Quote Originally Posted by SteveB View Post
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