My father has been doing some genealogical research. A couple of months ago, he came upon a very interesting new find, a family tamga or damga. Families of Turko-Circassian origin often employed such emblems known as a tamga (also spelled damga or damgha) to mark their property and brand their livestock with. These tamgas were registered to a family, tribe or clan. I would appreciate any help with blazoning this emblem. It is a stylized three horse tailed standard (aka tugh).
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t11/Kelisli/Family_Heraldry/IMG_0541.jpg
Image number 238 is my family’s tamga
Another rendition of the family tamga:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t11/Kelisli/Family_Heraldry/IMG_0562.jpg
I have since registered it as a mark/brand in Travis County, Texas. I will provide images of the brand, branding iron and certificate, soon.
Very nice! I’ve been doing some reading on Norwegian housemarks. It’s remarkable how such similarity there is! I haven’t found a good reference on blazoning such. I’m interested to hear what other know of the subject though.
Housemarks are fairly distinct from usual heraldic designs. I’d think that in English, you should just describe it as a brand. "Crescent bar E" might do it. Google turned up this basic info on brands.
Jacob, you are correct, indeed. There are lots of similarities between housemarks and tamgas. such marks can also be found in Germanic, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian and other heraldic traditions.
As for the brand, the County Clerk described it as half moon above 3 vertical lines! In Texas, brands are registered at the country level rather than the state level.
In Germany, we have a long history of house marks. These are distinctly different from heraldry, so a heraldic blazon would not apply. A simple description of the mark will do.
Three vertical marks connected by a single horizontal mark at the chief, the middle mark extended above and conjoins with a crescent.
Thank you, Hans. So how where they blazoned when they got incorporated as a charge on a shield?
Xander, I think I would call them lines before I call them marks.
I do not think the blazon was ever really applied to arms with a housemark, as a blazon is a formality and not really necessary to have. I believe that each time I have seen a picture, the arms simply have a name listed and I do not recall ever reading a blazon for one. Is this the case with everyone else?
Mark or line, same thing.
The Germans have developed a system for describing housemarks that is discussed in the Handbuch der Heraldik—Wappenfibel of "Der Herold" Heraldic Society. It was created for blazoning housemark-derived arms in the society’s Deutsche Wappenrolle and is based on standardized descriptions of the component parts of the mark. Thus a vertical line with a crescent-like semicircle attached at the top is described as an unterhalbkreiskopfschaft ("shaft under a half-circle head"), and a simplified trident with right-angled tines toward the top is a schaftweise nach oben abgewinkelte Mittelkreuzsprosse ("centered cross-step angled shaftwise toward the top"). A figure with a crossbar elevated above the midpoint but not all the way to the top is a Kopfkreuzsprosse ("cross-step at the head").
So, as far as I can figure, Hassan’s mark might well be "blazoned" as an unterhalbkreiskopf schaftweise nach unten abgewinkelte Kopfkreuzsprosse, or "a raised cross-step angled downward shaftwise beneath a half-circle at the head."
Thanks Joe. This is extremely helpful. I really appreciate it. I am thinking of registering the tamga or brand as an heraldic badge for all family members.
Here are some pictures of the brand and the certificate registering the Kelisli Family Tamga in Texas:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t11/Kelisli/Family_Heraldry/P1010001-2.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t11/Kelisli/Family_Heraldry/P1010002-2.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t11/Kelisli/Family_Heraldry/P1010004_2.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t11/Kelisli/Family_Heraldry/P1010005.jpg
The certification, framing and making of the brand was all done by Mr. Patrick Cline of Texas Branding Iron Company. There web site is:
That is very cool.
Kenneth Mansfield;73296 wrote:
That is very cool.
That’s not what the cow said.
No animals where harmed in the production of this brand! 
So was a tamga generally used in place of heraldry by those without? or developed alongside and interchangeable?
Kelisli;73266 wrote:
There are lots of similarities between housemarks and tamgas. Such marks can also be found in Germanic, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian and other heraldic traditions.
To clarify this, charges similar if not the same as the Kelisli tamga can be found in the heraldry of a number of Polish, Lithuanian and Russian noble families, all of whom trace their direct male line to the Tatars. Other families of Turkic origins can also be found in the rolls of the Russian noblity bearing this same or similar charge. Hassan told me that his family <i>tamga</i> is said to be a line drawing of three Turkish horse tailed standards (tugh) topped with a crescent finial. I mentioned to Hassan that his tamga had a resemblence to a Kyrgyz yurt (tent) hanging called a tush-kyiz (made in numerous variations) which was hung on the wall of the tent to designate the seat of the head of the house. I suspect that both the Kelisli tamga and the Kyrgyz tush-kyiz have a shared origin as a stylised grouping of Turkic horsetail standards (tugh).
David,
It makes perfect sense. Thanks for sharing this information. I find it fascinating how much the Russian and Turko-Circassian cultures share in common. Can you add a photo of the arms that have that charge? I would love to see that.
That would also be the case for the Nahoush (Nagoush) tamga and Girays of the Krim Tatar tamgas
