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The use of the Coat of Arms meaning and heraldry began around the 12th century, which was also the time of the Crusades, and knights had to wear armour that protected their body. This made it impossible for family members or other knights to recognize them. Consequently, this motivated officials during that period to invent a better technique for identification.

Special markings were then painted on the knight’s shield as a means of identification, given that the shield was the largest piece of equipment available to the knight. Plus, it was also easily visible to anyone even at a distance, which is the case during battles. Aside from the shield, these special markings were also visible on the tunic worn by the knight so it has to be embroidered in there. It was referred to as “Coat” because of the fact that it was embroidered onto the tunic. Only those knights that were entitled to bear are allowed to wear the design. The same design is also worn by household servants on their uniforms.

Instead of being awarded to a family or name, the Coat of Arms is given to an individual. Therefore, there is a possibility that someone with the same name as yours is awarded with the Coat of Arms during their time. At the start, it only sported a simple design but developed into more complicated designs and had a few variations.

More About Coat of Arms Meaning:

There are a few countries including the United States that does not regulate the bearing of coat of arms. In England though, it is required due to the hierarchy system wherein a ruler must have a direct descendant that will serve as heir to the throne and also gain the right to bear the ancestor’s coat of arms.

When it comes to tracing the history of family, a coat of arms meaning can then play a crucial role. This option is rather spotty though because although it is possible to establish when and to whom the coat of arms was granted, it would entail massive information gathering effort. Therefore, you will need to conduct substantial amount of research to get the information you need.

Coat of Arms Meaning and Tracing Genealogies:

There are several genealogical researchers who are now looking at the Coat of Arms angle to open up more clues on their effort to build up their family’s genealogy. Again, this would be a difficult task given the fact that not all source reference can provide you with the information you need, nor be willing to share it.

The issue is made more complicated when there is a missing data with the listings under a specific Coat of Arms, such as failing to list a city and providing only the country. Therefore, when you try to use Coat of Arms as a lead into your genealogical research, it is best to identify an individual first in your family tree. If not, then you can bet on finding the oldest person in your surname that dates as far back in history as possible who have this Coat of Arms.

About Heraldry:

This term is a branch under genealogy that is dedicated to the study of how Coat of Arms are design, determined, and granted to an individual. Therefore, it does take into consideration such factors as rank and protocol. However, it is often disregarded as a field of study because researchers of family history had other means of looking into a family’s lineage other than this method.

Historians do believe though that Coat of Arms and Heraldry on a whole provided means for the researcher to learn more of medieval history and architecture.

Impact of Coat of Arms Meaning to Your Family’s Genealogy:

Typically, a Coat of Arms is handed down from the father to his son. Hence, using it as a tool in your genealogical research would reflect more of the individual identity in accordance to your ancestor lineage, instead of your family’s identity. The family Coat of Arms is common in America because they often trace back not just on the individual ancestor but to the family itself.

Other important information surrounding the use of Coat of Arms meanings during ancestral times that can help unearth about much of your research efforts are as follows:

*They are significant indicators of the old social division that existed during ancestral times.

* Heraldric emblems such as Coat of Arms are important in family history researches as it sets proper timeline. The use of Coat of Arms started way before AD 1200, and so you can expect that the new design for Coat of Arms were implemented during this time and many centuries after.

* Matching surnames does not constitute the same origin though. So, it is not true that a particular Coat of Arms meaning belongs to certain families with the same surname.