Hi Peter,

After many hours spent researching the origin of my surname, I think that I finally found it.

It all started when I was 10 - 12 years old. I did ask my grandmother about the origin of our name ie Audy. All the Audy that I knew were all related and that surname was not common. She did tell me that she did not know but that she did remember that her great grand mother told her that the Audy were in some ways related to the ‘Roy’ families. That is how it all started.

So, our ancestor name was Simeon LeRoy. 'Roy' in french is king. It does mean that at one point in time one of Simeon's direct ancestor had a profession dealing directly with the french royalty.

Simeon was born (or baptised) on october 1st 1637 in Creances, Normandy. The name ‘Normandy’ is a direct reference to the ‘North men’, the men from the north, the scandinavians who invaded the area in the IX th century.

The origins of Creances go far back in time. During the gallic times, the economy of the region was based on the production of salt by the evaporation of sea water. As a consequence, many of the forests of the whole area were burnt for that purpose. It was then that the culture of vegetables replaced the production of salt, as the main economic activity. As a matter of fact, it still is. The region is still producing high quality vegetables, especially carrots.

In order to grow vegetables in the low lands that border the sea, which is the characteristic topography in the area, one has to protect the land from salt water invasion, two times a day. To do so, the people built a network of dikes , which is still there today. ‘Diki’ in old scandinavian meant a slope, an earth levee. It is with this meaning that the word ‘Dy’ is still used in the region.

Creances, this small village of 1926 inhabitants, keeps the memory of its past alive. As a matter of fact, there is a street named ‘’Haut Dy’’ and a small agglomeration of houses, probably close to the sea that is known as ‘’le petit Haut Dy’’. Haut in french means ‘’high’ and ‘petit’ means ‘small’. A visit to ‘Mapquest - France’ focusing and zooming on Creances will be quite convincing.

These dykes block the invasion of seawater but it has to let rainwater go through. A device that is known in french as an ‘aboiteau’ does that (I don’t knom the english word for ‘aboiteau’). Basically, it is a kind of ‘check valve’ made of wood. They are still used along the St-Lawrence river here in Quebec… and elsewhere, of course.

As you know, our ancestor was a carpenter. You probably need a carpenter to build these structures and also to maintain them : they need a lot of maintenance, if one does not want to have sea water invading his field and losing at least one crop. There was probably also a dyke that was higher than the others, due to local topography : a high dyke or in scandinavian - french : ‘un haut dy’.

Simeon being a carpenter was probably living in the ‘hameau’ near the dykes. So, he might have been known as ‘Simeon LeRoy de Haut Dy’. The word ‘de’ in French means ‘from’. So, he was know as Simeon LeRoy from Haut Dye.

To go from ‘de Haut Dy’ to ‘dit Haut Dy’ is a very small step, and ‘dit’ means ‘also known as’. Phonetically speaking, ‘Haut Dy’ and ‘Audy’ are the same, at least in french.

Et voilà… that is my explanation on the origin of our name.

By the way, I am willing to share all the information that I have on the family.

Warm regards,

Emile Audy