Post by "Hunk" Papa on May 21, 2009 15:02:58 GMT -6
Whilst doing some research for someone who was curious to know if there was anyone from my Island of Jersey with Custer at the LBH or even just in the 7th Cavalry, I came across an article that appeared originally in our local paper on 3rd November 1977.
Part of that article reads:-
"Young Cody's great-great-great grandfather was a Jerseyman, Philippe L'Escaude [the final e has an acute accent over it therefore sounding like ay], whose name, like all others, suffered spelling changes through the centuries. Philippe L'Escaude came from an old St. Ouen [one of the 12 parishes in Jersey] family, but Buffalo Bill's most remote known ancestor is Guillaume L'Escaude, born in Jersey before 1500.
.....there may be a link between the family and the once independent Duchy of Normandy to which the Channel Islands belonged for nearly 300 years. The name L'Escaude sprang from the Latin 'ex caudatus' (meaning tail cut off), and dates from the Middle Ages when pigtails were worn.
The Cody name appears in various surviving documents as L'Escaude (15th Century), Lescaudey, Lecaudey, Lescaude, Le Caudey. These are the ancient and correct spellings, but, in the United States, following Philippe L'Escaude's migration there from Jersey, the spellings rapidly changed and increased in number: Legody, Ladody, McCody, Mocody, Micrody (and from an easy misreading of some of these, Moody), also Codie, Gody, Coady, Cody. Public and church officials were ingenious in the phonetic spelling of surnames.
Philippe L'Escaude settled in Massachusetts, a part of the United States which could be termed 'the American Britain'. The eastern seaboard of the State has many towns bearing English names, clearly the result of many years of migration from Britain to the New World."
Cody's Wild West show did come to our sister island of Guernsey but I have yet to establish exactly when and that is the nearest he ever got to visiting the homeland of his ancestors.
Hunk
Part of that article reads:-
"Young Cody's great-great-great grandfather was a Jerseyman, Philippe L'Escaude [the final e has an acute accent over it therefore sounding like ay], whose name, like all others, suffered spelling changes through the centuries. Philippe L'Escaude came from an old St. Ouen [one of the 12 parishes in Jersey] family, but Buffalo Bill's most remote known ancestor is Guillaume L'Escaude, born in Jersey before 1500.
.....there may be a link between the family and the once independent Duchy of Normandy to which the Channel Islands belonged for nearly 300 years. The name L'Escaude sprang from the Latin 'ex caudatus' (meaning tail cut off), and dates from the Middle Ages when pigtails were worn.
The Cody name appears in various surviving documents as L'Escaude (15th Century), Lescaudey, Lecaudey, Lescaude, Le Caudey. These are the ancient and correct spellings, but, in the United States, following Philippe L'Escaude's migration there from Jersey, the spellings rapidly changed and increased in number: Legody, Ladody, McCody, Mocody, Micrody (and from an easy misreading of some of these, Moody), also Codie, Gody, Coady, Cody. Public and church officials were ingenious in the phonetic spelling of surnames.
Philippe L'Escaude settled in Massachusetts, a part of the United States which could be termed 'the American Britain'. The eastern seaboard of the State has many towns bearing English names, clearly the result of many years of migration from Britain to the New World."
Cody's Wild West show did come to our sister island of Guernsey but I have yet to establish exactly when and that is the nearest he ever got to visiting the homeland of his ancestors.
Hunk
but the famous Jersey and Guernsey cattle breeds did originate on these little rocks in the English Channel, also well known for producing Jersey and Guernsey woollen sweaters ----- and ME!