Quote:
Originally Posted by MysticCat
Beware -- Here comes the geeky heraldist in me. (Sorry, this thread just is bringing it out.  )
It's very common in America to refer to a family's coat-of-arms -- my family has a coat of arms, too.
But in European countries where there are actually legal authorities that grant coats of arms and regulate their usage (and where the families of most of those of us who have "family" coats of arms came from), there is no such thing as a family coat-of-arms.
In countries like England and Scotland, coats-of-arms are the personal property of an individual. They belong to one person only, and it is illegal for anyone else to use them. If dad is noble and armigerous (entitled to a coat-of-arms) and dies, then it is possible that his eldest son will inherent the arms along with dad's title. But, despite the many companies that will try to sell us Americans the Smythe coat-of-arms, there really ain't no such thing.
[/nerdy heraldist] |
Ah well, my family's lineage has been traced (courtesy of some cousin of mine) back through the 1300s and its known that we had a fief in England at some point, so I imagine someone in my ancestry had arms and that's what we use today. I've also heard of arms being passed down among noble/armigerous families with slight alterations between the generations and have seen several slightly-altered forms of my "arms" so it's entirely possible.