Well over a year ago I posted a link to the blog pre-cursor of this resource.
Now it looks to be a full-on ministry with really great content. Of particular interest to me is the "Create a Crest" feature.
Check it out at:
Here's another voice in the strategic-father-blog-o-sphere. Some really interesting posts already in the three months since it started.
I've posted a bit about creating family crests in the past, so I'm especially interested in his take on a "modernized" family crest.
Check it out:
If you've decided somewhere along the line that you would like to put together a coat of arms for your family, but you just don't have the time to devote to learning about heraldry and putting it together, there are a few services on the web you can use.
Even though I've put together my own Coat of Arms, I'm thinking of using a service to produce a "grant" that I can hand down to my kids.
Check out one resource here:
If you've ever tried your hand at creating a coat of arms for your family, you know it can be a little overwhelming to start out.
Armorial Gold 's clipart collection has thousands of images and provides you with all the tools you need to design a coat of arms. Their learning center has free resources including Family Mottoes, Heraldry History, How to Blazon, Heraldic Symbolism, the Heraldry Dictionary, and Heraldry Links.
Check it out at:
At some point in my studies of knighthood and creating a manhood plan for my boys, I realized that I would want to display a family coat of arms. A little research turned up that the commonly held acceptance of a "surname coat of arms" is really a misconception. In fact it was quite freeing to find out:
The bearing of coats of arms is not regulated in most countries, including the United States, thus there has been a proliferation of "family name" companies offering histories and coats of arms for a given surname. While there is no reason we cannot enjoy the decoration of a coat of arms associated with someone centuries ago who shared our surname, we should be aware that this is all that it is -- a decoration.
There is also no reason we cannot create a coat of arms and crest for ourselves, whether based on the coat of arms of an ancestor who shared our name (and may or may not be related to us), or designed from scratch to mean something special to our own lives and family.
