What is a good way to find out my family coat of arms?

Question

What is a good way to find out my family coat of arms?

Answer 1

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...                                                      Coats of arms were and are granted to individuals and are passed down to the direct legitimate male line descendants.

If your father has a coat of arms, you should know it.  The only other thing you can do is to research your family tree and if you find a direct ancestor that was granted a coat of arms, you can send your family tree to the College of Arms and apply to get yours.

Also those, that have not inherited a coat of arms can apply to the College of Arms if they have the money to pay for it. I understand those are not hereditary. Also the ones that are granted to men who are knighted are not hereditary.

Coats of arms do not belong to surnames.  

There might have been, for instance, 15 different individual men with the same surname, not all necessarily related, that were each granted their own coat of arms, all different.  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.  The only time they will have more than one is if more than one person with the same surname from different national origins were granted one.

Then they will have one of each and there might have been several of each.

The surname product business if one of the biggest scams aroound. Don't be taken in.

You might have several in your family tree.

That doesn't mean you are entitled to any one of them.  It just means if after doing reseach your find more than one ancestor that were granted coats of arms and if you have a book printed or even published, it is quite legitimate for you to put in your book a pictures of coats of arms granted to your ancestor.  However, it would not be legitimate for you to put in your book those that just were granted to someone with the same surname as your ancestors.

If you are an American and you have any English lines that goes back to early colonial days in the American South, your chances of finding more than one is quite good.  Actually, 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 with a coat of arms on it and sometimes a family history that some people have on their den wall.  

As a rule they don't display them.  They aren't the least bit good for buying groceries or GASOLINE.

Answer 2

If you first research your family history, you will then discover whether or not you are descended from a man who was granted the right to bear arms, until you have done that you cannot assume that a coat of arms belonging to a family with the same name as you, is also your family arms.( there is no such thing as a "family crest", the crest is part of a coat of arms or achievement).

Here is the same answer I have now given on countless occasions.

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.

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

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

A list of the relevant authorities is here :

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl...

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”.

Answer 3

Jason, the link to the UK College of Arms is the legal authority on this topic.  houseofnames is a vendor, who takes advantage of persons, by directly contradicting the correct and valid use, and misleading people to think "anyone" is entitled to use a coat of arms.  Same goes for their family "histories".  Throwing out pieces of exaggerated claims, and a couple of names of people with that surname.. is not "research".  People like to buy that stuff.. out of vanity.

Shirley is completely correct.

Remember, also.. your last name is only one part of your ancestry. You have 4 grandparents (for example), 8 gr grandparents, all of whom have different surnames (women take the name of the husband at marriage, but their lineage comes from their parents).

I encourage you to learn how to find your ancestry, and the facts, instead of spending money or time on something that is a scam.

Answer 4

You can go to: http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp/qx/co...