Hello everyone.
My name is Thomas. I am from the Greater Houston Area and will soon begin work on completing a physics degree at Sam Houston State University. I have an interest in heraldry (obviously) and I want to learn more, but I’m not sure if its a passing interest or not yet.
I have an interest in military heraldry, which makes sense given that I am a service member in the Texas State Guard. I also have an interest in how heraldry fits in with geneology, but that’s also kind of an LDS thing.
I have not assumed individual arms yet. I do have some general ideas about what I want, but I’m still doing research and I do not want to make a hasty decision that I will end up wanting changed later. My family does have nicely framed coat of arms (inherited from my grandfather), but I’m doing research on that well since it the top scoll doesn’t have anything on it and the bottom scroll simply states the last name.
Thats about the long and short of it.
Welcome, Thomas. I’ve only been here a few days myself, but I think you’ll find that everyone is very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject. Comb through the old message threads and you’ll learn a lot.
Welcome Thomas, as Alexandr said - this is a very good place to learn about heraldry. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be a fad 
I strongly recommend you read through the Heraldic Primer for a very good introduction into heraldry.
As to the coat of arms you referred to, you may want to find out where your grandfather found it. If he purchased it online, at the mall, etc. in one of those "find your family crest" places then, I’m afraid, it’s not really yours.
You’re doing the right thing with approaching it via genealogy to see if you have a claim towards arms. If you do, the membership here can assist with figuring out the claim and the rules around using those arms.
If you don’t find any arms, then you can try to design arms for yourself. A very rewarding experience.
kimon;86497 wrote:
Welcome Thomas, as Alexandr said - this is a very good place to learn about heraldry. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be a fad
I strongly recommend you read through the Heraldic Primer for a very good introduction into heraldry.
As to the coat of arms you referred to, you may want to find out where your grandfather found it. If he purchased it online, at the mall, etc. in one of those "find your family crest" places then, I’m afraid, it’s not really yours.
You’re doing the right thing with approaching it via genealogy to see if you have a claim towards arms. If you do, the membership here can assist with figuring out the claim and the rules around using those arms.
If you don’t find any arms, then you can try to design arms for yourself. A very rewarding experience.
Welcome to the forum! I ditto everything that Kimon said. Everyone on the forum is very passionate and knowledgeable about heraldry so feel free to ask any questions and join in the conversations.
kimon;86497 wrote:
Welcome Thomas, as Alexandr said - this is a very good place to learn about heraldry. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be a fad
I took a look at it. It is a very nice presentation, with a red felt background and dark wood. It was made by a company, Halbert’s Incorperated in Ohio.
I did a little digging, and the company specialized in ‘surname products’. They were given a cease and decists order.
Even so, the family did approch it as nothing more than decoration. I wish I could take and upload a photo of it. It is still very striking.
Here’s my attempt at blazoning it:
Shield:
Quartlerly with Vert Inescutcheon a fembriant Sable, 1st Or, capitol letter M sable, 2nd and 3rd celest-bleu, argent wings displayed, 4th Paly of Four Or & Sable
Helm: Closed helm with unkown mantling. Mantling is likely either Or and Sable or celest-blue and argent.
There are also two scrolls. The one to the top is blank. The one to the bottom has the family name. That’s what tipped me off. The crest is also wonky, since it’s a shield… with a shield behind two crossed axes and a single sword down the middle.
I’ll still do the geneology when I get the chance to, since I’m LDS and its what we do.
I would care to assume an individual arm of my own design. But I don’t know enough about heraldry to know if that would behold my family to using it without being able to modify it or assum their own.
Thomas,
As you’ve already discovered, Halbert was one of the most notorious of the companies involved in what the Germans call Wappenschwindel (armorial swindling).
Moreover, the arms as you describe them are an object lesson in bad heraldic design, starting with the blank scroll (for elegant decoration?) and moving from there to the quartered shield (quartering should with rare exceptions be used only to combine pre-existing arms), and from there to the initial letter as the only charge in the first quarter.
If you design and adopt arms of your own, they don’t in any way bind your relatives to their use, although in the ordinary course of things they would be inherited by your own children.
On the other hand, you might consider coming up with one or a few designs and putting them to the extended family to be adopted collectively on behalf of their common ancestor—typically a shared ancestor in the male line—for the use of all his descendants.
Joseph McMillan;86508 wrote:
Thomas,
As you’ve already discovered, Halbert was one of the most notorious of the companies involved in what the Germans call Wappenschwindel (armorial swindling).
Moreover, the arms as you describe them are an object lesson in bad heraldic design, starting with the blank scroll (for elegant decoration?) and moving from there to the quartered shield (quartering should with rare exceptions be used only to combine pre-existing arms), and from there to the initial letter as the only charge in the first quarter.
If you design and adopt arms of your own, they don’t in any way bind your relatives to their use, although in the ordinary course of things they would be inherited by your own children.
On the other hand, you might consider coming up with one or a few designs and putting them to the extended family to be adopted collectively on behalf of their common ancestor—typically a shared ancestor in the male line—for the use of all his descendants.
Good to know about what not to do with heraldry. Since what I discribed was bad heraldry, I’ll know what not to do. (Few people remember sucesses, but everyone remembers a failure.) I’m already looking around this site and seeing some most excelent examples of heraldry from the members, so I’ll likely be inclined for something simple and meaningful to myself.
Also, thanks for the advice. I’m pretty sure cadency is not an issue, but if my whole family decides to become armorial I would like to make sure that all of our arms have enough similarity to be where they are recongnizable as being part of the same family unit rather than all over the place.
Greetings Thomas and welcome to the forum. I’m very new here myself.
Should you care to see the arms I created for my family just click on my name which should take you to the album I’ve created on the right side of the page. Click on the design which will open the album.
(I’m still finding my way so forgive me if this doesn’t work).
I look forward to following your progress.
Richard G.;86572 wrote:
Greetings Thomas and welcome to the forum. I’m very new here myself.
Should you care to see the arms I created for my family just click on my name which should take you to the album I’ve created on the right side of the page. Click on the design which will open the album.
(I’m still finding my way so forgive me if this doesn’t work).
I look forward to following your progress.
Thank you.
Frankly the progress is going to be slow. The current plan to spend a month studying up on heraldry. It is not going to make me an expert, but I should have a firm grasp of the basics by then. I’ll also introduce the idea to my family.
Then I’m going to ask for help designing the thing (which may end up with up to four seperate sources of input if my family and friends are involved, much less if my Young Single Adults Branch takes an interest) and keep on going until all parties that it directly relates to are satisfied.
Then I’m going to put it out of sight for three months, and after those three months pull it out and ask myself "do I still really want this?" If not, then I’ll either modify it or start from scratch until I am happy with it, and then put it away for another three months. (This is pretty much what a friend of a friend does with tatoos, and my own circle of friends figure that this a good method in making perminant, or at least very long term, decisions.)
Only after that will I register my arms. At least, according to the plan.
I must say though that your own family’s heraldry is beautiful. Who designed/granted (I know Canadians, Albertans seem to love it here) it, and who emblazoned it?
Failte~~Welcome
epicHouseplant;86588 wrote:
I must say though that your own family’s heraldry is beautiful. Who designed/granted (I know Canadians, Albertans seem to love it here) it, and who emblazoned it?
Thank you for your kind remarks Thomas. My arms were designed by the Serbian heraldist Ljubodrag Grugic - you can see more of his work here. http://www.ljubodraggrujic.com/English.htm We spent about eight months creating these designs based on my family research. The whole designing process has taken just under a year. Like you, I first had to do some reading which I’m thankful I did. The arms you saw are a gift to my family all of whom live in Canada, while I live in Denmark. Denmark has no heraldic authority and here arms are assumed. There are however traditions which I’ve made efforts to respect even though my arms are based on the Anglo/French tradition. If my family will apply for a grant of arms from the Canadian Heraldic Authority based on these designs is for them to decide.
You thoughts about first doing a little reading and then taking your time with the process is, I think, very wise. I’m wondering if you’ve been able to do any research into your family history which might provide some clues and ideas on which to base a design. One of the things you may have noticed already is that often in heraldry "less is more". If a design can be reduced to the size of say a postage stamp and still be recognizable - then you know you’re probably on the right track.
I wish you every success.
Richard
Welcome to the AHS message board. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with the designing of your arms. Good luck with your research!
Richard G.;86643 wrote:
You thoughts about first doing a little reading and then taking your time with the process is, I think, very wise. I’m wondering if you’ve been able to do any research into your family history which might provide some clues and ideas on which to base a design. One of the things you may have noticed already is that often in heraldry "less is more". If a design can be reduced to the size of say a postage stamp and still be recognizable - then you know you’re probably on the right track.
I wish you every success.
Richard
Thank you for the advice and your well wishes. It will take a while, since I want my arms to be reflective of my family, my culture and myself.
Jeremy Corbally-Hammond;86668 wrote:
Welcome to the AHS message board. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with the designing of your arms. Good luck with your research!
Thank you, I will.