The Right to Bear Arms

Coats of Arms to be exact. 


Some people pepper their family tree with coats of arms for all their ancestors.  It may be pretty and all, but it is NOT right. It is maybe fine for those that don't really care about accuracy and just want names on their tree, and perhaps use the coat of arms image to differentiate their line, but don't go copying that practice just because. 
This is use "without authority or right"!

A coat of arms was granted to a person, not a family surname.  The Royal Proclamation of 1417 stated more or less: no man should assume arms unless he held them by right of inheritance or by the donation of some person who had the power to give them. 

My ancestor came to Canada from Ireland as a soldier in the 1820s, bringing with him a drawing of the Seale coat of arms. He was a carpenter and carved the coat of arms on the backs of the dining room chairs he made for his new home in Kingston. (I'd love to find one of those chairs!!)

I sent a copy of the drawing to the Herald at the College of Arms in London and asked him to look into it for me. I wrote a post on the results here.

The Queen authorized Coats of Arms for Princes William and Harry on their eighteenth birthday, as was her right. In September 2013 the Queen authorized a conjugal coat of arms for William and Kate. There is no news as of this date on the College of Arms website page for new grants for a conjugal coat of arms for Harry and Meghan. **

  

Some companies will sell you a coat of arms and other items "relating to your family" even though it is hooey... they just want to make money by preying on people interested in Heraldry. There is nothing wrong with having these items in your home as long as you don't pass them down as authorized, and they have no place in your ancestry, unless authorized. 

You can apply for a grant of arms by submitting a memorial to the College of Arms, along with the sum of £6,075 (roughly $10,500 CDN).  Check with the Heraldry Society of your country to see how to apply. (see post titled Disclaimed Gentlemen)



** Update 25 May 2018: Kensington Palace has released a statement that the Duchess of Sussex now has her own coat of arms. Not yet posted on College of Arms site. 

Related posts:

Disclaimed Gentlemen

Report From the College of Arms

  

Cathern found Kathyrn

My sister Kathyrn Edith was born 24 May 1952.  She was born with Rh Disease and not expected to live very long. My Mom went against the doctor's advice to put her in an institution and brought Kathyrn home. 

Mom and Kathy 1953

(shortly before she died)

I had a little sister for just over 10 months. Kathyrn died 4 April 1953.  My mother was devastated. She took my brother and I to my grandmother's house and told my father to get rid of everything baby-related before we got home. Dad looked after the burial arrangements and I never heard anything more about Kathyrn, except two times much later in life.  It was a tacit agreement in the house that she was never spoken of. 

I was young so I didn't really understand it all at the time, I just knew Kathyrn was gone and she wasn't coming back. There were many times in my life that I felt the void, especially when I saw sisters together that were close. I was robbed of that. Visiting graves was not something our family did, the relatives that I knew were all cremated, so I never thought about a gravesite for Kathyrn. Until....

My father died in 2013 and I was the executor of his estate. I put all important papers in a big envelope and brought them home to go over. The envelope sat for a long time before I decided to go through it. Among his papers I discovered a burial certificate for Kathyrn. 

She was buried!!  And I had the name of the cemetery.  And I had a friend that lived not too far from that cemetery. And coincidentally, her name is Cathern. 

I got in touch with Cathern and asked her if she lived close to the Lakeview Cemetery and if perhaps she could find the gravesite.  She told me her grandparents were buried there and she would like to go and find their grave also. So on a fine day in August 2014 Cathern went to Lakeview Cemetery, and in a dingy, messy office she met with an employee who found the names in the computer.  But the employee didn't know were the plot for Kathyrn was, although they did eventually find her grandparents. She left her name and number for the manager who would know where to find Plot 2, Lot I,Section D. 

Two months later the manager called Cathern and told her he found where my sister Kathyrn was buried over 61 years ago. He said there was no marker but he could show her where the plot is. She is buried in an area with other children. On one side are two children from the same family, a baby and a 4 year old, and on her other side is an older child. 

On November 11, 2014, Cathern left flowers on her grave and took a photo for me. It was a very emotional day for me when I received this photo, and I am forever grateful to Cathern for finding my sister,  Kathyrn.

Kinship in Genealogy

There are two types of kinship... by blood and by marriage. Then there are degrees of kinship. You can read about them here.


The Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama has a Kinship Glossary on their website. This is actually where I got my Letter Z for the A to Z challenge in 2016.  Did you know that Z is for sister?   

Genealogy Abbreviations

  
Scrolling down the page author Michael Dean Murphy has compiled a list of Kinship Terms and Concepts for many cultures. 

Examples:

Did you know that a  Matrifocal Family consists of a mother and her children? 

Fictive Kin are those not related by blood or marriage, such as godparents, close family friends, blood brothers and informally adopted children. This is family you choose!




Relevant Links

Kinship glossary, terms and concepts - university of Alabama

Kinship terms at Linguistik Online

Family words in various languages