Abbreviations used in this book are largely self explanatory. "b" means born, and is followed by birthplace and birthdate or birthyear to the extent such information is available. "m" "m1" "m2" etc. refer to marriage, and are  followed by place and date of marriage. "d" means died, and "bur" refers to the place of burial. Occasionally you will find "crem" instead of "bur" indicating cremation. "div" means divorced and is occasionally fol- lowed by the year in which the final decree is issued.
    Due to limitations of size of data-file fields occasionally names like "Elizabeth" and "Cathrine" are abbreviated to "Eliz" or "Cath" and some long post office-names are abbreviated as suggested by the United States Postal Service.



The number system used by The Cody Family provides a unique number (essential in a database) for each present and future member of the family. The first three digits of the individual's identification number come from his  fifth generation ancestor (See Five Generations) and correspond to the chapter in which his listing appears. If you are trying to find a listing and know the unique number, just find the chapter matching the first three digits,  and the balance of the numbers are in numerical order.
    In addition to the first three digits, one or more digits follow a slash mark. These numbers correspond to the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth gener- ations, etc., and the value of each digit represents the rank of that ancestor in his family.  When  there are more than 9 offspring in a family the letters A,  B, C, etc., refer to the tenth, eleventh and twelfth siblings.
    For example an identification number like 148/331 indicates the first child of the third child of the third child of Philip 148, who may be found in Five Generations.



Literally thousands of letters and genealogical forms going back to the work done on the 1964 directory remain in our file. In some cases original data was corrected by subsequent information. We hold to the belief that an in- dividual can spell his name any way he wants to. You'll find Barberrees and  Barbarees in the same file.
    In some cases the names have been handed down by word of mouth and  have become corrupted by time. Our own Philip's surname is record- ed in several different spellings. We would like to think that our names are  completely accurate, and we have made many requested changes.

    It is our hope that the publication of this book will stimuloate our mem- bers to be complete and accurate in the information they supply. Any er- rors will be corrected in the permanent data base. And updated copies of the data base can be provided in proof form or in the style of this book. The difference betweeen the two forms is that the absence of certain infor- mation is indicated in the proof.

Col. William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill" was the sixth generation son of Isaac 145. His name appears in this volume in the chapter identified as Isaac.
    To establish the relationship to another member of the family it is some- times necessary to refer to the charts preceding page 1. By use of these charts it is easy to list the ancestry in two vertical columns, thus;

		Relationship
Joseph 3 Philip 18 Philip 55 Isaac 145 William F Cody 145/4	Joseph 3 Philip 18 Philip 55 Philip 148 Aldus Cody 148/3 Lther M Cody 148/33 Aldus M Cody 148/331	Same Person Same Person Same Person Brothers First Cousins " Once Removed " Twice Removed

    Some authorities would use "Second Cousin" or "Third Cousin" in- stead of "Once Removed" or "Twice Removed." It has always seemed eas- ier to say "my grandfather was Col. Cody's first cousin."
    Isaac and Philip are both descended from Joseph 3. Suppose the two vertical columns look like this:

		Relations
Joseph 3 Philip 18 Philip 55 Isaac 145 William F Cody 145/4	Isaac 5 Joseph 24 Martha Cody Bowen 83 Elijah Bowen 210 LeRoy Bowen 210/6	Brothers Cousins Second Cousins Third Cousins Fourth Cousins

Because the common ancestor is the original Philip himself the relationship is more distant.


Since this is a record of the descendants of Philip and Martha it can be ar- gued that adopted children and step-children have no place here. However, it can also be argued that because we are essentially a family and that many family units are blessed with the responsibility for adopted children , we should to include adopted children in a family unit (identified with "adp") and include them in the numbering system. It is also the policy that adopt- ed children are listed only with their sibling family.
    When step-children are Cody descendants, they are of course included in the record.  If  they  are  adopted  by  a  third  party or by a subsequent hus-

band of their mother they may be shown under their new name.
    Admittedly we rarely get sufficient facts and these rules have been bent in many cases. Perhaps it would be useful ultimately to classify stepchil- dren under catagories like this:
    ASP—Cody descendant children adopted by step-father, with or without name change;
    ACR—Cody descendant children adopted by descendant relatives;
    ATP—Cody descendant children adopted by third parties;
    STR—Non-related step-children.

This book indicates in parentheses the "Last Known Address" but mail- ing addresses have been eliminated. For one thing, addresses would soon be out of date in a permanent book of this sort, and the space saved could be better occupied by a good index. Names and addresses are not the sort of thing you package and sell to the world, either. So beginning this year, we expect to publish a directory of those descendants for whom we have current addresses and mail it free of charge to all contributing members. "Last Known Address" is useful information for all listings including de- ceased members of the family and we welcome the contribution of such information for all of our data records.



As this is written the index of 20,000 descendants of Philip and Martha will include the names of all descendants and their spouses and the maiden sur- name and married surname of every female involved, together with date or birth and/or death and the unique number.
    This index, listed alphabetically by surname, is reduced in size in order to accomodate it within this single volume. It should be of tremendous value to genealogists.