>The LDS web site shows William as James Cosby's father and William Cosby, >Governor of New York as his great-grandfather. If this is true, then that >links Ken Sim's group (Jefferson Count, AL) to the group I am related to >(James Cozby-Isabella Woods from Tennessee.) > >As far as a fight, I've heard from a group of Cozby's a family story about >this. According to the story, the reason the name changed from Cosby to >Cozby was that the descendants William Cosby (Gov. NY) changed their name >and fought against the English in the Revolution. This was because William >was so despotic! (He is a large part of the reason why the freedom of the >press was so stressed in the Bill of Rights) > >Due to the fact that William's son William is named in his will, I would >tend to doubt the claim. However, this William's son's (also named William) >name appears as Cozby. Since he would have been rather wealthy, it wouldn't >make sense that the name changed without his participation. (Some of the >misspellings can be attributed to illiterate people having others spell >their name phonetically.) > >My relation also changed his name from Cosby to Cozby. Since he was a >medical doctor, I can only assume that he also consciously changed his name. >He changed his at the time of the American Revolution also. If I had to >venture a guess, I would say that the Cozby's are all former Cosby's that >changed their name during the Revolutionary war. > >I've seen that all(?) of the Cozby's are in the US. >I've seen that most of the Causby's are in, or from Ireland. >The Cosby's are English, so are the Cosbie's. They moved through Ireland on >their way to the US. > >Is everyone aware that there is a Cosby, England? And that the above lines >ended up in Ireland fighting against the Irish Chief's? It appears that the >Primogeniture of all Cosby/Causby/Cosbie/Cozby's was Robert of Cosebye. And >that he was from this area of England. > >More information on this branch is available at: >http://www.shawhan.com/local_root_folder/Cosby/RR_TOC.htm. Also at: >http://www3.mistral.co.uk/helmstone/nisbett/nesalx.htm. > > >And finally, there is a Robert Cozby with a web site about Texas that has >posted genealogical information that he has gathered. He is a member of the >Alabama branch of the Cozby's. > >Steve Cozby Thanks for sharing this additonal information. The story about the name change occurring due to the American Revolution doesn't surprise me at all. I have found the same thing to be true in various other surnames I am researching. The branch of the family remaining loyal to the King would keep their surname spelling as it was, whereas the branch that were Tories would change theirs. Wanda