Family Crest?

Question

How would I find out what mine or my husbands famiy crest looks like?

Answer 1

Coats of arms were given to individuals, not surnames or families. If, for instance, every knight named "Smith" used the same coat of arms, there would be a crowd of knights riding around with that coat of arms painted on their shields. It would be as confusing as a game of football where both sides wore blue uniforms and all the players were number 12.

The eldest legitimate son gets to inherit his dad's Coats of Arms, if he doesn't want to get his own; that's where the term "Family" Coat of arms comes from.

People who sell t-shirts and coffee mugs encourage the gullible to believe Coats of Arms are for a surname, since it is easier to sell coffee mugs to everyone in the world named Smith than to track down the eldest great great . . . grandson of Sir Perrigrine Reginald Smith, the one whose Coats of Arms has a rampant dragon argent on a field azure. Sir PRS's 14th great grandson might buy a coffee mug for everyone in his household, but that would 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? 300,000 mugs at $11.95 each . . .

Answer 2

There are no "family crests" Crests are a type of personal identification. If you use one/or put it on a personal item and are found with it in Europe, then you run the risk of the actual holder of the crest taking from you and he/she would be fully within their rights to do so. Please refer to Lord Lyon of either London or Edenbourgh for further information on this matter. Now if you are Celtic-then there are Clan Crests. These are probably what you are looking for. Clanna (family) is the Gaelic word that Clan comes from. In this situation the crest is centered inside of a circled belt symbolizing that you are a member of the clan and not the Chief of the clan. Only the Chief may wear the crest without the belt. The belted crest is a symbol of loyality to the Clan. There are a couple of different ways that you can track this information down. One manner is to go to a web based service and go from there. If it is of Scottish or other Celtic extraction, then going to a Highland Game will net you the best result or you can go to WWW.electricscotland.com and do a clan/sept search. A sept is a name associated with a clan.

Answer 3

Both of the first 2 above answers are obviously by amatures. Shirley is 100% correct.

First, there is NO such thing as a family crest. It is a part of the Coat-of-Arms. A coat of arms was granted to an INDIVIDUAL. NOT to a "family" or to a "last name". Therefore, a coat of arms for "Evans" for example, does not belong to everyone with the surname "Evans".

Second, you have to do serious research to see if you have an ancestor that was ever granted a coat of arms. Once you have established that, then you have to determine the lineage of who owns it now. A coat of arms was passed down from the person to whom it was granted to their first born male, then that person's first born male, then that person's first born male, and so on. So, even if you do have an ancestor that was granted a coat of arms, you still cannot claim it if you are not in the direct lineage of first borns.

Answer 4

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.htm

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerpsst.cfm\


There is no such thing as a Family Crest.

A Crest is part of a Coat of Arms. Coats of Arms DO NOT belong to surnames. Any number of people on this board can give you links to websites like House of Names that peddle coats of arms but we would be totally dishonest if we did not tell you that what you might find might not have anything to do with anyone to whom you are related

Coats of Arms were and are granted to individuals and they are passed down to their direct legitimate male line descendants.
There might be 15 individuials with your surname that were granted a different coat of arms, not all related. Some individuals were never granted a coat of arms. However, the merchants of deceit that sell them will not have all 15, they don't need to any order to sell to gullible people. Now, sometimes a surname crosses national boundaries. So they might have a coat of arms for an English one with a certain surname and then a German or French one with the same surname. But their might be 10 English individuals with that name that were granted one, 2 French and 3 German.

Now, a person can have legitimate claim in their family trees for several coats of arms.
That doesn't mean they are entitled to any one of them. It just means if after doing research they find them and they have printed and even published a book on their family history, it is quite legitimate for them to put pictures of their ancestors coats of arms in their book. However, it isn't legitimate for them to put in their book those that were just granted to someone with the same surname.

If a person has any English lines that goes back to early colonial days in the American South, they have a good chance of finding more than one in their family tree. Some in the South have the ones their ancestors brought from England 300-400 years ago. They don't display them. They aren't any good for buying groceries. Walmart won't even take them.

Answer 5

You will have to do some research. There are plenty of online sources that will match your family name with a crest.

Answer 6

Do a search for the site 'Hall of Names'.