Family names
Families surnames can be traced back many years. By tracing your family history you can find out where the name was originally from, what honours your family had, if any of your family ever went to battle and how much land they owned.
Family coats of arms/crest
Family coat of arms is an arrangement of symbol's usually displayed on a shield which indicates ancestry and distinction. to represents family names. A family crest is the same component of symbol's as the coat of arms however it is found on the top of a knights helmet.
Making symbol's can be traced back to the earliest man. However, the art and order that we know as heraldry today didn't start until the 1100's, around the time of the Crusades. During the battles knights need quick ,easy and visual ways to identify each other. English knights then started to put symbol's on their armour this way they could identify each other. Each family in the army had a different arm, soon all of Europe was doing the same. The Knight's marks and symbols, now known as arms, were embroidered on the surcoats making them known as coats of arms.
As heraldry became wide spread there were cases of duplicate symbol's. Since knights occupation was fighting this brought out fights in a army which wasn't good for the king or his kingdom. Henry V of England saw this problem and heralds were called upon to verify, record and deny the use of arms.
Date Updated: 18/02/09