Where Can I Find A Decent Picture Of My Coat Of Arms?

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Posted by Admin on 09 Feb 10 - 5 Comments

I think you are assuming that there are places to buy pictures of surname coats of arms. There are internet scam websites that sell surname coats of arms, but even if the graphics are decent, it is not *your” coat of arms. Here is why: You must descend from a particular individual who bore a coat of arms. If you coincidentally have the surname of an armiger, it gives you no right to use his arms, just as having the same surname of a home owner gives you no right to take his house. Heraldry is hereditary-based, not surname-based.
If you cannot trace your paternal ancestry to a documented armiger, then in the USA you may freely adopt an original design. In Scotland and England you must pay the heraldic authority for the right to bear a coat of arms.
I think the best place to get graphics or help is from the IAAH. http://www.amateurheralds.org

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5 comments for “Where Can I Find A Decent Picture Of My Coat Of Arms?”

1
storkarh

It should be carved over the mantle in your family’s estate’s dining hall.
Seriously –
House of names -http://www.houseofnames.com
will probably show you a Coat of Arms / Crest that was (probably) once issued to someone with the same surname as yours, BUT:
Coats of arms were designed so knights could tell each other apart when they were buttoned up in their suits of armor. They were given to individuals, not families. If, for instance, every knight named Smith used the same coat of arms, there would be a small army riding around with identical shields. It would be as confusing as a basketball game where both sides wore blue and every player was number 12.
The eldest legitimate son inherits his father’s Coats of Arms. He passes it on to his eldest legitimate son, and so on; that’s where the myth of a “Family” Coat of arms comes from. Only one person can PROPERLY (See below) have a given coat of arms at one time. People who sell T-shirts and coffee mugs, however encourage the gullible to believe Coats of Arms are for a surname.
Below:
If your surname is Smith and you come from Shropshire, you may find that Sir Albert Smith, Sir Bruce Smith and Sir Charles Smith, all from Shropshire, all had C of A. If you do your research, you may find you descend from Sir Charles, but you are nowhere close to being the eldest son of the eldest son of the . . .. Now comes the question – Is using his coat of arms proper? Opinions differ.
Some say it is like demanding “your” room in the ancestral Smith estate in Shropshire, from the current owners – ridiculous and illegal.
Some say it is like wearing a Regimental tie if you didn’t serve in that regiment. (Land’s End sells those by the thousands to Americans. I would never buy one.)
Some say it is like wearing a Scotch Plaid shirt when you don’t belong to that clan. (LL Bean sells tens of thousands of those; I have Lindsay myself.)
Some say it is as harmless as wearing a Detroit Tigers baseball cap when you didn’t play for the team, or a UC Berkeley T-shrt when you didn’t attend the University. (Or an Ohio State one, but as long as you’re going to wear a University T-shirt, why not the finest?)
So, there’s the facts and three opinions about using a “Family” coat of arms. You can make up your own mind, after you do your research.

February 10th, 2010 at 1:28 am
2
Ted Pack

Coats of arms do not belong to surnames.
Anytime you print one off from one of the peddlers like House of Names that sell them on the internet, at shopping malls, in airports, in magazines etc and display it like it belongs to you, you are usurping the identity of another person. If you have pride in yourself and your family, you certain don’t want to take on another’s identity.
Coats of arms were granted to or assumed by an individual man. Each country has its own laws about how they are inherited. In many cases, 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 will have all of them.
They don’t need to in order to sell to the gullible.
The only time they will have more than one is if more than one man with the same surname from different national origins were granted or assumed one. Then they will have one of each and there might have been others.
In the U.K., Scotland and Ireland, they have to be granted by the heraldry authority of the country involved. In the U.K. when a man was granted one all sons were eligible to obtain one with some differences. Only the oldest son is entitled to his father’s upon his father’s death.
Anytime you go into someone’s home and see one of those walnut plaques with a coat of arms over their fireplace, what they are display is a coat of arms that belongs to someone with their surname and might not even be related.
The bad thing about these merchants of deceit selling coats of arms by surname is that a family history comes with them. That family history will not be the family history of everyone with that particular surname. A lot of people have been thrown off when starting their family history because of that.
I am furnishing you with some link regarding heraldry in various countries.http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Faq.ht…
This is the authority that grants coats of arms for England, Wales and Northern Irelandhttp://www.heraldry.ws/info/article10.ht…
This is regarding Irish heraldryhttp://www.bothwell.cx/arms.shtml
This link regarding Bothwell arms gives rules regarding Scottish heraldryhttp://www.regalis.com/onom.htm
This is regarding Italian heraldryhttp://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/
This is regarding French heraldryhttp://www.szlachta.org/heraldry.htm
This is regarding Polish heraldry

February 10th, 2010 at 7:26 am
3
Anonymous

If its really yours – you should already know it.
If you are a tourist then any Scottish shop should be able to get you a coat of arms, a tartan and a family shortbread.

February 10th, 2010 at 10:24 am
4
Johnny

on your coat ;)

February 10th, 2010 at 11:30 am
5
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