This is all purely hypothetical because I honestly do not think anyone in my family will want to do this but I am very curious as to how this would work and I haven’t really been able to find an answer anywhere so I thought I’d ask. If the answer if staring me in the face then I apologize for being naive. 
So, as you know, my COA is (for the most part) finalized. What would happen if my brother decides to adopt the arms as well, but my father does not. I know that if my dad does then the traditional cadencing would apply and I’d get the traditional first son mark while my brother would get the 2nd son one. However, if my dad does not adopt the arms then I would be the owner of the original design, so what would my brother get? Does he still get the 2nd son cadency marks? Does he get a design that has some differencing on it (i.e. a reverse colored chief)? Do we both use the same shield but he gets a different crest?
j.carrasco;87745 wrote:
What would happen if my brother decides to adopt the arms as well, but my father does not.
Your brother would adopt whatever arms he wanted. He could use one of your alternative designs with tincture changes, or something entirely different. Not your arms with any kind of cadency marks; he’s your brother, not your son.
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I know that if my dad does then the traditional cadencing would apply and I’d get the traditional first son mark while my brother would get the 2nd son one.
This is not really customary in the United States, as Eugene Zieber noted about 120 years ago. Difference with cadency marks if you like, but even in England it isn’t done much, and the last Garter King of Arms suggested it normally shouldn’t be.
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Do we both use the same shield but he gets a different crest?
If you don’t inherit the arms from a common ancestor, you generally would not use the same shield. You may use the same crest.
Jesse, You really have to decide which country’s heraldic practices you’d like to follow. However, generally there wouldn’t be marks of cadency on your brother’s arms if you father wasn’t an armiger… To show family alignment he can difference your arms or develop his own design with a significant use of your design. But generally not cadency.
If you father decides to adopt arms, the issue of cadency is something many people think is more or less useless. In the US all of your father’s heirs could use the same arms without a problem. Or you can choose to use cadency as used (loosely) by different authorities. OR you can difference each in some consistent way… The first thing is to decide if you’re a "family" COA or "one person, one arms" person.
Thanks Joseph and Kathy. That all makes sense and also tells me why I couldn’t really find the answer anywhere. Even though I know no one in the family would want to adopt their own arms I did try to design a shield that was more reflective of my family as opposed to just me (I saved that for the crest). Now I realize it didn’t even matter. Oh well. Haha. At least I love what I came up with.
Well they could adopt a similar arms with some alterations…that way it could show a family tie, but just not a direct one.
Jesse wrote, "Even though I know no one in the family would want to adopt their own arms I did try to design a shield that was more reflective of my family as opposed to just me (I saved that for the crest). Now I realize it didn’t even matter. Oh well. Haha. At least I love what I came up with."
Didn’t even matter? Humbug!—it mattered tremendously. You created arms that could be used quite appropriately by any & all of your extended family. That is (heraldically speaking) your gift to your family.
Whether any particular family member actively chooses to use it at this point in time is an individual choice; any one of them, or their offspring, may choose to do so in the future, and will have you to thank for doing such a nice job.
Who knows just who, & how many, will also come to love what you came up with?
Michael F. McCartney;87785 wrote:
Jesse wrote, "Even though I know no one in the family would want to adopt their own arms I did try to design a shield that was more reflective of my family as opposed to just me (I saved that for the crest). Now I realize it didn’t even matter. Oh well. Haha. At least I love what I came up with."
Didn’t even matter? Humbug!—it mattered tremendously. You created arms that could be used quite appropriately by any & all of your extended family. That is (heraldically speaking) your gift to your family.
Whether any particular family member actively chooses to use it at this point in time is an individual choice; any one of them, or their offspring, may choose to do so in the future, and will have you to thank for doing such a nice job.
Who knows just who, & how many, will also come to love what you came up with?
Jesse, i agree with Michael. it is a HUGE gift. i did it for my family too. at first most kinda liked it (‘hey, Denny, that’s nice’) but not much more than that. but the more time went on and the more they’d seen what i used to paint and use it for the more they liked it almost as much as me. heck some of them even went so far as to get tattoos of them!!! (i think that’s crazy, but then i am an odd fellow) so, it is a great gift even if they don’t realize it at this point. perhaps they’ll be like members of my family and the more time passes the more they like them and want to actively use them.
I agree. The design is done, now is the time to show it off and hopefully instill it’s interest and use in your extended family… I’m on a campaign to do just that - Flutterings of interest with my nephew and one of my nieces… working it with the rest…
This is what I’ve also done for my family Jesse and it is a gift that not only carries a heavy significance, but is also for life. Not many gifts make that grade in today’s modern society. :wink:
Try not to go overboard in promoting the idea—most folks dig in their heels if pushed or pestered. Better to just use / display them often enough to keep the idea alive, & hope that it will "grow" on them like they did for you. Of course if someone actually asks…