Use of ancestor’s arms vs. new design

 
Wilfred Leblanc
 
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Wilfred Leblanc
Total Posts:  1223
Joined  31-07-2007
 
 
 
06 September 2007 23:41
 

I notice that the NEHGS Committee on Heraldry’s application form for recording arms assumed in the U.S. (http://makepeace.ca/nehgs/registration/assumed.pdf) offers the option of assumption on behalf of oneself and his descendants, without discrimination as to gender or generation. My perception is that the NEHGS is the highest institutional authority we in the U.S. have for matters genealogical, so my temptation is to infer from the wording of the form that there is some kind of established precedent here for inheritance of arms from outside the legitimate, direct, male line. Is this a misreading of the NEHGS’ intent?

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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07 September 2007 07:03
 

fwhite;49316 wrote:

I notice that the NEHGS Committee on Heraldry’s application form for recording arms assumed in the U.S. (http://makepeace.ca/nehgs/registration/assumed.pdf) offers the option of assumption on behalf of oneself and his descendants, without discrimination as to gender or generation. My perception is that the NEHGS is the highest institutional authority we in the U.S. have for matters genealogical,


Well, not exactly.  It is, in my view, the most respected and scholarly publisher of a roll of arms, but it is ultimately still a private, self-constituted society, not an institutional authority.  (And for matters genealogical there are national-level organizations, including one that certifies professional genealogists’ qualifications.)


Quote:

so my temptation is to infer from the wording of the form that there is some kind of established precedent here for inheritance of arms from outside the legitimate, direct, male line. Is this a misreading of the NEHGS’ intent?


Yes, it is.  See the middle paragraph of the form:  "intending that the same shall be used by the above-named as the private property in accordance with the armorial usage which obtained at the time that this country was settled."

 

At the time the US was settled, the norm almost everywhere was inheritance only in the legitimate male line, with a few relatively isolated exceptions.