FOREWORD
Concerning the Work of James L. Chapman (1829-1909) in Behalf of the
Genealogical History of Our Cody Family
The genealogical history of our Cody family which is soon to be completed
was initiated and to a considerable degree furthered by the interest and
work of the late James L. Chapman(1). Because of the numerous inquiries
made by Mr. Chapman from various members of the family, and because of
the data and records which had been sent to him in reply to these, it was
thought by many of the family that his proposed book must have been practically
ready for publication when, at eighty years of age, his death occurred.
But how much of a book he had accomplished will probably never be known.
At all events diligent inquiry(2), made a few years after Mr. Chapman’s
death, failed to locate whatever portfolio he had made of the material which
he collected and had doubtless compiled for his proposed book; and now after
many years it has been concluded that his genealogical papers must have
been inadvertently destroyed at the time of his death. Nevertheless, despite
this loss, it may reasonably be claimed that it was as result of what Mr. Chapman
sought to accomplish, that there came about and was forwarded the
undertaking which, extending over a period of years, will soon be consummated
in the publication of the long-looked-for book of our Cody Family. Certainly
very helpful toward furthering this project, especially in preparing the way
for it, was the interest in their genealogical history which many of the family
had come to have as an inheritance from their parents in whom Mr. Chapman’s
genealogical inquiries had inspired this interest to a lively degree(3). Moreover,
even with this interest scarcely might this project have been begun in
our generation, except for what Mr. Chapman had been able to discover
concerning the American beginning of our family, which information was
fortunately preserved in a little book by one who was of Mr. Chapman’s
generation, Mr. Benjamin Cody(4) (1822-1906), to whom Mr. Chapman had
reported it. For, lacking this basic information, the first task toward our
book must have been a long drawn-out antiquarian one, involving research,
now here, now there, through many and varied early American records, and
the need for such, a task might easily have discouraged, or at least have long
delayed any specific attempt toward the production of our family book. But,
with this information right at hand, in the pages of the little book above
mentioned, a presentation of our genealogical history seemed so far on its
way that the project of working toward its accomplishment made a ready
appeal to those of us who had hoped for it, but until then had not thought
of attempting it. That this information, so necessary as a basis for our book,
could scarcely have been discovered by any of our generation, except as
above suggested, by a long process of antiquarian research, was due to the
fact that there did not exist in our generation, nor indeed in the two preceding
ones, any specific and unquestioned tradition concerning the American beginning
of our family. That Mr. Chapman was able more or less directly to obtain
information concerning this was due to his being one generation earlier than
ours. In a letter from Mr. Chapman to one of his generation, who fortunately
preserved it, he makes brief mention of having learned, by inquiry from
certain ones of his grandparent generation, that the earlier generations of the
family had lived at Hopkinton, Mass, and about this he comments that he
will soon make inquiry
for records there which he hoped would give light on
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