What does my family crest say about my ancestors?

Question

What does it mean?

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q265/Hoobidabwah/l_173cda1a25f349cf01e11e2b869f9a6b.jpg

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Answer 1

1. This is not a crest, it is a coat of arms. A "crest" was the distinctive symbol that an armed knight carried on top of his helmet.

2. Are your sure that this is definitely your own family's coat of arms, and not the coat of arms of some other family with the same name? There are dozens of companies offering to sell you parchments, plaques and mugs with "YOUR COAT OF ARMS"; what they do is look up your name in a book, find a coat of arms that once belonged to a family with the same name as yours, and sell it to you.

3. Here's an article about the national peculiarities of Hungarian heraldry: http://www.heraldica.org/topics/national...   You'll see that it says crowns are very typical in Hungarian arms.

4. Don't believe any website or book that tells you that everything in heraldry symbolises something - all these theories are several centuries more recent than the arms themselves. For most arms it's impossible to know why the charges or colours were chosen. Back in the 13th century a man might choose black and white simply because those were the only colours of fabric he had to make a flag out of, and have a red rose painted on them because he thought that looked nice! Simple as that, and no "meaning"attached.

Answer 2

That is not your family coat of arms. Coat of Arms are protected by law. So be very careful claiming that it your.

Answer 3

The crest is the Ducal crown alone, it may mean the person matriculating these arms was a duke or had something to do with a duke.

On the Shield the dove is a symbol of peace confirmed by the olive branch of thirteen leaves (same olive branch is on US coins). The colors (tintures) also have meaning, the blue (azure) means: hope, joy, and loyalty in love, the green (vert) means: truth and loyalty. The dove holds a Mural crown = maybe wall or painting on walls. Below the mural crown is the three hills (Coupeaux) another reference to art or artistic.

Missing is the helmet and mantling. Possibly purposefully since everything else on the heraldry is about peace love and art. The helmet and mantling tell about a family's battle conditions. I can see why the heralds see this as genealogy. :-) Your ancestors seem to go toward arts and love and away from war and battle.

Motto: Donatio De Rece Sigismundo; Latin meaning roughly: Gift of Young Sigismundo. Sigismundo is a Latin form of the name Sigmund.

http://www.fleurdelis.com/meanings.htm this is a link to a company who interprets and designs coats of arms.

Answer 4

The best way to find out about your ancestors is to search by your surname. It is easier to learn about your family crest and its history, if you can link it to your family name to that specific crest and symbols. Try this website to get a head start http://www.allfamilycrests.com/