About 15 years ago (1993) when I was in High School, our school band had a trip to England. We stayed in London for about 7 or 8 days. My grandmother was from Manchester, England so as a result I started to become interested in my family ancestry. Around that time I became interested in my Scottish blood after my Grandparents had returned from a trip to Nova Scotia. My grandfather's parents were from Glasgow, Scotland.
When I was in England, one of our scheduled events was an Elizabethan Banquet. It's a mock banquet where actors dress up as period characters. Namely Elizabeth I and jests and minstrels. Surrounding the wall of this great banquet hall were the heraldry (real heraldry mind you) of historical persons from England. I spent about an hour walking around the hall visually studying the heraldry. It was at this time that I was wondering about my family coat of arms. At that time I was completely unaware that I/we had none. I was only 17 years old at the time.
Lets go forward in time a wee bit to 1998. Lets just say a certain person (I'll call him Matt) set me straight on a lot of issues. Matt once said, "Coat of Arms in the British Isles belong to individuals and not families." I began to feel as though I had been lied to most of my life about a great many things. I decided that I would make it my Life's mission to correct this.
A while ago I was doing a little investigation to acquire evidence of my own to convince some folks on how bogus most of the "Family Coat of Arms" dealers are. My surname is Williamson, and here is my pictorial evidence:
Notice that all of these differ in some way. If they are family name coat of arms why is that. Each one of these are from a different vendor and is what they would sell to any Williamson who purchases one from them.
Now I challenge you, those who still believe you have a family coat of arms.
research what all these vendors are selling under your name.
House of Names
All Family Crests
Heraldry
Family Coat of Arms
Crest
Family Crest
Authentic Coat of Arms
What you will realize (I hope you will), is that each one of these places are vendors and their images differ for (c) reasons.
For some good links on Scottish Heraldry:
Scottish Heraldry - by Matt Newsome
Court of the Lord Lyon
The Heraldry Society of Scotland
Bookmarks