Coat of Arms..

[AmyT]

Does anyone have their's? I'd love to see anyone's family coat of arms.

There are ofcourse various sites offering (for a fee) to send you a copy of your family coat of arms etc.. I did this once and got ripped off so haven't tried it since.

I know this is a big deal with Scottish/English/Irish ancestor's, but what about with Italian culture?

[ptimber]

Goto www.heraldica.org for information on heraldry. peter

[AmyT]

I'm still hitting a dead end with Delaro...

Even Lucia has a coat of arms.. albiet a yellow cat on a blue background..

[ptimber]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN DEAD END? I THOUGHT THAT OTHER GUY WAS WORKING ON IT FOR YOU. pETER

[AmyT]

Me personally Peter.. on my own.. Brain melting.

I just feel as though with the internet the way it is, this should be MUCH easier and less costly. This is sort of like when I started quilting, I love it but it taxes my senses. All the math with quilting, and all of the "not found" pages online. I have hope yet...just gotta have more patience and drive.

[ptimber]

The name is most likely Dell'aria. This is the only combination where the name exists in the entire region. Peter

[AmyT]

Danke Peter.

[ptimber]

don't tell anyone I told you! Peter

[AmyT]

never fear... wouldn't want to tarnish your reputation

Oh, and *round of applause*.

Checking on Dell'aria..

[JamesBianco]

Unfortunately it is rare to actually find the "Coat of Arms" which was associated with the family of a direct ancestor. Without being able to trace your ancestry directly to a man you know to have carried a specific arms, it is not really yours. For example, even in the village of lets say Capaci in Sicily, there migt have existed 10 seperate and unrelated families carrying the name Pistone. And yet only one of them belong to the Pistone family who were noble , and had arms. My point being, you might find a crest for lets say "Pistone di Capaci" and your grandmother was in fact Maria Giuseppa Pistone from Capaci, yet this would not be her family.
Nevermind finding an even more remote referance like "Martorana di Sicilia". Not to mention that it was probably like 1% of Italian families 200 years ago that were even affluent enough to posess arms.




Jim

[acamma]

I know when I was a child in the 70's my father bought a bunch of coat of arms with different family names from our family tree on them. I still have some but what was funny was that one I saw another family member get a copy of a family coat of arms for the same family name and it was greatly different than the one we had for the same name so I never trusted they were anything but an artist that day drew one for what ever he felt the name showed him artistically,
Just like a few years ago during Christmas season a few malls here had kiosks with people who pulled your surname up in a computer data base and gave you a history of the family name . Well when I put down my surname it didn't come up the guy tried to tell me that the history of the Cammarotta family would be the same as the Camma family. It all seems a game.
It goes back to a phrase I have heard for years if you have "blue blood" in your family you will know it because that data is passed down from one generation to another. Thats why when I look at one of my friends family trees and then she shows me copies of letters granting land and officer status to members of her family in 1690's Massaschussetts and she brings back records of land in ancient England I can see ties. For me to believe a Camma coat of arms is a actual thing makes me leery.

[AmyT]

Jim/James..

I know that the 'coat of arms' for my family names 'Edwards' and 'Mooreland' have REAL coats of arms... but those are English/Welsh or ScotsIrish... -- As soon as my aunt gets out of the hospital I'll have copies of real documents for the "Daughters of the Revolution" but thats about as documented as I get I guess.

The whole Italian part of my research seems pointless right now, so even if I thought I could tie something together for a coat of arms, that would be defunct until I get more info. Getting more information means actually getting on the plane and going to Italy.. one expensive way to do it. I can wait till my friend goes to Florence again, but that may not be for another year or so. Anyway... thanks guys... I'm leery of the coat of arms thing too now...

It's like the more I find out... the more questions I have.. its severly distracting and frankly is turning me off of researching the Italian branch, but I'll get over it, and find enthusiasm again I'm sure.

~Amy

[JamesBianco]

Jim/James..

I know that the 'coat of arms' for my family names 'Edwards' and 'Mooreland' have REAL coats of arms... but those are English/Welsh or ScotsIrish... -- As soon as my aunt gets out of the hospital I'll have copies of real documents for the "Daughters of the Revolution" but thats about as documented as I get I guess.

I have no doubt they are. I have enrolled both of my sons in the CAR, which was founded by the DAR for those in their minority
I was speaking more directly about Italian heraldry. I have a small Yankee line, and my wife is half, tracing backward to the earliest Massachusetts families and then to the British Isles. There are many, many early New England lines which tie into The Landed Gentry of England. Just be very thorough, and make sure that primary source documentation was used, and NEVER rely (or should I say take on blind faith) on a family genealogy published more than 20 years ago for the New England/British Isles connection. Some of the early published works were compiled by people who made great assumptions, and were often times funded by recently affluent families wishing to tie themselves to Noble and Royal lines of Europe. It is a necessity for there to be documents in the original country of origin naming or referencing individuals here. One great source which I find nearly above reproach is The Ancestrial Roots of 60 Colonists. I have always been of the frame of mind that "taking" rather than being "guided" by the research of others is unwise. While the DAR is very thorough in its requirements for membership, that society would only trace you to the individual who gave service to the colonies during the American Revolution, better than 100 years after the great immigration of the 1600's.

Jim Bianco

[ptimber]

Some documents reflect on the actual family itself without any specific reference to a particular person and even that person my have no connections to the ensuing generations without further documentation somewhere along the line. Folr this reason I just traced my family name back to the 11th century when there was no other family from what I could gather since they were originally "I Romani i n Grecia" on the tax rolls. I uncovered historical references to political appointments and a family biography in the 18th century reflectings its minor nobility and a letter from a King to another ancesotr in 1470 granting him a coat of arms and feudal fief. Now it is safe to assume that the family immigrated from Rome and then over the years splintered until there are now less than 500 in the world. What splinter am I? I just contented myself with knowing the evolution of the family surname over a 900 year period with 6 changes. Peter

[AmyT]

Totally incredible I tell ya. You guys are pretty impressive..

Years ago when I was first born, my aunt decided to do our genealogy. She traveled to various libraries around the country, bought the microfilms, paid to be sure of everything being authentic. So for all of the stuff she found, she could not figure out the Italian lines... this woman speaks 6 languages, and travels constantly, even took two years off from work and school to do it all.. and she couldn't do it. Thats where I say "well crap and suck". Anyway, she's got everything else but she is very ill and hospitalized at the moment and until/if she recovers I won't have anyone to send me the documents. The Italian thing is a whole other ball game..