The "Your Family Crest" businesses have been around for a very long time. I remember seeing ads for them when I was a kid...think the late 1950's. I ran to my dad and said, "Look...we can get out family coat of arms!" and my dad said, "That's a scam...they just make them up...just get out your crayons and you draw one...it'll be as legitimate a anything that these guys will send you."

And so I did...and I started drawing it at the tops of all of my papers that I turned in at school...until the nuns made me stop it because I was obviously being a wise guy.

But I've still seen those adverts through the years and I think that it says a lot about Americans that they have persisted...they obviously seem to get enough business to keep going. I think that it's just an insecurity that we have about being the mixed bag that we are...we feel that we have to have some legitimate roots to point to to be whole somehow and having someone find our "family crest" validates us. I've often wondered if our friends in Australia have the same feelings but I've always had the idea that Canadians had more of a handle on things and didn't feel the need the same way the folks in the USA did.

Anyway, some member of my family did get the "coat of arms" and it was rather obvious that it was pretty much a generic one. The real one granted to my forebearer, Auld William, has surfaced and I wish that I had some kind of legitimate claim to it...not because I need an identity but just because it is so damn cool. If I was going to become a superhero, I'd use it as a basis for the spandex costume. I'd love to just get some patches made with it embroidered on them and pass them out at the next family reunion...sort of wear them like a baseball team wears a retired players number on the jersey as an homage.

Best

AA