The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2016 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. The theme I chose is Genealogy Tips. At the end I will give a related post from my blog Genealogy: Beyond the BMD.
H is for Heraldry
I see many people putting coats of arms on their family trees, and its all pretty and all, but may not be correct. Not everyone with the same surname is entitled to the coat of arms.
The Royal Proclamation of 1417 stated more or less: "...no
man should assume arms unless he held them by right of inheritance or by the
donation of some person who had the power to give them."
If you believe your ancestor was granted a coat of arms, it is a great resource to check for answers, as the heralds had to travel to the petitioner's place of residence and do a thorough investigation (background check, if you will) into the genealogy of the person requesting the arms.
I did some asking at the London College of Arms where my ancestor would have been granted his arms, and if you have some basic information plus an image of the arms a search would be about 125 US$ (subject to change, and possibly more if all you have is a name and place). That was the price for me, as a cousin gave me a photo of a drawing of our family coat of arms that was hanging in our ancestral home. And I had a little more info. It will be interesting to see who is the last person that was entitled to our coat of arms.(My grandfather always wrote his S's like that below, now I see why!)
Amor Patriae Omnia Vincit ~ Love of Country Conquers All.
Is there a coat of arms in your ancestry?
Given my ancestors' background, it is very unlikely they have a coat of arms, but an interesting topic that I don't think gets much attention on family history blogs.
ReplyDeleteA couple times when I have had no image to go with a blog post, I have snagged a picture of a family coat of arms without really thinking about what it meant. Thanks for educating me!
ReplyDeleteVisiting from AtoZ
Wendy at
Jollett Etc.
What cool thing to learn so much about.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. I know little about heraldry.
ReplyDeleteI cannot even find of paternal ancestors so who knows :D One of your other challenges has me looking for some of those ancestors (looking up the town of birth or where they lived Gazetteers etc. no luck so far but will kind trying :D
ReplyDeleteI've found one for my husbands family but not my own. LOL
ReplyDeleteHappy A to Z ing! Yay, the weekend's here! :)
Ninga Minion @YolandaRenee from
Defending The Pen
Parallels
Murderous Imaginings
My motley bunch of ancestors would never have had a Coat of Arms.
ReplyDeleteDon't think my lot had a coat of arms but certainly an interesting thing if they did.
ReplyDelete