Heraldic Beasts?

[Cygnus]

Here in South Carolina, one family is known irreverently as the Wuzzas, because so many of their female descendants were said to always introduce themselves as "Mrs, Jones, ( Was a _____), because they did not wish to lose their association with that illustrious clan. As far as I know, none of them have gone in for hyphenation and only in the last few years have women here kept their maiden names in any noticeable numbers. I have never heard anyone actually say "Was a" with a straight face in these circumstances, but it is a fun and cute story. And my connection to the signer (and his armigerous ancestor) is a "wuzza" connection in that my grandmother came from that family.

I am one of nature's noblemen and nobody else's. You can't offend me, Cygnus, and I didn't notice anything offensive in what you wrote. Thanks for your useful comments.

Glad to hear no offense was taken! I've known a number of "wuzzas" myself... must have been a different branch, though.

As an aside: in researching some of the history of a branch of my family, I found that Ewen MacDonald of Glencoe's* daughter, Ellen, married a fellow by the name of Archibald Burns. To ensure that the arms and chiefship continued, Archibald took Ellen's surname and the arms and title continued to their son, Duncan. I've also heard of other instances of husbands taking the wife's surname or of one of the sons being given their mother's surname to keep a direct line of inheritance open.

*According to family history, Ewen was the younger brother to my fourth-great grandfather, Alexander. After a night of drinking, Ewen tricked Alexander into signing away his inheritance and kept the document secret until after their father's death when he assumed his father's title and estate, leaving Alexander all but penniless and unable to fight his brother's claim in court.