It is worth taking some time to familiarize yourself with the meanings behind some of the symbols that appear on a coat of arms, or family crest. This knowledge will make your family crest be that much more important, and more meaningful, to you.
One of the great things about genealogy is the connections between the present, and the past. Your family crest tells its own story. To understand it, you must take the knowledge you learned about some of the symbols of heraldry, and put it all together with the things that appear on your family’s coat of arms.
How does this work? As an example, I will use the coat of arms that goes with my last name. Thorpe is my married name. It originates from England. I could not use my maiden name, because I was unable to locate a family crest that went with Dahlberg. Since Dahlberg is Swedish, this may be the reason why there didn’t seem to be a family crest available. It seems to be easiest to find family crests for surnames that are English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, and sometimes Spanish as well.
First, I found a webpage that showed what the Thorpe family crest looks like. There does not appear to be a motto, so the surname itself appears on a banner above everything else. There also is no crest. There is a wreath which is made up of two colors: gold and blue. In the center of the wreath, there is a helmet. The Thorpe family crest does not have any supporters, but it does have a mantle on each side of the shield. The mantle is gold and blue, just like the wreath. The shield itself has a wide, flat top. The bottom of the shield is rounded, until it comes to a point at the center. The shield is divided into two separate parts by a fat white line that goes across the center of the shield from right to left. The background color on the shield is blue. There are three lions on the shield, and all of them are gold.
What does it mean? I learned that the color blue stands for loyalty, and the color gold means generosity. Lions are the symbol for fierce courage. I learned that the shape of the shield is called “beveled smooth” The white line that divides the shield is called a Fesse. It symbolizes a military belt of honor, and represents a readiness to serve the public. While I could not find an exact copy of the way the helmet looks, I did find some that were close. They are called “tilting helmets”, and were used in jousting. Wow! That paints quite a picture! What does your family crest mean?
Image by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr