MIGRATION

COODY FAMILY GENEALOGY

MIGRATION

The current existing data reveals that the origin of the Coody family began in the northern part of Georgia and Edgefield, Fairfield County, South Carolina, which is on the border of Georgia.

Early migration into Tennessee and Georgia by the second generation, then deeper into Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi by the next.

Segments of some Georgia families scattered around parts of Georgia. Many in Alabama settled there but some segments of the Alabama family moved first to Arkansas then into Texas where they established firm roots and flourished.

During the removal of the Cherokee Indians, a number of the family were forced from their lands in Georgia into Oklahoma. This is known as the ‘Trail of Tears’. Some family members died on route.

As families grew they began to dispersed across the United States.

During his research of the Coody family, Bob Coody traveled extensively to areas where members of the Coody family existed in the past and some still lived. He and his wife were honored to meet many living members of the family in Georgia, Alabama and Texas while doing research and during family reunions. They heard storied passed on through the generations of those before. Often they would locate old land deeds, then attempt to physically locate the property. They would walk the property, now often wooded and unoccupied. They gain an appreciation for the lifestyle lived and hardships of times past.

In South Carolina Bob found the property owned by Arthur Archibald Coody, but no structure or evidence of structure existed, but nearby found an old church (Horns Creek Baptist Church 20 Jan 1790) where he felt might have been attended by the family. In Alabama the property of Hiram Coody was located and the foundation stones of the Church built on property he donated were found, as well as the grave yard where Hiram was buried. (It is now part of a large pine timber plantation.) In Texas Bob visited the site where George Henry Coody built a lean-to structure and dug a cave to stay to protect the cattle he was attempting to raise. He had experienced problems with Indians and cattle rustlers. He had a home in town about 20 miles away where his family lived, but he lived in the wilderness to protect his livestock. In Georgia he visited the Spring Place plantation where in 1809 Zephaniah Coody was overseer and his children attended the Moravian Mission school. These are but a few of his experiences.