Do you know if your?

Question

Family has a Motto or a Crest?

Answer 1

I don't think we have either, although certain company's keep trying to sell me one.

I come from a long line of Miners, Coal on my maternal (North East) side and Coal, Lead and Tin on my Welsh/Cornish side.

Answer 2

Very interesting question!!!

Okay, I don't think my family has a crest; I don't belong to the Lord Poppington family or anything...mine's just a plain old family!

Answer 3

Yes we do. I went to the Spain site and looked it up in the government genealogical site.

Answer 4

Family crests (coats of arms) are awarded to individual persons, not to families.  They are like a piece of property that can be passed down to the proper heir.. such as the oldest son. Not the family as a whole.

So.. no, my family does not, and it is likely that yours does not have one either. There are many companies out there who sell such things.. but those are not valid.

Answer 5

Yes we do lol. A crest that is.

Answer 6

Mine's got a coat of arms.  And we're allowed to sit in Florence Cathedral wearing armour.

Answer 7

Yes one side of my family has a motto, and a crest.

The Motto is:

Miseris Succerrere Disco (I learn to succour the unfortunate).

Answer 8

A crest is part of a coat of arms.  They are and were in most countries granted to individuals and are passed down through the direct legitimate male line of descent.

You cannot go by these websites that sell them to people based on a surname.  They don't belong to surnames.  

Actually, there might have been, for instance, 15 different men with the same surname, not all necessarily related, each granted their own coat of arms, all different.

Some with that surname were never granted a coat of arms.  No one peddler that sells them on the internet, at shopping malls, at airports, in magazines or solicit by mail will have all 15, no way. They don't need to in order to sell to gullible people.

The only time they will have more than one is if more than one person with the same surname of different national origins were granted one, then they will have one of each and there might have been several of each.  

Anytime you go into someone's home and see one of those dinky little walnut plaques with a coat of arms and family history on it, what they are displaying is a coat of arms granted to someone with the same surname and might not even be related.

See the links below, one from the British College of Arms and the other from the most prestigious genealogical organization in the U.S., The National Genealogical Society.

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

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

It is quite possible for a person to have claim to more than one in their family tree. Now when I use the word "claim," I don't mean they are actually entitled to one.  It just means that after doing research and they find various ancestors that were granted a coat of arms, and if they have a book printed or even published on their family history , it is quite legitimate for them to put in their book a picture of their ancestors' coats of arms.

If you are an American and you have any English lines that goes back to early colonial days in the American South, you have a good chance of having several in your family tree.  Some in the South have the ones their ancestor brought over from England 300-400 years ago.  They aren't those dinky little walnut plaques either.  

As a rule they don't display them. They can't buy groceries or even gasoline with them.  Walmart won't take them.

Now, there have been Americans who have  have applied to the College of Arms and for a price they have been granted one. However, I understand those are not hereditary. Also, I understand that those granted to men that are knighted are not hereditary.