Can anyone find me a picture of the Sowers coat of arms?

Question:http://www.houseofnames.com/fc.asp?sId=&...
I'll probably get a shed load of thumbs down for this answer, but I don't care, certain people on the forum don't agree with the houseofnames set up, I was just giving you my answer.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: http://www.houseofnames.com/fc.asp?sId=&...
I'll probably get a shed load of thumbs down for this answer, but I don't care, certain people on the forum don't agree with the houseofnames set up, I was just giving you my answer.

There is no such thing.

Coats of arms are given to individuals, not families.

Tell me the name, birth date and death date of your ancestor who lived in the 1500's and I'll show you his C of A.

Not all Sowers are related; neither are all Smiths or all Packs.

Most of us Packs are really good looking, though. It makes up for our rudeness.
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Added later:

Sowers
Americanized form of German Sauers.

And

Sauers
Variant of German Sauer.

And

Sauer
German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for an embittered or cantankerous person, from Middle High German sur, German sauer ‘sour’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

You guys must be better looking than us Packs, even.
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IJMe gave you what you asked for. If your last name was Madison and you lived in Madison County, you could tell people it was named after your family. You might be right and you might not. Showing a C of A that was once issued to someone with your surname is like that. It would be like me telling people my family invented the six-pack.

Hey, I knew a Sowers in high school...you're name isnt Patrick is it?
haha, I'm sure it's not, but it would be darn cool if it was.
Good luck.

the College of Arms is the official agency for heraldry..
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Faq.ht...
It isn't just "some people" on this site, it is the policy of the persons who know something about it.

A coat of arms was granted to an INDIVIDUAL, not to a family. And for it to be YOUR coat of arms, you would have to show direct paternal descendency from that person (not his brothers, or uncles who likely bore the same surname - for it was not their coat of arms).

Without that direct descendancy, what you have is a way-cool coat of arms that at sometime way back when was granted to someone who happened to have your surname (there can be many coats-of-arms for a given surname). Nothing to do with you.

That said, there are a bizzillion places that will gladly sell you a coat of arms, and even one that likely was in fact granted to someone with your surname. Any Stuckey's along US interstates has racks of coffee mugs and key chains with coats-of-arms with a surname.

But there is no family (surname) coat of arms, in fact, many coats-of-arms were granted before surname usage was common or stable. It is the coat of arms of the direct paternal descendants of the person granted the coat of arms. And surname is irrelevant. Somewhere in that paternal line, someone could have changed their surname for any number of reasons -- but as a direct descendent, you can consider it your coat of arms even though you don't have the surname of the original grantee.

So you might be able to find a coat of arms that at some point way back when was granted to some individual with the surname Sowers (but not his brothers or uncles) - maybe even 4 or 5, but it isn't your coat of arms.

If you are a student and your teacher has asked the class for them to find their coat of arms, please tell her/him coats of arms do not belong to surnames.

They were granted to individuals who passed them on to their sons.

House of Names has at the bottom of its page the following in fine print

"We encourage you to study the Sowers genealogy to find out if you descend from someone who bore a particular family crest.
. . . . . . . . . . .No families, not even royal houses, can make sound claim to the right to bear arms unless a proven connection is estalbished through attested genealogical records."

House of Names has is showing one but actually there might be five. They don't belong to surnames. Five different individuals named Sowers might have been granted a coat of arms. They might or might not be related to each other or to you.

People who display those tacky little plaques on their wall are just displaying one that was granted to someone with their surname. Any genealogist or someone savvy on genealogy or heraldy is probably amused when they visit their homes and see those plaques. Politeness means they don't laugh about it to their host's face.

Now, the Anglo Saxon people of the American South, even those of humble means, usually have more than one in their family trees. That doesn't mean they are entitled to any one of them. You can only be entitled to one. In many cases, they might have more than one direct ancestor that was granted a coat of arms but it comes down to them on a female line.

Some in the South actually has the one their ancestor brought from England 300-400 years ago. The English who came South in early colonial days frequently came from titled families. However, they don't display their coats of amrs. They can't buy groceries with them and even Walmart won't take them!