I have had loads of fun expanding my knowledge of heraldry, working with fellow heraldists, and designing my own arms.
Now, in the hypothetical future when I have enough free time, I’d like to engage in a bit of personal genealogical research to see how far back I can go.
While climbing my family tree, let us assume that an armigerous ancestor shakes loose.
Would I then be obligated in some way to stop using my assumed arms (the ones that I spend years designing) and start using an appropriately cadenced version of the arms of my ancestor? Would it be heraldically incorrect for me to keep using my assumed arms after learning that I have inheritable arms in my family tree?
steven harris;85998 wrote:
While climbing my family tree, let us assume that an armigerous ancestor shakes loose.
Would I then be obligated in some way to stop using my assumed arms (the ones that I spend years designing) and start using an appropriately cadenced version of the arms of my ancestor? Would it be heraldically incorrect for me to keep using my assumed arms after learning that I have inheritable arms in my family tree?
Obliged? No.
Personally, however, if I were to prove that one of my direct ancestors in the male line had arms, however, I would lay claim to them in a heartbeat.
(I personally wouldn’t worry about differencing, as I do not believe it is part of our heraldic custom in the United States, although given that my direct male line ancestors would have been Scots, in the astronomically unlikely event that one of them was armigerous I would probably petition Lyon Court to confirm the arms on the basis of ancient user. In that case, Lyon would certainly require differencing in the matriculation since I know my great-great-grandfather was a fourth son.)
Note that just any ancestor won’t do: direct, male, legitimate, provable.
Joseph McMillan;85999 wrote:
Obliged? No.
Personally, however, if I were to prove that one of my direct ancestors in the male line had arms, however, I would lay claim to them in a heartbeat.
(I personally wouldn’t worry about differencing, as I do not believe it is part of our heraldic custom in the United States, although given that my direct male line ancestors would have been Scots, in the astronomically unlikely event that one of them was armigerous I would probably petition Lyon Court to confirm the arms on the basis of ancient user. In that case, Lyon would certainly require differencing in the matriculation since I know my great-great-grandfather was a fourth son.)
Note that just any ancestor won’t do: direct, male, legitimate, provable.
While I love my arms, if I was to find a direct male ancestor who had an arms, I would also adopt it in a heartbeat. You’re not obligated to in any way though, but to my eyes it would seem a shame not to. The majority of the people here don’t have the opportunity to adopt and ancestors arms, so again I think it would be a shame not to if you found one.
It occurred to me that a case exactly like the one Steven contemplates cropped up in Clan MacMillan in the early 1950s.
In 1949, Lt Gen Sir Gordon MacMillan of Laggalgarve was appointed the British Army’s General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Scottish Command. This made him ex officio Governor of Edinburgh Castle, and he was therefore in need of arms to have the customary personal banner to fly over the castle. Lyon Innes of Learney granted him these arms in 1950, based on those matriculated to the representative of the chiefly line of MacMillan of Knap in 1742, differenced for indeterminate cadency:
http://beaconsfield-strategy.com/MacMillan-Lag.gif
The following year, the Reverend Somerled MacMillan, the clan historian and genealogist, produced evidence that the general was the rightful heir of the chiefly line, and Lyon confirmed him in the undifferenced 1742 arms:
http://beaconsfield-strategy.com/MacMillan-Knap.gif
The version with the salmons and cross crosslets fitchy was eventually rematriculated for Sir Gordon’s second son, LtGen Sir John MacMillan, while the first son, George MacMillan, succeeded to the chiefship and the undifferenced arms when his father died in 1986. (Sir Gordon also had two other sons, who would be entitled to the 1742 arms differenced with bordures but who have apparently not matriculated such arms at Lyon Court.)
Interestingly, Sir John was Governor of Edinburgh Castle from 1988-91 and thus flew a banner of the same design as his father’s original banner.
The images are from my MacMillan Armorial, http://beaconsfield-strategy.com/MacMillanArmorial5.html
Although I had not assumed arms, I had come up with a few blazons that I thought I might choose from and request to be certified by a heraldic authority for my use. All of the blazons I had come up with included three stars, representing a very important spiritual experience my wife had when she was very young.
Before petitioning for a certification of arms and genealogy, I had retained the service of professional geneologists in Spain who extended and filled out my direct paternal line. When I submitted my petition and documentary proofs to the chronicler king of arms he was able to certify my right to ancestral arms which didn’t look anything like any of the blazons I had been contemplating using for a few years. The king of arms insisting on confirming my right to the undifferenced but also agreed to certify my use of the ancient arms differenced with a chief charged with the stars my wife and I had become so very fond of.
I would suggest that if after completing the genealogical work you hope to do, you find (or are informed as I was) that you have a right to ancestral arms - use the ancestral arms and then difference them with a charge that means something to you from the arms you now use.
Ultimately, however you decide to proceed, the most appropriate choice would IMHO be whichever has the most meaning to you.
If I were to discover a direct-male-line ancestor who bore arms, my willingness to use them as-is would be contingent on their being at least in the ballpark of what I consider good-looking. Increasingly, I have the sense that if I were to really dig, and there were some kind of intact paper trail (far from a given in France, apparently, owing to revolution and two world wars), I probably would turn up such an ancestor in the four hundred or so years between the rise of heraldry in France and the immigration of my ancestor Antoine Leblanc to Canada in 1665. But what I see in d’Hozier of arms attributed to Leblancs does not excite me terribly, and I suspect that I would want to at least difference any I might ultimately be entitled to juste un petit peu.
I share Joe’s opinion. Unfortunately for me, though, there’s no way I can do genealogy on my paternal side. No ancestral arms for me :-(
Jeremy Corbally-Hammond;86039 wrote:
I share Joe’s opinion. Unfortunately for me, though, there’s no way I can do genealogy on my paternal side. No ancestral arms for me :-(
I find myself in in this boat as well, but if a miracle were to occur, I’d try to blend the elements of my assumed arms into the existing one (assuming it’s a cadet branch).
Honestly I’d be inclined to adopt it, even if I didn’t visually care much for the design. It’s not like I will find one though, so my feelings are moot 
If I were able to find something from that far back I would definitely adopt it. But considering that is just about impossible for me I don’t really have to worry about it ever actually happening.
I’m also most unlikely to stumble upon an ancestral armiger—but if I did, it’s likely that the arms would greatly resemble my assumed arms except for colors & the saltires. I would, I think, be inclined to add the saltires to the (likely) red border, assuming it was plain.
Michael F. McCartney;86081 wrote:
I’m also most unlikely to stumble upon an ancestral armiger—but if I did, it’s likely that the arms would greatly resemble my assumed arms except for colors & the saltires. I would, I think, be inclined to add the saltires to the (likely) red border, assuming it was plain.
Depending on when and where your ancestors were located, there is a possibility that they may have a coat of arms. In the region where my paternal ancestral line was located in 18th century America, heraldry was alive and well in that part of the newly independent United States. Here are just a few examples from the area in and around Charlotte, North Carolina:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5260/5482183757_585ac106df.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5254/5482184181_ed183b871e.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3280/2674559906_d114250cfd.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3138/2665024605_66c23dff5f.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3280/2665863762_d1281da0b5.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3166/2672999534_f5edb28259.jpg
