Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I search for my own family crest?
• Type your last name in the scroll above and click Search.

• How do you determine which coat of arms to use? How do you know this is my “real” coat of arms? I saw another website on the internet selling a version of my family crest that looked different, etc…

• First of all, one must accept that heraldry is not an exact science. In the periods of early heraldry, blazons (descriptions) were recorded by hand and accordingly the written records were subject to interpretation. Heraldic writers often differed in their descriptions because of this but also, because arms granted by heraldic authorities were based on, in many cases, the “spoken” word of the registrant.

  Many surnames do not have a coat of arms; some have one, others have hundreds. The heraldic artists who created these images attempted to determine the oldest on record. If this was not immediately known, usually the first in a blazon manuscript was chosen; this does not mean it’s the oldest, as suggested by some heralds.

  The heraldry experts who made this artwork did its best not to use name variants or anglicized versions of a surname; rather, it uses the exact spelling as originally registered. Genealogical experts suggest that each name can have 6-8 spelling variants, with many having 20 or more; some online databases use this assumption to bolster their number of arms featured, and display the same arms for all of them. This practice is not recommended as many of the spelling variants they assign the same arms to, actually had distinct coats of arms registered.

  Please keep in mind that coats of arms were granted to individuals not surnames.

• What reference material was used when researching coats of arms and/or Family Shields?
• Here’s a list of some of the main sources:
  • 1. Rietstap’s Armorial General; it was compiled in the late 19th century by Johan Baptiste Rietstap from the Netherlands, and contains some 130,000 blazons of European Families.
  • 2. Burke’s General Armory; a registry of Armorial Bearings for England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms
  • 3. Dizionario Storico-blasonico delle famiglie nobilie notabili Italiane; probably the best resource for Italian coats of arms; it was authored by G. B. Di Crollalanza in 1886 and features about 1400 blazons.
  • 4. The Encyclopaedia Heraldica, 1828, by William Berry, who was the registering clerk for 15 years, for the College of Arms.
  • 5. A Complete Body of Heraldry, Edmondson, Joseph, 1780
  • 6. Grosses Wappenbuch, Johann Siebmacher's (1605); nobility of Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bukovina, the Baltic states, Alsace, and numerous other kingdoms and principalities on the continent…
  • 7. Irish Families-Edward MacLysaght , former Chief Herald of Ireland.
  • 8. Irish Arms-by Paul Murtaugh
  • 9. La Methode du Blazon-C.F. Menestrier
  • 10. Diccionario de Heraldica-J.A. Schnieper, one of our Spanish resources.
  • 11. Armorial Lusitano-a Portuguese resource, by Zairol
  • 12. Bolton’s American Armory-Charles Knowles Bolton, American Heraldry
  • 13. L'Heraldique Napoleonienne-Philippe Lamarque

Hundreds of other reference books were also used.