tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post43011114027672926..comments2024-03-07T23:20:49.790-07:00Comments on Genealogy's Star: Coats of Arms -- what is real and what isn'tJames Tannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-62042735447258303042012-06-17T13:35:03.767-07:002012-06-17T13:35:03.767-07:00We really enjoy your blog. Thank you for sharing ...We really enjoy your blog. Thank you for sharing it with us. http://www.jamiesongallery.comPrivatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13727799779206757527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-628185428709730212012-01-19T01:10:07.488-07:002012-01-19T01:10:07.488-07:00Clients often ask me what their Coat of Arms is, o...Clients often ask me what their Coat of Arms is, or which Scottish clan they belong to. My response is usually greeted with disappointment!Johttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04360272405643318813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-81905431311360942542012-01-15T16:21:37.603-07:002012-01-15T16:21:37.603-07:00Doesn't seem all that controversial to me. I a...Doesn't seem all that controversial to me. I agree with everything you say, and although I'm not particularly interested in heraldry, I know enough to cause me to wince every time I see one of those 'surname shops' or racks of 'heraldic' mugs, key-rings and so on. I try not to notice one of the magnets on my mother's fridge, either.<br /><br />I suppose it's OK if people just want a nice souvenir from the gift shop, but I do find it worrying if people who claim to be genealogists buy into this 'coat of arms goes with a surname'racket.<br /><br />But the desire to have a coat of arms without any understanding of heraldry is nothing new, of course. Some years ago a case I was researching led me to go through several boxes of the correspondence of Robert Garraway-Rice, one of the founders of the Society of Genealogists a century ago. There were several letters from a Mr Garraway in Ireland, about their possible common ancestry, and in one of them the Irish Mr Garraway mentioned (and described) the coat of arms his family had been using for about 200 years, and asked Mr G-R's opinion. Being an eminent heraldist, he investigated and discovered that the arms in question belonged to a Norfolk family unconnected to the the Garraways, and the College of Arms had no record of any such grant to a Garraway in Ireland. It turned out that these dodgy arms had been sold to the original bearer by someone who had absolutely no authority to award them. I didn't get to find out what poor Mr Garraway's reaction was; he never wrote back.<br /><br />It makes me wonder how many of the current off-the-peg coats of arms will be passed down to future unsuspecting generations.Audrey Collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17109060807297085410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-44318108253522371152012-01-15T14:51:24.202-07:002012-01-15T14:51:24.202-07:00For a LOT more info on this subject see the usenet...For a LOT more info on this subject see the usenet newsgroup rec.heraldryAndrew Hatchetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02791173665435280734noreply@blogger.com