I want to know my family coat of arms.?

Question:I've googled it and got so many crap sites.is there any official way to find out exactly your families coat of arms?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I've googled it and got so many crap sites.is there any official way to find out exactly your families coat of arms?

Coats of arms DO NOT belong to surnames. See the link below from the British College of Arms and one from the most prestigious genealogical organization in the U. S., The National Genealogical Society.

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

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerp...

House of Names has in fine print on its pages the following "We encourage you to study the ___________ 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 made through attested genealogical records."

There are no laws in the U. S. regarding heraldry. However, in some countries a person would risk prosecution for displaying a coat of arms without documentation that they are entitled to it.

There are merchants of deceit, I feel are descendants of snake oil salesman, who sell them to people like they belong to them solely on a surname.

Actually there are no coat of arms granted to people of many surnames. Then there might be several that were granted to different individuals with the same surname, not all necessarily related. However, the peddlers that sell them will not have all of them as they don't need to to sell to gullible Americans.

A lot of teachers who know very little about genealogy or heraldry are apparently asking their students to find their family coat of arms. If this is your case, if you find one from one of the peddlers selling them, print it off but at the same time print the two links I have provided for you and give it to her/him. Your teacher would have to be impressed with your research.

If you are entitled to one at all you would have to do family research to find it. Actually a person can have several in their family tree. Now, that doesn't mean they are entitled to any of them. It just means after doing research if they find direct ancestors that were granted one, it would be quite legitimate for them to put pictures of their coats of arms in their any book they had printed or even published. However, it would not be legitimate if they put in their book ones that just happened to bear their ancestors' surnames without proof that they were the ones that were granted to their ancestor.

People displaying those dinky little walnut plaques on their den wall are just displaying one that was granted to someone who had their surname and might not even be related.

Try houseofnames.com

the answer is that any of them that you find will be fake.
They are ONLY awarded to an individual person, or his male heir/ eldest son. They do not ever belong to families in their correct use, which is determined by the College of Arms.
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Faq.ht...
edit
houseofnames is at the top of the list for irresponsible sites. They look quite credible.. until you read the fine print and compare their info to College of Arms.

In addition to what Wendy and Shirley said, even if you have an ancestor who was granted one, you cannot claim it unless you are the first born of the first born of the first born, etc., of the person who was awarded the coat of arms in the first place. If you cannot prove being in the line of first borns from the recipeint on down to you, it is not your coat of arms and you cannot claim it.