I’m working on a coat of arms for my uncle in law. He wanted to incorporate some or all of the following elements into the design:

Hardworking

-      Humility

-      Honor

-      Integrity

-      Honesty

-      Consistency

-      Catholic faith is very important to us

-      Enjoy outdoors fishing, hunting, etc…

-      Enjoy being on the water and on our boat

-      Family is very important to us – children

-      We enjoy the simple things in life – not fancy

-      Colors would be greens, blues, browns (more of the ‘hard’ colors versus ‘soft’)

For an initial design I came up with this:

Per fess wavy Argent and Azure a Fess wavy between in chief a Lion passant and in base a dogwood flower counterchanged.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/Snydercrew/welch-01.jpg

Upon looking up to see if this had already been used, I found that it’s close to the Lancaster City Council arms and a few others, but I did not find that it was being used anywhere. With that I wanted to present it to the group to see if I could get someone to second my search results.

Additionally, any thoughts on the design would be appreciated.

I like it very much! I would just adjust some of the sizes but that is a minor thing to do. There are a couple of other small things that could be done to make it pop and I could see if I can work that up this evening.

Different jurisdictions notwithstanding, that is too close to the Lancaster City Council arms for me. If that doesn’t bother your uncle, then he will have himself a nice coat of arms. I think I would, however, change the crest to a demi-lion holding a branch of Dogwood (proper) with two or three flowers on it. YMMV

Kenneth Mansfield;99305 wrote:

Different jurisdictions notwithstanding, that is too close to the Lancaster City Council arms for me.

Me too.  I usually don’t fret much about unintentional similarities, but in this case it will be hard to persuade skeptics that the Lancaster arms aren’t the model for yours.  I’m not accusing you of plagiarism, but the designs are too close for comfort.

Why lion and dogwood, by the way?  They don’t necessarily pop to mind from the list of virtues and values your uncle listed.  Not that anything else in particular would, either, other than that once can justify blue as standing for just about anything.

Joseph McMillan;99307 wrote:

Why lion and dogwood, by the way?  They don’t necessarily pop to mind from the list of virtues and values your uncle listed.  Not that anything else in particular would, either, other than that once can justify blue as standing for just about anything.

I’m wondering the same thing.

Selfishly, I would prefer the dogwood to have a very specific territorial symbolism (Virginia or NC), much as the white rose has a well-known connection to Yorkshire.

It seems like a real missed opportunity not to use either the colors of the Welsh or St. David’s flag, leek, etc. as a play on the surname…

Maybe Argent a fess Gules between three leeks Proper?

To emphasize simplicity, I would reduce the number of different types of ordinaries/charges on the field… currently there are three different types.

EDIT: as lions are overused, I would try to come up with a more subtle allusion to honor and all that.

Shortly after posting this up, I decided to scrap the entire design. As I mentioned, it was almost identical to the Lancaster arms and decided that it was to close to proceed.

The charges hold very broad symbolism and was just a trial run. I chose the lion for the purpose of implying strength, honor, courage, and a very loose reference to the Lion of Judah/Jesus. It also hinted towards the origin of the bearer.

The dogwood was used because the Victorian meaning (for what is worth) is "endurance, perseverance" and that it holds a strong meaning within the Christian community.

Like I said, they are loose symbols.

Could you share a bit more about Mr. Welch & his family? all we know now is that they are Catholics who enjoy the outdoors & prefer simplicity, greens, blues and brown—all nice qualities but standing alone not particularly unique.

—e.g. where were they from (as far as they know), where have they lived, any family stories about noteworthy members or events in their history, etc.

Do they consider themselves to be (or to have been) Welsh?  or is this just a coincidental similarity?

Any noteworthy military service?  if so, what war(s) in what place(s)?  Ditto any noteworthy civilian service (occupational, professional, educational, religious etc.

Any particular maternal connections that would be meaningful?

Etc. The more we know about him & his, assuming he doesn’t mind sharing, the greater chance of crafting a design that will be unique and meaningful.

(And as discussed/argued in earlier threads, how wide a family coverage are you or he thinking about?)

Here’s an idea inspired by your initial emblazon along with the personality attributes you wanted to represent:

Blazon: Argent, on a cross wavy Azure five dogwood flowers Argent.

Crest: Issuant from a wreath of the colors, A demi stag Argent armed, langued and unguled Vert gorged of a collar Or and pendant therefrom a cross patonce Azure fimbriated Or.

Sadly, I don’t know much about him personally. My wife comes from a nice big Catholic family—our daughter is the 45th great grandchild—so it’s been hard for me to make the rounds and meet everyone outside of pleasantries. He married into the family, so I’m not sure of where he comes from, but I do know that he lives in upstate New York. Like the brief he sent me said, he is a big outdoors person and spends a lot of his free time hunting, fishing, or camping. He is a very religious person and active in his church and wrote me today and said that he would like to use a crucifix/cross in the design.

I tried to pry more out of him by addressing questions towards things like college, trade, hobbies, military, and everything, but the response I got was the on I posted in the original post. I’m taking the assumption that the character traits and his faith trump everything else when it comes to the design.

Starting from scratch, here is a quick thought I had.

Per chevron abased, Azure and barry of seven Argent and Azure, surmounted by a cross patonce extended at the foot Argent between four cross patonce Or.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/Snydercrew/welch1-01.jpg

Snyder;99336 wrote:

Starting from scratch, here is a quick thought I had.

Per chevron abased, Azure and barry of seven Argent and Azure, surmounted by a cross patonce extended at the foot Argent between four cross patonce Or.

Don’t extend the lower arm of the cross patonce—keep it within the Azure.  It will then be much more distinctive and noticible at a distance.

—Guy

I agree, Guy. And I’d take it one step further and change the line of partition from per chevron abased to simply adding a base barry wavy.

Azure a cross patonce Argent between four crosses patonce Or, all above a base barry wavy Argent and Azure.

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http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/7806/welch00.png
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Very pretty, but:

(a) I expect it to be the arms of a Catholic diocese, abbey, or something.

(b) You haven’t really captured the outdoors part.

How about five ragged/raguly crosses, i.e., crosses made of branches with the smaller branches cut off, like this:

http://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/images/9/90/Nottingh.jpg

The colors could stay the same.

I regret to say I didn’t really read the first post. I’d change the field in my last illustration to green, change the central cross to raguly as Joe suggested (perhaps changing it to gold), and then change the surrounding crosses to four of something else - maybe hunting horns.