Family History

A long while ago I had contacted the Collegio Araldico(in Italy) about my surname and if there’s a coat of arms registered with someone with that name. I knew the name was a noble one historically(even though I haven’t mapped a lineal connection to the nobility), so I figured there’d be a coat of arms for at least one of them. I also knew the ones sold on a lot of commercial heraldry sites were most likely fake or inaccurate. So I had paid a considerable amount to have one of the Italian historians to look it up in the heraldry compilations they have. They scanned and emailed me some images of the coat of arms in black and white. I have studied heraldry as a hobby so I knew how to recreate it and write the blazon. I’m an amateur so this might be off a bit but here’s what I have so far:

Quarterly of four, I and III gules, three estoile Or in chief and a pillar argent and an anchor argent, II and IV Or, a greyhound courant sable with motto Respice Finem.

I have seen some people say the motto is Recipe Finem but this looks to be a spelling mistake or something, cause I can’t find “recipe” in a Latin dictionary. Respice Finem means “Consider the end”.

Here’s the coat of arms:

Here’s the one you’d get if you were to buy one from a commercial heraldry site:

There are some misconceptions of surnames and coat of arms, here’s an article with some helpful info: http://genealogy.about.com/od/heraldry/qt/coats_of_arms.htm

“Except for a few individual exceptions from some parts of Eastern Europe, there is no such thing as a coat of arms for a surname – despite the claims and implications of some companies to the contrary. Coats of arms are granted to individuals, not families or surnames. A form of property, coats of arms may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted. Such grants were (and are) made by the proper heraldic authority for the country in question.”

I have no inherent right to a coat of arms, but if I were a male and a direct descendant of the person who had these arms then they’d be mine as well, which I think is nice. Being American, I have no compelling reason to follow the heraldic rules of another country, and Italy abolished titles in 1947, along with the Consulta Araldica(they handled the heraldry for Italy). Plus in Italy, a coat of arms was more familial, rather than individual, and noble families simply assumed one rather than being granted one like in England. So I’m ok with displaying this coat of arms, even just to honor my distant ancestors who happened to be armigerous.

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