Family Crest

[misschristi16]

I have been hearing about a family crest and wondering how I would go about finding something like that. Is it based on the family name, or town/village where they were from?

I am looking for the Ciampa from Rapone crest and the Pinto family from Rapone also.
Any help or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks.

[nuccia]

I think next to how can I find out if we were related to royalty this is the second most common question we get asked.
There is a lot of false info out there so beware. Family crests or Coats of Arms as they were officially known were often granted to individual persons - not families or surnames as many sites claim and as we have been led to believe.

From http://genealogy.about.com/od/heraldry/ ... f_arms.htm
"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."

So pretty much most of us don't have one or we'd know about it..

[PeterTimber]

Nuccia I have a a nice collection of heraldic websites and antiquarian book sellers catalogue on historians who have authored historical and heraldic information for cities, regions, provinces and communes which I also retained since they become reference material and never go out of print. Just to let you know for your information should this still be the second most common question asked. Petertimber

[PeterTimber]

Rapone is a small village of approximately 1,000 and is located, as you know in the Province of Potenza in Basilicata region. I researched a Historical record of leading families for Basilicata both historically in the past and up to the 1800's and found no record for either the families mentioned under that category. If yo are interested in further genealogy studies of your family we can certainly help you and encourage you to purchase the book ITALIAN GENEALOGICA:L RECORDS by Trafford R. Cole which is an easy read, makes excellet sense to understand Italian genealogy. You might wish to go to the library and borrow the book or purchase same thru the internet or a bookstore. Peter

[jennabet]

I think next to how can I find out if we were related to royalty this is the second most common question we get asked.
There is a lot of false info out there so beware. Family crests or Coats of Arms as they were officially known were often granted to individual persons - not families or surnames as many sites claim and as we have been led to believe.

From http://genealogy.about.com/od/heraldry/ ... f_arms.htm
"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."

So pretty much most of us don't have one or we'd know about it..

Ciao Nuccia, thanks so much for this information. I grew up in Delaware with mostly first and second generation Italian-Americans from the Abruzzo region. I have recently been told by a close friend that my family's sur name is on her father's coat of arms. Her father held a lay position within the church authority and used to make frequent trips to the Vatican. So now I know that this is most likely how that family got their own coat of arms as it must have been awarded to their father as a special honor from the Vatican. As a youngster, I remember seeing the crest hanging over their fireplace and I always wondered about it. Again thanks. You learn something new every day.

[PeterTimber]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions about Family heraldry being the second most question asked. Often family crests go extinct for the usual reasons of not being able to pass on the honor. At this point it becomes family history and often ties in with other family genealogy and associations. Warm regards Peter