Heraldic Research and Identification

Sometimes you may find your family has a coat of arms.

Many families claim to have a coat of arms, but in very few cases does this prove to be true.

Coats of arms do not belong to surnames, they belong to specific families.

Just because your name is Smith and you have an illustration of the Smith arms, does not mean that you can use them or claim that they are yours.

From a British perspective coats of arms descend through the male line of a family to whom they were first granted by the Kings of Arms.

Do you have a piece of family silver, or other family heirloom which has a coat of arms or crest on it?

If the answer is yes, we will be happy to try and identify it for you.

There are, however, many bogus coats of arms and crests out there which have been placed on family heirlooms in the past in all innocency. We cannot guarantee that your prized heirloom will have an authentic coat of arms or crest on it, but if it has it may open the door to some very interesting family history research.

If you are interested contact us with a description and/or photograph of the object in question and we will attempt to identify the arms or crest on your heirloom or give a provenance of the object concerned. We cannot however guarantee a positive result every time, but we will do our very best.