How We Met (A Journey of Little Miracles)

About the Book

When I first came to America in 1967, one of my dreams was to locate my O'Dell relatives from my grandfather's side. My Dad and my aunt Nancy always extoll their Dad with such affection that I always wish I have known him. The first few years in the US was a struggle of daily living, raising 4 children and working full time that my dreams of ever connecting with them faded into oblivion. In 2012, a premed student from the Santo Tomas University [UST] connected with everyone through facebook with an O'Dell surname with his research into the O'Dell family through Wikepedia, the free encyclopedia en.Wikepedia.org. Charles Wallace O'Dell is a 6th generation O'Dell and it took another Wallace in the family to uncover the family history. O'dell family...........originally owned by an Anglo-Saxon king; according to Wikepedia in Bedfordshire: O'dell is a village and civil parish in the North of the county of Bedfordshire in England. Originally owned by an Anglo-Saxon king, the barony of Woadhyll was transferred to the Norman Count of Flanders after the Norman invasion.He later changed his last name to Woadhyll, which means, a hill full of Woads, and as time went on the barony was changed to O'dell which was ruled by Barons bearing the name of O'dell. By the 1600's the family had a quarrel and was split into two, leaving the barony without a legal male heir. The quarrel stemmed from religion. The family was divided into the Protestants and the Catholics. The Protestants moved to Newfoundland in Virginia, bearing the name odell while the Catholics moved to Ireland changing their name to O'Dell to evade Irish reprisals against the British.Eventually, the Catholics moved to Nebraska and that was the start of the family's story. Our great grandfather, Wallace Scott O'Dell [1852-1915] married Cora Davis. Wallace Scott died in 1915 and was survived by 8 children and his wife.His brother could not attend his funeral, and also his son named Thomas Leroy O'Dell nicknamed Roy was in the Philippine Islands at the time of his death in Nebraska. Our great grand mother, on the left, see picture, and a woman standing is daughter Zoe, the sister of Leroy, and her grand daughter on the right Wallace Scott O'Dell was for many years connected actively with agricultural interests in Chapman precinct but spent his last years in honorable retirement at Weston. A native of Venango County, Pennsylvania, he was born on the 4th of Feb.1852 and was a son of Alfred and Julia [Van Geisen] O'Dell, native respectively of New York and New Jersey. They were married in Pennsylvania and continued to reside there until Wallace was 17 years old, when the family moved to Saunders County in Nebraska. His father homesteading land 2 and a half miles east of Weston. At that time, the County was in the main, a frontier district and the town of Weston had not been founded yet. Mr O'Dell proved up to his claim and remained there on until his demise in 1909 at the age of 86. His wife died in 1911 at 84 years old.They became parents of 7 children. Wallace Scott is the third child. Wallace Scott attended School in Pennsylvania and remained at home for sometime after the family left the County. At 25 years of age,he was married and began farming in Chapman precinct, buying railroad land which he improved. He was a successful Agriculturist, being energetic and progressive, and accumulated competence as the years went by which enabled him to retire from active life in 1910. He sold his farm that year and moved to Weston. On July of 1877, Mr O'Dell married Miss Cora Davis, a daughter of Captain William and Nancy [Whiting] Davis. They had 8 children namely; Maud, wife of Henry White of Wahoo, Roy, who was connected with the civil service in the Philippines, Zoe, the wife of Joseph Kriz, Alta at home, Dawn, the wife of Joseph Porter of Wahoo, Wilma, married to George Jackson of Wahoo,Nannie and Alfred, at home. Mr O'Dell was a republican who changed part

About the Author

Born in Lake Mainit, Surigao, Philippines, on June 30, 1941, to Cristita Benedicto Base and Manuel Galvez O’Dell. After her elementary and high school, she enrolled with St. Paul School of Nursing, Iloilo City, and passed the Philippine board the same year. On November 29, 1964, she got married to Jules Enriquez Conui of Ormoc City, Philippines. The family immigrated to the US on October 2, 1967, and she pursued her studies at the University of Notre Dame, Belmont, California with BS behavioral sciences and a Masters in public administration. She resides in San Francisco, California. She has four married children, all living in the Bay Area. She is blessed with the treasures of her life, her nine grandchildren. She travels with family and friends and is active in her parish church.