Bogus commercial heraldry....

[sirdaniel1975]

About 15 years ago (1993) when I was in High School, our school band had a trip to England. We stayed in London for about 7 or 8 days. My grandmother was from Manchester, England so as a result I started to become interested in my family ancestry. Around that time I became interested in my Scottish blood after my Grandparents had returned from a trip to Nova Scotia. My grandfather's parents were from Glasgow, Scotland.

When I was in England, one of our scheduled events was an Elizabethan Banquet. It's a mock banquet where actors dress up as period characters. Namely Elizabeth I and jests and minstrels. Surrounding the wall of this great banquet hall were the heraldry (real heraldry mind you) of historical persons from England. I spent about an hour walking around the hall visually studying the heraldry. It was at this time that I was wondering about my family coat of arms. At that time I was completely unaware that I/we had none. I was only 17 years old at the time.

Lets go forward in time a wee bit to 1998. Lets just say a certain person (I'll call him Matt) set me straight on a lot of issues. Matt once said, "Coat of Arms in the British Isles belong to individuals and not families." I began to feel as though I had been lied to most of my life about a great many things. I decided that I would make it my Life's mission to correct this.

A while ago I was doing a little investigation to acquire evidence of my own to convince some folks on how bogus most of the "Family Coat of Arms" dealers are. My surname is Williamson, and here is my pictorial evidence:











Notice that all of these differ in some way. If they are family name coat of arms why is that. Each one of these are from a different vendor and is what they would sell to any Williamson who purchases one from them.

Now I challenge you, those who still believe you have a family coat of arms.
research what all these vendors are selling under your name.


House of Names


All Family Crests


Heraldry


Family Coat of Arms


Crest


Family Crest


Authentic Coat of Arms

What you will realize (I hope you will), is that each one of these places are vendors and their images differ for (c) reasons.

For some good links on Scottish Heraldry:


Scottish Heraldry - by Matt Newsome


Court of the Lord Lyon


The Heraldry Society of Scotland

[JerseyLawyer]

This sort of "bucket shop" heraldry has been around for a long time. I always roll my eyes when I see the same booth at games and festivals.

As for why they differ, I would suspect either bad renderings, or choosing a different Williams, since all they really do is look for the last person with that surname to get arms, then slap it into their book.

[gilmore]

This sort of "bucket shop" heraldry has been around for a long time. I always roll my eyes when I see the same booth at games and festivals.

...

This brings up the troubling issue of why some games and festivals allow flim flam artists like this to rent space. Has anyone ever tried talking to the organizers about this? If so, what kinds of repsonses do you get?

[SteveB]

I don't mind the vendors of this c**p. They do serve a purpose. Many a tourist has come into a festival and found some kind of emblem on a key chain, pin, or piece of paper with their surname on it and purchased it for whatever reason. Then on the way out they tend to think about it and stop into the genealogy tent. I have had the pleasure of being in the tent of The Irish Ancestral Research Association at a festival, and taken a few of the tourists on a climb of their family tree. The bucket shop c**p got their attention, and taking the c**p home and putting it above the fireplace reminds them of the research that they should really do. It has brought many into an interest in their Irish, Scot, or English family connections as stable hands for a tenant farmer in the ould sod. I look at it the same way as a tat kilt getting someone interested in kilting enough to graduate to the real deal.
I have a few of these " Arms" on display in my house as artwork, as that is all they are worth.

[Scotus]

I don't mind the vendors of this c**p. They do serve a purpose. Many a tourist has come into a festival and found some kind of emblem on a key chain, pin, or piece of paper with their surname on it and purchased it for whatever reason. Then on the way out they tend to think about it and stop into the genealogy tent. I have had the pleasure of being in the tent of The Irish Ancestral Research Association at a festival, and taken a few of the tourists on a climb of their family tree. The bucket shop c**p got their attention, and taking the c**p home and putting it above the fireplace reminds them of the research that they should really do. It has brought many into an interest in their Irish, Scot, or English family connections as stable hands for a tenant farmer in the ould sod. I look at it the same way as a tat kilt getting someone interested in kilting enough to graduate to the real deal.
I have a few of these " Arms" on display in my house as artwork, as that is all they are worth.

I respectfully disagree. While people may have gotten interested because of the bucket shops, it doesn't justify the scam they are pulling off. They say, "This is your family 'crest' [it's a coat of arms, btw]," and that fact is... it isn't. I just don't think what they do can be justified on the basis that some people might get interested in genealogy. There are still a lot of people who are going to take this stuff home, hang in on their wall (or get a tattoo ), and say, "This is my family crest."

I had to laugh at Pleater's comment:

Perhaps if you explain to your lady that the actual owner of the crest might have every right to remove if from your person she might change her mind?

Good one!

Anyway, my opinon is the same in regard to those cheep kilts, but this thread is about bogus heraldry.

[sirdaniel1975]

Some examples of Generic Scottish Heraldry. I happen to like this stuff due to its nationalistic intentions.


The thistle crest badge I mentioned.


The lion crest badge I mentioned.


A Scottish Saltire shield patch. I have one of these.

Here's a couple of cities heraldry examples. They are available in blazer crest badge patches from the Scottish Tartans Museum & Bold Blades.


City of Glasgow


Aberdeen

I used these two because these are a couple of the areas I've traced my ancestry to. I have also traced the family bloodlines to Caithness, Sutherland, and Fife.

[macwilkin]

I don't mind the vendors of this c**p. They do serve a purpose. Many a tourist has come into a festival and found some kind of emblem on a key chain, pin, or piece of paper with their surname on it and purchased it for whatever reason. Then on the way out they tend to think about it and stop into the genealogy tent. I have had the pleasure of being in the tent of The Irish Ancestral Research Association at a festival, and taken a few of the tourists on a climb of their family tree. The bucket shop c**p got their attention, and taking the c**p home and putting it above the fireplace reminds them of the research that they should really do. It has brought many into an interest in their Irish, Scot, or English family connections as stable hands for a tenant farmer in the ould sod. I look at it the same way as a tat kilt getting someone interested in kilting enough to graduate to the real deal.
I have a few of these " Arms" on display in my house as artwork, as that is all they are worth.

I would agree with Scotus and other on this; while I would never dream of telling someone what they could or couldn't hand above their mantle, the fact of the matter is, the Bucket Shops are selling arms under false pretenses, which smacks of fraud to me.

Regards,

Todd

[Scotus]

I would never dream of telling someone what they could or couldn't hand above their mantle...

Regards,

Todd

I'd be happy to do it for you.

[Finn]

I actually paid $20 to a mall kiosk in the '80's for a spurious computer-generated crest and two paragraph history.
According to the "history" my family had been respected Talmudists in Turkey before emigrating to Germany. Somehow we became Protestant.
The crest was a green field with an axe in a stump.
It just didn't jibe.
I have also seen the family name with "von" in front. We weren't Prussian or noble.

[Finn]

I checked several of the above sites. One has the name, but with a false history (I know through family research) & completely different crest. Another has the same crest but a different name (though similiar).
Thanks, SirDaniel.