Free family crests, heraldry
and coats of arms research is what this site is known for.
See your own family
crest for free
This web site contains rich
information on the history and descriptions of heraldry, family crests and
coat of arms including: Armorial charges, family crest colors, symbolism
of birds and beasts, and coat of arms blazonry.
Click here to
see your own family crest for free This link takes you to House of
Names where you enter your last name into the search box.
History of family crests,
heraldry and coats of arms
The word Heraldry has long attached itself to that which
in earlier times was known as armory, the science of armorial bearings.
In all ages and in all quarters of the
world distinguishing symbols, or family crests have been adopted by
tribes or nations, by
families or by chieftains. Greek and Roman poets describe the devices
borne on the shields of heroes, and many such painted shields are
pictured on antique vases. Rabbinical writers have supported the fancy
that the standards of the tribes set up in their camps bore figures
devised from the prophecy of Jacob, the ravening wolf for Benjamin, the
lion’s whelp for Judah and the ship of Zebulon.
In the East we have such ancient symbols as the five-clawed dragon of the
Chinese empire and the chrysanthemum of the emperor of Japan. In Japan,
indeed, the systematized badges borne by the noble clans may be regarded
as akin to the heraldry and family crests of the West, and the circle with
the three leaves of the Tokugawa shoguns has been made as familiar to us
by Japanese lacquer and porcelain as the red pellets of the Medici by old
Italian fabrics.
Click here to actually
see your own family crest. This
link takes you to House of Names where you enter your last name into the
search box.
Before the landing of the Spaniards in Mexico the Aztec chiefs
carried shields and banners, some of whose devices showed after the
fashion of a phonetic writing the names of their bearers; and the eagle
on the new banner of Mexico may be traced to the eagle that was once
carved over the palace of Montezuma. That mysterious business of totemism, which students of folk-lore have discovered among most
primitive peoples, must be regarded as another of the forerunners of
true heraldry, family crests and coats of arms. The totem of a tribe supplying a badge which was
sometimes displayed on the body of the tribesman in paint, scars or
tattooing. Totemism so far touches our heraldry that some would trace to
its symbols the white horse of Westphalia, the bull’s head of the
Mecklenburgers and many other ancient armories.