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Position:Home>Genealogy> I am looking for my family crest, where is the best place to go to get the most


Question:unless your ansestors where people of great importance you most likely don't have one. And beware thoughs websites that say they can find your family crest(coat of arms). They aren't real. My grandpa still gets laughed at for being duped my one. he was sent a crest with what they said ours was... "arms holding a goldencalf with a sprig in it's mouth" the arms had a business suit on them..... most families that have crests keep an ansestory log anyway. I can date my family to 1703. and I can tell you now he was no one of consiquence, thus no coat of arms.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: unless your ansestors where people of great importance you most likely don't have one. And beware thoughs websites that say they can find your family crest(coat of arms). They aren't real. My grandpa still gets laughed at for being duped my one. he was sent a crest with what they said ours was... "arms holding a goldencalf with a sprig in it's mouth" the arms had a business suit on them..... most families that have crests keep an ansestory log anyway. I can date my family to 1703. and I can tell you now he was no one of consiquence, thus no coat of arms.

check back thru your family history and see if there ever was one. If not, then you don't have one

it depends on what country your ancestor came from. Just be prepared to accept that there might not be one; percentagewise, very few families have a legitimate crest.

Please see the links below, one from the British College of Arms and the other from the most prestigious genealogical society in the U.S., The National Genealogical Society.

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

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

There is no such thing as a family crest. A "family crest" is a misnomer for a coat of arms. Actually, the crest is part of a coat of arms.

Coats of Arms DO NOT belong to surnames.

Coats of arms were originally part of the knight's armour. The crest was the plume on the knight's helmet. Now as time went by they were granted to noblemen and then later to men of prominence. The earliest coats of arms did not have a crest. The crest was something added for some deed pleasing to the crown. Later, about the Elizabethan period, all coats of arms had crest.

They were and are granted to individuals. The only persons entitled to them are the individuals they were granted to or their direct legitimate male line descendants.

I understand the ones granted to a men who are knighted are not hereditary.

Surnames were not used until the last melennium in Europe. It wasn't until the 1400s that mostly all people had a surname and still the name was subject to change.

After surnames were taken or granted, legitimate sons of the same man could all have a different surname but still each of them could share their surname with someone with whom they were not related.

There might be several that were granted to individuals with your surname, not all related to each other. However, the merchants of deceit that sell them will not have all of them as they don't need all to sell to gullible people.

Many people on this board can give you links to websites peddling coats of arms. However, we would not be honest if we did not tell you that even if you found one that had your surname under it, that is no guarantee it belongs to you.

People who display those little walnut plaques on their den walls are just displaying one that was granted to someone with their surname and probably isn't related. That's all.

Now, you might have legitimate claim to several in your family tree. That doesn't mean you actually are entitled to them. It just means that some of your direct ancestors were granted one and if you have a book printed and even published, it would be legitimate, after doing research and finding their coat of arms, for you to put a picture of their coat of arms in your book. However, it would not be legitimate if you just took one with the surnames of your ancestors and put it in your book.

For Americans, if they have any English lines that goes back to early colonial days in the American South, they have a good chance of finding more than one in their family tree. Actually some in the South have the ones their ancestor brought over from England 300-400 years ago. They aren't those dinky little walnut plaques either. They usually have them stuck away in a closet or in their attic. They can't buy groceries with them.

Now, we have a lot of students asking your question because their teacher who appparently knows very little about genealogy or heraldy has asked them to find their "family crest." If this is your case you can look at the House of Names website and if you find one with your surname under it, have it printed off, but also print off the information in the two links I have given you and give it to your teacher.

She/He will probably be impressed with your research.