spent 37 years in my profession and made sacrifices to get to where I wanted and I'm proud of what I accomplished and I'm proud of the profession.
Family History I am not a certified genealogist; I do consider myself a family historian. I research ALL branches of my family tree and, occasionally, a collateral line, if it appears to give me information about one of my blood lines.
My family history blogs:
- FamilyTracker's Blog
- Beismer One-Name Study Blog
- Wotmuth Name Study Blog
- Rockland One-Place Study Blog
- Flower/Flowers ONS Blog
Memberships:
- Member: New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
- Member: American Museum of the American Indian: Smithsonian.
- Member: Delaware County Historical Society, NY.
- Member: Ulster County Historical Society, NY.
- Member: Old Stone Fort/Schoharie County Historical Society, NY
- Member: Sullivan County Historical Society, NY
- Member: Orange County Genealogical Society, NY
- Member: Ulster County Genealogical Society, NY
- Member: Greene County Historical Society, NY
- Member: Guild of One Name Studies
Memories
- I became interested in family history when my maternal grandmother told me, multiple times, as a young child, that my great great great grandfather went to "the mountains" and brought back a "squaw" (while a real word for woman in one Native language, mostly a very nasty word in Indian Country) as his wife. She never gave me any more information about which 3rd great grandfather it was or what mountains they were.
- I didn't actually begin serious research until my mid-20s and was, for a very long time, a very sloppy researcher; I still have very bad habits, forgetting to write down clearly where I found something.
- Much later, a great aunt of my father, told us that there was Native ancestry in 2 of his primary family lines. I spent most of my adult life, doing this research, to find those Native ancestors. I was for a number of years involved in Native American issues and activities.
- Several years ago, I had my and my father's DNA tested to see what it would tell us. No Native ethnic tags were found. So, I'm not so concerned with Native ancestors any longer, but still interested in Native American history in my geographic area of research; I continue simply to try to trace every family line back to its origins. It's an enjoyable activity and meeting new relatives is especially fun.
Personal Stuff: I'm a single mother; one adult son, Jeremiah; one granddaughter, Ella. I currently (2024) have 3 cats: Gray, Princess Sweetpea and Bastet.
I have lived and worked in 4 states:
- Was born and raised in Delaware County, New York.
- Attended a couple of years at SUNY Fredonia, New York
- Travelled to California where I
- Finished my BA in Spanish at Stanislaus State University and
- Earned my MLS in Librarianship at San Jose State University.
- Worked as a librarian at several public libraries in California until the profession was overcrowded then
- Returned to New York State for work, then
- Became a library director for the first time in New Jersey.
- Relocated to Pennsylvania to help start a branch library there.
- Returned to New Jersey where I finally happily retired.
I'm a follower of the Fourth Way; G. I. Gurdjieff's teaching.
Research Notes
This is my personal profile; please do not edit without discussing with me. Thank you.
Sources
- Birth certificate.
- High School diploma
- BA, Spanish
- MLS
- Personal knowledge.
- First-hand information. Entered by Lorraine O'Dell at registration.
Only the Trusted List can access the following:
- Lorraine's formal name
- full middle name (I.)
- e-mail address
- exact birthdate
- birth location
- images (4)
- private siblings' names
- private children's names (1)
DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Lorraine:
It may be possible to confirm family relationships. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Lorraine:
-
100.00%
100.00%
Lorraine O'Dell:
Family Tree DNA Family Finder, FTDNA kit #65459
-
~3.12%
Les Wormuth
:
AncestryDNA
Genealogist-to-Genealogist (G2G) Forum posts about Lorraine:
- Watchlist vs Family Tree; do I need to keep profiles I manage in both Jul 21, 2024.
- I'm experimenting with my "following" tags Jul 20, 2023.
- Way behind in everything Nov 12, 2021.
- Professional acronyms in Suffix Apr 27, 2021.
- professional titles Apr 24, 2021.
- Rejoined member, introducing myself Mar 21, 2021.
This week's connection theme is Game Show Hosts. Lorraine is 21 degrees from Chuck Woolery, 19 degrees from Dick Clark, 27 degrees from Richard Dawson, 34 degrees from Cornelia Zulver, 35 degrees from Magnus Härenstam, 39 degrees from Steve Harvey, 23 degrees from Vicki Lawrence, 19 degrees from Allen Ludden, 24 degrees from Michael Strahan, 22 degrees from Alex Trebek, 20 degrees from Ian Turpie and 34 degrees from Léon Zitrone on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
O > O'Dell > Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S.
Categories: United States, Unmarried | Walton (village), New York | State University of New York at Fredonia | California State University, Stanislaus | San Jose State University | Librarians | Profile Improvement Project | Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Team | New York Project Members | German Roots
I also have an Odell line on my mother's side running from 4thggm Catherine (Odell) Elkins in Washington County, TN, to 9thggf William Odell in Fairfield, CT, and on back to Mother England.
Good to meet you, cousin.
I didn't recognize the Goodwin name so ran the Connections app and I see that we're connected through my Flower/Flowers branch and your Goodwin branch. Unhappily I haven't made the connections through my Flower/Flowers branch yet. I do have a Flower/Flowers ONS so I'll take a look at that connection at some point.
I have very rarely made connections through my and my father's DNA tests but have met a few cousins this way. The connection is generally too far back. I've also found that a lot of people are not really interested in making the connections but are interested in different aspects of their DNA.
My Flower/Flowers branch and my Odell/O'Dell branch are both on my father's side.
I have a lot of family branches where I haven't found origins yet but recently found one through work on one of my ONSs. That was exciting; my maternal grandfather's family; huge number of variant spellings. I find all of this very interesting and fun.
Nice to meet you, cousin.
We recently left a message on your profile to check in with the Profile Improvement Project (PIP). We received the thanks for the message. Would you like to continue with the Project? If so, please respond to let us know. We would also like to hear from you with any ideas or suggestions.
If we don’t hear from you within 14 days we will remove you from the Project. You're welcome to rejoin the project with a quick Voyage refresher.
Sincerely,
Debi Hoag and Kay Knight, Co-Leaders, Profile Improvement Project
Robin Shaules, Project Coordinator, Profile Improvement Project
The Profile Improvement Project (PIP) is performing a check-in. The Project operates in a team structure with these participant PIP Teams -- The Category Team, the Unknowns Team, and three Biography Teams. There is also the Voyage Team which guides new Voyagers. See the Profile Improvement Project Teams for a brief outline of each team.
You're currently identified as a member of the Biography Team, working on profiles from your watchlist and other profiles that interest you. The other two Biography Teams work on Abandoned and Popular profiles from the provided lists. Please let us know if you are content with your current Team or would like to change to one of the others.
If you have not already done so, we invite you to join the email GoogleGroup. We use the WikiTree Discord server #profile-improvement channel for our project. Neither is required; we also use the Profile_Improvement tag in G2G for Project announcements.
We thank you for all you do to help the Profile Improvement Project meet its goals. We would like to hear about the successes you’ve had and would also appreciate any feedback you have to help improve the Project. Please share your thoughts in a reply to this comment or via private message to one of us.
Sincerely,
Debi Hoag and Kay Knight, Co-Leaders, Profile Improvement Project
Robin Shaules, Project Coordinator, Profile Improvement Project
The September Challenge will be to complete the Shiloh National Cemetery, if you'd like to join the September Challenge, here's the Challenge Link: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:USCW_Challenge_Worksheet
We've put together a survey for you to fill out to check in with you, it will only take a moment as there are only a few questions. Filling out the survey lets us know you are still interested in coordinating your study and provides an opportunity for you to share any suggestions you may have for the project.
If you have decided to step away from your study, please reply to this comment to that effect.
Here's the link to the G2G question: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1506578/us-civil-war-january-2023-challenge
I Hope you'll join the fun.
P Kreutzer, US Civil War Between the States Project Leader.
Thank you for joining us! I wanted to check in with you to see how things are going. How do you like WikiTree so far? Have the tips in the New Member How To Pages been helpful or have they left you with questions?
Please let me know if you have any questions about WikiTree. To contact me, log in to WikiTree and go to your profile. Use the ‘Reply’ link below my comment to be sure that I will be notified. You can also click my name to send a private message, or post a comment on my profile page. It's really great to have you on board.
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P.S. To find reliable sources for your profiles, go to the Family Tree & Tools tab; select Genealogy Research and scroll down near the bottom of that list and select Research with RootsSearch. There are over 20 websites to access from there.
Thanks self-certifying for the Pre-1700 badge! Collaboration with Pre-1700 Project members is essential for those wishing to edit Pre-1700 profiles. Collaboration is essential because those ancestors are usually shared by many descendants.
It looks like the United States Project would be a good fit based on your branch of WikiTree. Review the project page to learn about resources and guidelines as well as how to collaborate with the project members.
Do you have any questions? Let me know by using the "reply" link under my comments or by clicking my name to visit my profile. From there you can leave a comment or send a private message. . I'm happy to help! :-)
Karen ~ Pre-1700 Greeter
It is always handy to have the badge, and joining one of our projects can be a great learning curve, the projects that I have joined helped me improve my profiles enormously. Sometimes it can be hard to find good sources the further you go back in time, and hopefully you will be able to find some either for the ancestor you were going to add or for any in the same time frame that you may find.
So no problem if you are not able to any anyone from those times yet, and we look forward to your contributions, and seeing your older ancestors when you are able to add them
Take care and have fun
Karen 🤗
Thanks for taking responsibility for the Orphaned Profiles. This After Adopting Orphans FAQ explains the special attention adopted profiles will sometimes need from their profile managers. One quick way to find the profiles you adopted is by searching your Contributions List for the word "adopted" and "manager." You can find a quick link to your Contributions List in the My WikiTree dropdown menu.
Let me know if you have any questions on how to find and record sources, merge duplicates, clean up GEDCOM biographies, and interpret the Suggestions report. I'm here to help!
Pam
PS If you have any GEDCOM cleanup to do, there is a new tool that can help. You can read more about it in the WikiTree AGC FAQ.
Is it possible that you have had an account at WikiTree before? If so we would need to merge your two accounts.
Kind regards, Pam
You are not alone, a lot of people find WikiTree hard to navigate in the beginning, and there often is multiple ways to find what you're looking for. A great place to start is to get comfortable with the little menu bar at the very top right hand corner. Another is to ask questions, never be shy to ask as many questions as you need to. WikiTree has loads of great treasures hidden behind it's simple look and I'd love to show you anything that you'd like.
Have a super day, Pam
Thank you for upgrading - your contributions will go a long way to joining the world together!
Check out our Member How-To pages. They are really useful as you add profiles and learn your way around.
You may also find these pages helpful:
If you have any questions about how WikiTree works, let me know. To contact me, please log in to WikiTree and go to your profile. Use the ‘Reply’ link below my comment to be sure I will be notified. You can also click my name to send a private message, or post a comment, on my profile page. I am happy to help!
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(AF | CS | DE | ES | FI | FR | IT | NL | PT | SV | UK)
This is just a note to say hi and to let you know that I'm available to answer questions about WikiTree.
To contact me, please log in to WikiTree and go to your profile. Use the ‘Reply’ link below my comment to be sure I will be notified. You can also click my name to send a private message, or post a comment, on my profile page.
Pam ~ WikiTree Greeter
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Pam D isn't on duty at the moment, so I hope you don't mind if I hop in here and answer your question.
Oh dear, I'm so sorry about that! Would you be able to paste the URL of the incorrect page and the correct page in a message to me could you? I'd love to take a look so that we may fix the links.
Kindest regards, Pam
Adopting un-managed profiles. I think my problem with the instructions for this, maybe, was because I had had a WikiTree account before but long ago enough that it was inactive and I had to create a new account. Once I’d done that, I didn’t find the people who had been in my tree or they had no profile manager but I was listed as a source. So part of the instruction in the Help Index didn’t appear in the profile as written. It did NOT say, next to the phrase “This profile needs a caretaker”, Adopt this profile. I can’t remember that it said anything but I’ve adopted them so I’m not sure.
Instructions according to the Help Index. I think these instructions are OK after all, for the most part. Click on Help Index, drop down menu, upper right corner. Click on P for Profiles or scroll down to profiles to find “orphaned”. Click on Orphaned to get to that help page which says: “How do you find and adopt orphans? Orphaned profiles will have a little "[adopt this profile]" link where the manager's name usually appears.” Maybe, maybe not. When you find a profile that has no manager, when you scroll over that phrase, which is a live link, it says: “This profile needs a caretaker”. Next to that is the phrase and live link that reads: Adopt this profile. Click on that and a message box appears above the profile name that Thanks you for accepting responsibility for that profile and names you the Profile Manager. What I found instead was nothing next to various profiles that I had previously managed. So, I clicked on the phrase” This profile needs a caretaker” and it took me to the Help page that described these instructions and I kept going in circles.
I was able to accomplish the same thing by going through my Nav Home Page and searching for parents of ancestors in my tree and when I found them, if they didn’t have managers, I clicked on their names, going to their profile, then clicked on the Family Tree & Tools tab in their profile, then, in their tree, clicked on WikiTree Tools which opened the page describing the various tools and there’s a paragraph explaining adopting a profile and a link to adopt that profile. I used that process to adopt a large number of profiles.
I think, maybe, there should be an alert or something when somebody like me has been inactive for a while but maybe there’s still a trace of a previous account to let us know that, maybe, we need to go through a process to reactivate our previous account or whatever is necessary to prevent us from making a mess because of the remnants that are still in the database. I don’t know but it seems to be working out OK. I'm still finding names that are in my tree but have no profile managers so I'm adopting them.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience and the distress this must cause.
Now that your profiles have been merged you might be able to go back through your contributions to perhaps identify which ones you had created before and have since lost.
I hope this helps, but if you have any further hassles or questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Kindest regards, Pam
PS, here's a list of a few that I found : (That's the list of orphaned profiles that you created from Oct 2011 - 12 Nov 2011. To find more click your "contributions" near the top of your profile page))
Thanks for helping with Wikitree
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Beismer-19 has a proposed merge. I think it was originally set as un-merged for a number of years. Can you look at it again and either merge or reject. Thanks