Question:
How would I find my family's official English coat of arms?
anonymous
2010-02-09 18:53:57 UTC
Interested in researching to find a coat of arms of my family's ancestry. There are websites out there that advertise this but it would seem to me that they just plug and paste different things together and call it "your family's arms". However if I am wrong about this please let me know? Just looking for some direction into how I could research this???
Ten answers:
Shirley T
2010-02-09 22:14:54 UTC
There won't be one. In England coats of arms are granted to individual men and are inherited by individual men, not families. Now when a man was granted a coat of arms all sons obtained one with some differences. Only the oldest son inherits his father's upon his father's death. The surname product business is a racket. In the U. S., for instance, we have no laws regarding heraldry and a person can display any coat of arms they wish but to do so is considered usurpation of another's identity and in bad taste.



I don't know if you are male or female, but if you, your father or your husband is entitled to a coat of arms, you would have to trace your ancestry back to the person to whom the arms were originally granted. Frequently more than one man with the same surname, not all necessarily related, were each granted their own coat of arms, all different.

No one peddler who sells them on the internet, at shopping malls, in airports,in magazines etc will have all of them. They don't need to in order to sell to suckers. The only time they will have more than one coat of arms associated with the same surname is if more than one man with the same surname from different national origins were granted one. Then they will have one of each and there might have been 50 others. Most men with that same surname are not entitled to a coat of arms at all as they do not have any direct male line ancestor that was ever granted a coat of arms.



Now you might have several in your family tree. That doesn't mean you are entitled to any one of them. It just means that after doing research of your family history and you find more than one ancestor that were granted a coat of arms and if you have a book printed or even published on your family history, it is valid for you to put pictures of your ancestors' coats of arms in your book. However, it would not be valid to put pictures in your book of those that were granted to men 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 an excellent chance of finding several in your family tree. In that case you probably have some cousins, perhaps you never met, that have the ones the ancestors you share in common with them brought over from England 350-400 years ago. As a rule they don't display them.

They aren't any good for buying groceries or gasoline. They don't have their 401k.



Any time you go into someone's home and see one of those walnut plaques on their den wall or over their fireplace just smile to yourself. Chances are they really think it belongs to them and it would be rude to laugh at people in their own homes about something like that. A coat of arms that has been legitimately passed down from father to son will not be mounted on a walnut plaque and will not have a surname over or under it. Most were granted before people had surnames.



Now you can have your own designed and registered with the American Heraldry Society. However, since we don't have laws regarding heraldry there is nothing you can do to stop someone else using your coat of arms.



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

They grant coats of arms for England and Wales



http://americanheraldry.org/

If you are an American you might contact these people. They can help you if you give them your family tree to see if you are entitled to a coat of arms.
?
2016-10-05 10:08:53 UTC
English Coat Of Arms
tatu
2016-12-30 16:51:07 UTC
Coat Of Arms Of England
anonymous
2016-04-09 02:25:47 UTC
For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/awtvM



Ted Pack is right: the College of Arms are the people who can certainly tell you this. And yes, they will charge you for their trouble, but as they are really the *only* people who can tell you authoritatively (the ancestry research field is littered with scam-merchants and plain wishful thinkers), then if you really want to know you should just pony up. (They are also the only people who can authorise you to use that coat of arms, or a version of it, if you want to do that; even if this Barker was provably your direct legitimate ancestor, you can't simply use his arms as your own without the heralds' authority.) In the meantime, you might like to check if the coat of arms that you found appears in the College of Arms's 1884 official directory of English coats of arms, which is available complete on Google Books at the link. As you'll see, it lists more than 35 different coats of arms belonging to various people called Barker, not necessarily related to each other in any way.
anonymous
2010-02-10 15:05:02 UTC
You are perfectly right in your assessment - these scam merchants just find a coat of arms, any old coat, belonging to someone with a particular name (sometimes not even that - sometimes just a name that looks a bit like it) and put it up and "The Coat of Arms of [surname]".



The ***only*** way you can find if anyone in your family had a coat of arms - and be aware that the chances are much better than evens that nobody related to you ever did - is to research your genealogy and investigate the ancestors you find to see if any of them was an armiger.



Don't waste your time with the "Family Crest" sites. Even if you really did have a coat of arms, the chance that it is the one these sites find for your name is very small. My mother's father did have a perfectly genuine coat of arms, registered and confirmed by the College of Heralds - and it isn't the one that all these sites proffer for his surname!
Karina
2015-08-18 10:06:01 UTC
This Site Might Help You.



RE:

How would I find my family's official English coat of arms?

Interested in researching to find a coat of arms of my family's ancestry. There are websites out there that advertise this but it would seem to me that they just plug and paste different things together and call it "your family's arms". However if I am wrong about this please...
?
2010-02-09 22:34:07 UTC
Coats of Arms

Except for a few cases, there is really no such thing as a catch-all "coat of arms" for a surname. BUT, you will find literally hundreds of web sites on the Internet that will tell you otherwise. In actuality, "coats of arms" are usually granted only to a single person ... and NOT to an entire family or to a particular surname. Coats of arms are inheritable property, and they generally descend to male lineal descendents of the original arms grantee. So, you will know if you inherited a "coat of arms" ... because if you did, you'll already have it! The caveat to this paragraph is that "rules" and traditions regarding Coats of Arms vary from country to country. So, be certain to research the heraldry traditions of your ancestor's home country.



There are many links to articles about Coats of Arms and heraldry, at Kimberly Powell's About.com genealogy site.



A newsgroup devoted to heraldry has posted some very good explanations regarding a coat of arms and family crests. It explains what they can mean, and it even discusses software available for heraldic studies.



Legitimate Arms

If you'd like to read more about true coats of arms then these websites are good places to start:

• The Baronage Press

• American College Of Heraldry

• Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies



Arms for Entertainment or Decoration

If, for the sole purpose of fun and entertainment, you still want to see some coats of arms associated (loosely) with your surname, then you can read through the below linked websites. Some of them have free "coats of arms" images. Bear in mind, though, that for most all of us, viewing these coats of arms, or buying mugs, t-shirts or plaques bearing these images is really just for fun or decoration.

• Free Coat of Arms

• Free Coat of Arms Search (Extensive Site!)

• Coats of Arms Designs of Wonder

• Coats of Arms on the Internet

• Fleur-de-Lis Designs

http://www.progenealogists.com/coatofarms.html



The family crest is typically a figure and generally a beast of some kind. It can be found "atop the helmet placed above the shield." Traditionally the crest has been used primarily by men. However, some queens of England of Britain have been treated with crests. In the early history of the family crest, its issuance was usually confined to people of rank, but later the crest was included in nearly every grant of arms.
Kristine
2016-01-25 08:35:49 UTC
find familyofficial english coat arms
Haylee
2010-02-09 19:05:54 UTC
I actually made mine in the 7th grade. My father owns a family book and the coat of arms happens to be in it. Yes, some site are unreliable, but others are oddly similar and could be exact. Your best bet would be to go to the library. They might have some good books that relate to your name and topic.
Brian
2010-02-09 19:01:37 UTC
Don't go to ancestry.com I'll tell you that. Ancestry.com doesn't work right unless you pay like $150.. then just maybe you have a small chance of finding your relatives on it.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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