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Genealogy: Crests, Coat of Arms and Surname Origins?

Have you ever searched for your surname in Google and come across websites for Family Crests, Coat of Arms and Surname Origins?  If you are a genealogy beginner, you may even have gone to the website for information on your ancestors.

The real question here is how much value do these types of websites offer as a reliable source of information for your family tree research?

 

Surname origin websites, although highly entertaining and interesting, rarely have the information you really need. Many of them sell pre-written generic genealogies based on surname origin. Sadly, these genealogies often have nothing to do with sound family tree research and they can be misleading to those new to genealogy.

Surname Origins
For our first example, let us look at surname origin or surname history sites. Using the name Clegg in a Google search and randomly picking three sites, I find the following.

• The first site states that the Clegg surname “makes an impressive claim to being one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon surnames on record”. Then goes on to say the origins for the name hail from the “Rhine valley as far north east as Denmark”

• The second site surmises the Clegg surname is of English origin and comes from the Old Norse word “Kleggi” meaning at the foot of Owl Hill.

• A third surname origin website tells us that Clegg is an anglicized version of the Gaelic name “Mac Liaig(h)” which evolved into “Claque” and from there to Clegg.  This site tells us that the name originates on the Isle of Mann.

From the above examples it is easy to see that while there may be a great deal of research and at least a grain of truth to each example, ultimately the information is contradictory and confusing. Therefore, while we all would like to know the origin of our family names Genealogy Beginner advises that it is best to regard these types of genealogy websites with a wee bit of skepticism.

Family Crests and Coat of Arms

Crests
A family crest historically is part of a family Coat of Arms or heraldry. It is called a crest because it was mounted on the top of a helm above the shield on a Coat of Arms. By the 13^th century, a crest was used as a means of identification in tourney (think the movie – A Knights Tale) or on the battlefield.

Coat of Arms
A Coat of Arms also began as a way to identify an individual on the battlefield.  Coat of Arms literally gets its name from a coat worn over armor or chain mail and was used initially to protect the armor or keep it cool under the hot sun during the crusades. Later it was decorated with identifying colors and designs in order to help distinguish friend from foe.

Ultimately a Coat of Arms is:

• An Armorial right that must be granted under due authority
• Usually the Crown or State
• Some governments (Canada) have the authority to grant the right.

Alternately, the right to bear arms can come from decent or “by virtue of ancestral right”.

What all this really means is that a coat of arms belongs to a direct family line and any website that tries to sell you your Coats of Arms is selling you a generic product that may or may not have anything to do with your lineage.

Overall, there is no real harm in surname origin or Coat or Arms websites so long as you are not misled into believing that they are an authority on your individual family tree. If you really want to know the origin of your surname (or whether or not there is a Coat of Arms associated with it) you will have to put the hard work into tracing your family tree as far back as you can, using well-established genealogy research techniques.

For more information on surname research, check out Genealogy Beginners Lesson Five: What’s in a Name?

Image Credit: Ramona Hartley