If we are to believe Helen Cody Wetmore, one of William Cody’s sisters, her family was descended from Spanish and Irish royalty, and were accordingly entitled to a crest. In her book Buffalo Bill, Last of the Great Scouts: The Life Story of Colonel William F. Cody, published in 1899, she wrote that her brother was “a lineal descendant of Milesius, king of Spain, that famous monarch whose three sons, Heber, Heremon, and Ir, founded the first dynasty in Ireland about the beginning of the Christian era.”
The Cody family, Mrs. Wetmore asserted, came down from the line of Heremon. Their original name was Tireach, which signifies “The Rocks.” Murdeach Tireach, one of the first of this line, was crowned king of Ireland in the year 320. Another of the line became king of Connaught in 701, his possessions being located in the present counties of Clare, Galway, and Mayo, whence came the family name, in a contraction of Connaught- Galway to Connelly, Conly, Cory, Coddy, Coidy, and, finally, “Cody.”
All this almost makes sense. However, it is only one of the legends Mrs. Wetmore offers up as fact in her book, despite her disclaimer in the preface that “embarrassed with riches of fact, I have had no thought of fiction.”
The Cody family, Mrs. Wetmore asserted, came down from the line of Heremon. Their original name was Tireach, which signifies “The Rocks.” Murdeach Tireach, one of the first of this line, was crowned king of Ireland in the year 320. Another of the line became king of Connaught in 701, his possessions being located in the present counties of Clare, Galway, and Mayo, whence came the family name, in a contraction of Connaught- Galway to Connelly, Conly, Cory, Coddy, Coidy, and, finally, “Cody.”
All this almost makes sense. However, it is only one of the legends Mrs. Wetmore offers up as fact in her book, despite her disclaimer in the preface that “embarrassed with riches of fact, I have had no thought of fiction.”
