Family Crest?

[iggyjoan]

[quote name='StThomasMore' post='1345915' date='Jul 31 2007, 10:44 PM']I have a coat of arms, but I'm not going to share it because that would involve revealing my surname [/quote]


I was thinking the same thing.

Which is a shame, because mine is really cool looking.

[Paladin D]

Did you guys start your own family crests, or are they actually passed down from your family?

We don't have one, guess it was never a tradition of ours.

[tojo]

This is mine. Got it off of one of the three facebook groups I belong to for people with my last name.


[img]http://profile.ak.facebook.com/object/984/6/n2213521049_30019.jpg[/img]


[quote name='Paladin D' post='1345942' date='Aug 1 2007, 12:10 AM']Did you guys start your own family crests, or are they actually passed down from your family?

We don't have one, guess it was never a tradition of ours.[/quote]

I think it depends, in part, on where your family is from, and if anyone with your name was ever noble.

My family is English, most Fullers are. At one point there were Fullers in England who a manor in Herefordshire, so there is a Fuller crest. I have no idea if I am actually related to those people, but I probably am... distantly of course.

[Maggyie]

Just everybody be careful about the family crest things, especially if you're looking online. There are online sites that exist only to sell you mugs, hats, and stationery with your "family crest" on it. Often these family crests are generic designs with your name smacked in the middle of them. Genealogy scams are highly profitable and can really prey on the enthusiasm of people!

There are a limited number of families with legitimate heraldry. Also, unless you are a direct male descendant of the person the crest was originally granted to, you probably do not have the "legal" right to use the crest (obviously nobody is going to sue you, it's just not "kosher."

The good news is that basically everybody currently alive on planet earth is related at least distantly to royalty of some sort. So even if the ones you know about were peasants, don't worry, if you go far enough back you'll run into a Scandinavian princess or two.

Edited August 1, 2007 by Maggie

[Mercy me]

The information on mine is not correct. Perhaps the German information is not as complete.

[Groo the Wanderer]

i foundeded a picture of it...this one has a bunch of froo froo around it though:


[img]http://www.flagsandcrests.net/images/family_crest/spanish/Moreno.jpg[/img]


Seems i was a tad off - those are iggles, not griffons

Edited August 2, 2007 by Groo the Wanderer

[saint_wannabe]

what good are they these days???
too bad we still dont live in castles and ride horses

[Noel's angel]

We don't?

[HollyDolly]

Maggie is right.I just typed in my mother's maiden name at one of these sights,and got that her name was
german and scottish.It's not.It's true Popp can be found in Germany,but it is also Hungarian.
They listed my last name as German and scottish.The name is german and french.

Cousins of ours,the von Lillienschild have a coat of arms and can be traced back in the records of the city of Riga,latvia to the 13th or 14th century.Some members belonged to the Livonian Knights of the Sword,who were later absorbed by the Teutonic knights.This was info dug up by the Gestapo when investigating my cousin Rheinhold
von Lilienschild. The name means lilly shield in german.The family apparently took their name from their coat of arms.
My father's relatives in Nuremberg keep the family history book.Our last name and coat of arms are found in Siebmacher's Wappenbuch.It shows a helm or helmet with a crown on top
below that the shield is divided in half. The crown or coronet usually indicates nobility.In Germany,you have what they call the untitled nobility,which means people don't have a title like Count of Monte Cristo,but are still considered members of the noble class and can use this coronet.The left sideof the shield shows part of an eagle. The right side is divided in half.The top half has a single fleur de lille in it.Below that there are some bars.
Just for the heck of it one day,I typed my last name "Hilpert in Alsace and found a website about the town of Hilbesheim.There it mentioned the ruins of a chateau-fort known as Kasselschoss,which had once been the home of a comte Hilpert.Comte is french for count. This may explain the fleur de lille or not. I was told by my mom once that the family was entitled to use von in their name.I'm sure she must have heard this from my dad.According to records in Garmisch,one of the relatives there was a steward to the king back in the 1690s,and apparentlygerman records also show that some relatives were herediatary foresters in the Black Forest.
They were also artisans,landholders and court officals.Quite a few were military men. One cousin was Generaloberst Carl Hilpert,
commander of Army Group Kurland during WW2 and a Knights Cross holder with oakleaves.
I have often wondered if Carl was in on any of the plots to kill Hitler.
I have even discovered several towns in Germany,mainly Bavaria and a couple in Baden with the family's name ,like Hilpertsweiler,Hilperthausen,etc.
I'd really love to go to Germany and visit the family and find out more on our history and what if any connection to these towns and many other things.
Even if a person has no coat of arms,your ancestors were part of history and one should try to learn all you can because each of us is a link to the past.
Sometimes you wonder about ,or at least I do about their lives in the past.Why I'm sure some of my mother's ancestors must have been followers of Atilla the Hun,and both sides in the distant past may have fought the Romans
in battle.St.Martin of Tours was born in Pannonia,present day Hungary,to if I recall a roman father and a hungarian mother,so anything is indeed possible.

Well coats of arms aren't of much use today it's true.Yes it would be nice to live in a castle,or at least visit one.
The stuff hanging off the helmet is called a mantle.It was a kind of protection. Often in medieval paintings you see figures or objects on top of the knight's helmet.It was to identify him plus also served to help deflect blows by swords,etc.I'm sure there are websites about knights and their equipment.