AF-584: What Is a Coat of Arms and Do You Have the Right to Use Them? | Ancestral Findings Podcast

welcome back to the ancestral findings podcast are you interested in knowing more about your family

coat of arms join me today as i explain the truth behind family coats of arms on today's podcast

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one of the first things a lot of beginner genealogists want to explore

is their family crest or coat of arms it is a mistaken belief

among beginners that every family has one of these somewhere in their ancient history

and newcomers to the genealogical field naturally want to celebrate their family by bringing their

coat of arms back to life this is a wonderful ambition and if your family truly does have a

coat of arms or crest that you are entitled to use you should learn about it and display it proudly

however actually having a coat of arms or family crest is much more rare than you might imagine

having the hereditary right to use it is even more rare while there are many companies out

there that are willing to sell you all kinds of merchandise with your supposed family crest on it

the vast majority of these companies are not engaged in legitimate genealogical research

the coat of arms or crests you get may or may not belong to your family and it might be made

up completely by the company selling it to you or you may not have the hereditary right to use it

if you really want to know something about heraldry the art of studying coats of arms

and crests and how it applies to your family listen on it's a fascinating tale

historically speaking a coat of arms is a design on the shield of a medieval knight

the design was unique to an individual sometimes the individual only had rights to the coat of

arms during his lifetime other times he was allowed to pass it down to his descendants

and it became the family coat of arms as time went on some nations and even corporations adopted

their own coats of arms the symbols on a coat of arms are meant to represent the achievements of

the person state or corporation to whom or which the arms were granted the first documented use of

code of arms in medieval times is on the bayou tapestry which dates from the 11th century a.d

and chronicles the norman invasion of england some of the knights on the tapestry are seen

holding shields with heraldic insignia on them usually painted crosses these were the earliest

and most basic types of coats of arms the use of coats of arms became pretty common by the

12th century and were used by many knights and minor feudal lords who went into battle

within another century families were using coats of arms usually once granted to an ancestor a

century before as the family logo and sewed these arms onto flags that flew above their castles and

manners only the highest classes of people in medieval europe used coats of arms as they were

the only one with ancestors distinguished enough to have been granted them by the kings of the time

once a family started using a coat of arms it was passed down through the generations

from one to the other even down into the present day an individual had to be granted a coat of arms

by a ruling monarch to be able to legally use it after that the laws or customs governing who had

the right to use them varied by country in most of europe only the aristocracy could use them

in the germanic countries both aristocrats and free citizens who weren't noble

but who had distinguished accomplishments could be granted them and used them in england and scotland

only the person who was originally granted the coat of arms could use it as it was while coats