Family symbol or family crest?

Question

any way to see my family crest online?

Answer 1

If you search for "________ family crest" you will get hits for a lot of sites ready to sell you something, and a few connected to research.

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Answer 2

my family is on scottish heirloom . com try a search of your clan name good luck lassie

Answer 3

Search the resolved answers for family crest. You'll find dozens of links.

Answer 4

There is no such thing as a family crest.

A crest is part of a coat of arms. Coats of arms do not belong to surnames.  If you father had a coat of arms inherited from his father and his father from his father and so on down the line, what you would have would be legitimate.

The peddlers who sell them on the web, at airports, at shopping malls, in magazines and solicit by mail are just out to sell you something.  What they have are usually valid coats of arms.  However, they do not belong to everyone with a particular surname.

Now if this is a school project, just put House of Names in your search engine and print off any if you find one with your surname under it.  However, print off the links below and give them to your teacher.

One is from the British College of Arms and the other from the most prestigious genealogical organization in the U.S., The National Genealogical Society.  The British College of Arms is the ultimate authority as they grant coats of arms.  If you send them your family tree, they can do a search and find out if your father is entitled to one even of another national origin.

http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Faq.ht...

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerp...

Coats of arms were and are granted to individual and are passed down to the direct male line descendants.  There might have been, for instance, 15 different men with your surname, not all necessarily related, that were each granted their own coat of arms, all different.

The peddlers like House of Names that sell them won't have all 15.  They don't need to in order to sell to gullible people.  The only time they will have more than one, is if persons with the same surname from more than one national origin were granted one when in fact there might have been 3 from each national origin granted one.

The surname product business is one of the biggest scams in genealogy.  

Now, you might have more than one in your family tree. That doesn't mean you are entitled to any one of them.  It just means that after doing research you find different ancestors that were each granted a coat of arms and if you have a book printed or even published on your family history, it is quite valid for you to put a picture of your ancestors' coats of arms in your book. However, it would not be valid if you put in your book those that just happened to be granted to people with the same surnames as your ancestors.

If you are American and you have any English lines that goes back to early colonial days in the American South, you probably have an excellent opportunity of finding several in your family tree.  Some in the South have the one their ancestor brought over from England 300-400 years ago. They aren't those dinky little walnut plaques that silly people have on their den walls either.  As a rule, they don't display them. They aren't a least bit good for buying groceries.  Walmart, Target and none of the stores will take them.  

If you are a student, I will tell you what your parents would probably tell you. Anytime you go into someone's home and see one of those plaques, don't laugh or make some ridiculing comment.  We don't do that in people's homes.  However, if you buy one of those plaques, you can understand that anyone that comes into your home that knows anything about genealogy or heraldry will probably be laughing to themselves.

Feel free to print off what I have posted and give to your teacher.  If you feell uncomfortable about it, put it on her desk when she is away.