Ok geneology and family crest help please?

Question

Ok my last name is Allen im 50% french would that mean that this is my family crest

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/Origin.FR/qx/Allen-family-crest.htm

if not then how would i find out

thanks

Answer 1

houseofnames.com will show you a Coat of Arms that was (probably) once issued to someone with the same surname as yours, BUT:

Coats of arms were originally designed so knights could tell each other apart. They were given to individuals, not surnames or families. If, for instance, every knight named "Smith" (Carpenter, Baker, Johnson . . .) used the same coat of arms, there would be a crowd of knights riding around with the same coat of arms painted on their shields. It would be as confusing as a football game where both sides wore blue uniforms and all the players were number 12.

They were not given to just anyone, either; you had to be rich and want to brag, or else be born to a noble family.

The eldest legitimate son inherits his father's Coats of Arms. He passes it on to his eldest legitimate son, and so on; that's where the myth of a "Family" Coat of arms comes from. Only one person can have a given coat of arms at one time.  

People who sell T-shirts and coffee mugs encourage the gullible to believe Coats of Arms are for a surname. Let us suppose Sir Peregrine Reginald Smith, born in 1412, had a wonderful Coat of Arms, a rampant dragon argent on a field azure.

Which would be easier - to sell that Coat of Arms on coffee mugs to everyone in the world named Smith, or to track down the eldest son of the eldest son of . . . Sir Peregrine, 14 generations later? That 14th great grandson might buy a coffee mug for everyone in his household, but that would only be four mugs.

If you could get 1% of the 3 million people in the USA named Smith to buy a mug, you'd be in retailer's heaven. Some of their ancestors might have been Schmidt in Germany or Smithowski in Poland, but who cares? 30,000 mugs at $11.95 each . . .

Answer 2

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ance...

Here is one (of many) warning articles relating such places as houseofnames.   If the College of Arms in the UK is the legal authority relating to such things, and says up front that coats of arms are NOT granted to families.. but just to individuals.. then common sense tells you that franchises that contradict a reputable source, are misleading.  

And we STILL have people here, that send others to houseofnames (or other sites that are connected to similiar ripoffs).

There is really no such thing as a family crest.  Genealogy is using reliable records to trace your ancestry. Please, don't confuse the two.

Answer 3

First you have to prove with documentary evidence that you are descended from a man who was granted arms, and then apply for permission to legally use them, the rules are very strict and can be upheld in the civil court of any country. Just because you share a surname with someone who was granted the right to arms does not mean that the right is also yours. The Heraldic tradition varies slightly between countries, but in essence they are all the same.

In the first instance the grant of arms was/is made to one individual and inherited by his descendants who alone may bear or use his arms, they were passed equally to each of his sons, each one added their own mark of cadency to those arms. The eldest son added a label – a horizontal strip with three pendant drops (during the lifetime of his father). The second son added a crescent, the third son added a five pointed star, the fourth son added a martlet, the fifth son added a annulet, the sixth a fleur de lys, the seventh a rose, the eighth a cross Moline and the ninth a double quatrefoil, which were then displayed on their shields to distinguish themselves from each other and their father, the sons passed their arms, complete with their own cadences, on to their own sons, who then added a second set of cadences to distinguish themselves from each other, their father, uncles and cousins.

When a man died, his eldest son then had the right to bear his father’s arms without the differentiation marks, the eldest son’s children would then add only one set of cadency marks, instead of two, and so on down the generations, the brothers of the eldest son continued to use the arms with their own cadency marks, which were later passed to their sons in the same manner, It all got very complicated.

Daughters also inherited the right to display their father’s arms if there was no male heir, a daughter could pass her father’s arms on to her sons. Wives, widows and daughters had a courtesy right to display their husband or father’s arms, normally on a diamond lozenge.

The original achievement remained the same through the generations, enhanced by the addition of the various cadences, however, the arms of more than one family could also be included on one shield. If both the man and his wife had the right to bear arms, they could be displayed side by side, called impalement, or if mixed together to form new arms, it was called compounding. One method was quartering, where the shield was divided into quarters, then, for example, if a man had no sons, his daughter or daughters inherited his right to the coat of arms, if one such daughter married a man who also had a coat of arms, her arms could be impaled with his, or be displayed on a

small shield in the centre of her husbands arms, their sons would then seek permission of the Heralds to bear arms, with their father’s arms in two quarters and their mother’s

in the other two quarters. With time the coat of arms could include the arms of many families and became very complex.

Dating originally from before the advent of surnames, the arms were in effect a means of identification, much the same as a surname. With the establishment of surnames during the 12th. And 13th. centuries, those families who already had the right to bear arms acquired a surname to go with their arms, once surnames were established and became hereditary, new arms were granted to men with an established surname, so it can, I think, be argued as to whether or not arms are attached to a family, or the family surname.

Neither were they (or surnames) introduced by the Normans for taxation purposes. The Normans arrived in England some 100 or more years before the first heraldic arms or devices began to appear.

Heraldry in Europe developed and evolved during the 12th.and 13th. centuries (1100-1200) Heraldic arms were a personal device, possibly for military purposes, or simply a display of status or vanity, it can only be guessed at because, today, no one knows the real reason. At first, arms were displayed without authority from anyone, but gradually became controlled by the Crown, through Heralds, whereby, men who could prove their ancient use of arms by their family, were granted permission to continue displaying them. Total control finally came about in the 15th.century, when Richard III

in 1484, established what is now known as the College of Arms, it still holds the

authority to grant or withhold the use and display of arms.

A crest was normally an ornament on a helmet and it was included within the family’s achievement (coat of arms) but later became used separately, as decoration on plate and cutlery, stationery etc.

If it is possible to access a copy of Burke’s “General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales” first published in 1842, you can find out if any particular family was ever granted the right to bear arms. It is unfortunately a fact that very, very few people, other than extremely well documented lines of royalty, nobility, gentry or maybe wealthy landowners, traders or other persons of note, can prove a satisfactory link back to that period. Generally, if a family is entitled to display arms, they are most probably still aware of the fact, it is not something usually “forgotten”. Today there are two types of arms, “granted arms”, which are formally conveyed by a sovereign, state, or other body with the authority to do so, these grants have legal status under the law wherever they are recognised. And there are “assumed arms”, which can be designed and used by anyone but carry no legitimacy.

Other countries have a broadly similar history of Heraldic rules and regulatory authorities.

Sources :-

Among others.

The College of Arms

http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/About/...

And the book by T.Woodcock & J.M.Robinson

“The Oxford Guide to Heraldry”.

For French Armory

http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/f...