The Odell Family

[Stanley C Jenkins]

I have been talking to a relative of the Odells, who is very interested in her family history. She says that the family were related to the Mays by marriage - hence the presence of Stanley May and Richard May as travelling companions. There could also be a link to the Conynghams (spellings vary), who were from Donegal; all of these people were apparently travelling on the same ticket. It is believed that most branches of these inter-related families were Protestants, and it is unlikely that they would have adopted the O’dell spelling. I can probably find out much more about their backgrounds.

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

Just a thought, but "the the Odells who arrived at Ellis Island", cannot have been the Odells who got off the Titanic at Queenstown, unless they subsequently travelled to America on another vessel (which I think is unlikely). In any case, would First Class passengers have been sent to Ellis Island? I had always thought that they were, in some way, "excused" - unless there was an immigration problem, as happened in the case of the music hall/vaudville star Marie Lloyd, whose act was considered to be too immoral for American audiences.

 

[Anthony Cunningham]

Hello folks - I am writing an account of some of the children on board the Titanic. May I enquire if anyone knows if Jack Odell ever wrote some memories of his cross channel voyage?

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

The Odells are mentioned several times on this forum, but I don't think Jack Odell could remember very much about his cross-channel trip.

 

[Encyclopedia Titanica]

According to someone who claimed to be a family member, Lily Odell kept notes on the voyage in a small notebook. In it she wrote that her cabin was panelled in brown wood and her brothers' cabin was panelled in oak and white wood with a dado. There was "tilting[?] drinks" at lunch, dinner and breakfast on both days.

Lily was a light sleeper and recorded that her cabin rattled and vibrated a lot and she could not sleep for the tinkling of the glasses and tumblers on the washstand.

"Without the comfortable sheets, I would [?not] sleep properly."

Lily left behind in her Titanic cabin a small box of hatpins in the cupboard under the washstand and her book "The Hollow Needle".

Her final notes state that the journey was

"...adequate, but I prefer smaller vessels. Far too tiring to trail around."

After disembarking from the Titanic on 11 April, the group stayed overnight in Cork and then obtained a hire car from Johnson & Perrott to continue their Irish holiday.

"Have the hire from J&P and had a pleasant stay in Cork." — 12 April 1912

This contributor was outed for posting pictures he said were by Jack Odell but were in fact photoshopped interiors, so it could well be these quotes are all made up too. But I put them here for completeness rather than add them to the bio while there is a question mark over their authenticity.

 

[Paul Mansell]

Hello everybody,

I have been looking at this site and recently registered as I am a relative of Jack O'Dell who is mentioned along with his family in a few forums and also the phot album that was taken by the family group. To cut a long story short, Jack's second wife - Pamela Davies was my fathers Sister, so Jack was my uncle.

There seems to be some missing information on jack in his later years and I'm happy to fill in any missing pieces if I can. Also very interested to hear from any other members of the O'Dell family if there are any still alive.

As a point in one Forum it was mentioned if Jack was the same jack Odell that invented matchbox toys., I can confirm 100% it is not the same person, jack Odell took over his father's Fish business and ran it successfully until it went bust and he lost everything whilst he was married to Pamela. In his later years he and Pamela lived in a council house in Milton Keynes which was the stage of his life that I knew him. As far as I am aware, Pamela is still alive but in frail health.