Where can i find out what the meaning is behind my coat of arms?

Question

What the different symbols mean and colours.

Answer 1

Try this place.  But if you have an actual coat of arms that belongs to you, shouldn't you already know what it means?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazonry

Answer 2

Try this site:  http://www.fleurdelis.com/meanings.htm

  1. Even the colors can have special meaning in a "family crest" or coat of arms.

2. The mere fact that a shield or crest contains furs suggests a mark of dignity. Usually the fur coat of the weasel is represented.

3. Heraldic Lines and Ordinaries: (see website for pictures of these)

   Nebuly Line --Clouds or air

   Wavy Line --Sea or water

   Engrailed Line, & Invected Line--Earth or land

   Indented Line-- Fire

   Dancette Line--Water

   Raguly Line--Difficulties that have been encountered

   Embattled Line--Walls of a fortress or town (also, fire)

The site also shows more common heraldic symbols and their meanings (a few examples are the following):

    Acorn--Antiquity and strength

   Anchor--Hope; religious steadfastness

   Annulet (finger ring)--Fidelity

   Apple-- Liberality, felicity, and peace

   Bat --Awareness of the powers of darkness and chaos.

   Bear--Strength, cunning, ferocity in the protection of one's kindred

   Boar--Bravery; fights to the death

   Bones (crossed thighbones)-- Mortality

This site is a very good one, because it is so informative. I saw  my family's coat-of-arms here (in fact, I saw 3 different ones--which means the surname Johnson came from 3 different areas of England, etc)

Answer 3

Joyce B asked a very correct question.  

If your coat of arms was passed down to you by your father then you have a legitimate coat of arms.  If you applied to the College of Arms and they granted you one for the price, you have a valid coat of arms.  

If you bought one because it had your surname under, over or across it, what you have is one that was granted to someone with your surname and might not even be related.

They were and are granted to individual men and are passed down through the direct legitimate male line of descent. Sometimes a woman might have inherited one if there was no male heir.

Actually, there might have been several men with your surname each granted their own coat of arms, all different.  Peddlers who sell them on the internet, at airports, at shopping malls, in magazines etc will not have all of them.  No way. They don't need to in order to sell to people.  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.

Now, it is quite possible for you to 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 family reseach you fiind more than one ancestor that were granted coats of arms and if you have a book printed or even published on your family history, it is quite legitimate for you to put pictures of your ancestors' coats of arms in your book.  It would not be valid, however, for you to put in your book those that happened to have been 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, you have a good chance of finding several in your family tree.  The early Virginia colonists came from titled families. Actually 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 that some people have on their den wall or over their fire place.  As a rule they don't display them. They aren't any good for buying groceries or GASOLINE.

See my links under sources, one from the British College of Arms(they grant coats of arms) and the other from the most prestigious genealogical organizaiton in the U. S., The National Genealogical Society.

Answer 4

Boar's head = took two pork chops when there were 8 on the platter and 8 people at the table

Red = Got angry when he was in his cups, instead of maudlin.

Blue = Promised the sky to people if they would invest in his scheme.

Chevrons = never rose above Medieval equivalent of PFC when he took up arms to serve his king.

Bar sinister = Papa trifled with the serving maids.

Glad I could help!