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Arms

To the novice, heraldry will seem very complex and not appear to tell you much of value. Everyone, however, is intrigued to find a family in their past who possessed a coat of arms. Coats of Arms were originally used as identification on the field of battle. The design was placed on a shield. The Coat of Arms developed in the 12th century from this shield design. In general, the simplest design shown on the shield, indicates the older families. Only one member of a family could bear a particular Coat of Arms, other members of the family must show a slight difference.

Heraldry, for the genealogist is most useful because of what is known as , 'marshalling arms'. This is a system of denoting alliances between families by 'quartering' family arms. A diagram explains this best.

Warning - some people, 'adopted', a coat of arms to which they were not entitled.

You may find a description at some stage of 'your' family crest so it helps to know a few terms. First the position of items on the shield.

A - Dexter side
B - Sinister side
C - Chief
D - Base
E - Dexter Chief
F - Sinister Chief
G - Centre Chief
H - Dexter Base
I - Sinister Base
J - Centre Base
K - Honour Point
L - Fess Point
M - Nombril Point

Colours used in Heraldry are:

Or - yellow or gold	Argent - silver
Gules - red	Azure - blue
Sable - black	Vert - green
Purpure - purple	Proper - brown
Ermine - white fur	Ermines - black fur

The diagram below shows the main shapes used in heraldry. The named feature is in bold and the description below shows how that shield would be described. Each effect can have line styles added and objects - animate or inanimate.

Bend Vert bend argent	Fess Vert fess argent	Chief Vert chief argent
Chevron Vert chevron argent	Cross Vert cross argent	Saltire Vert saltire argent
Bend Sinister Vert bend sinister argent	Barry Vert barry of five argent	Pally Pally of six vert and argent
Quarterly Vert quarterly argent	Per Pale Per pale vert and argent	Per Bend Per bend vert and argent
Per Fess Per fess vert and argent	Per Saltire Per saltire vert and argent	Gyronny Gyronny of eight vert and argent
Fretty Fretty argent and vert	Chequy Vert chequy argent	Flaunches Vert flaunches argent
Bordure Vert bordure argent	Pile Vert pile argent	Canton Vert canton argent
Orle Vert orle argent	Fret Vert fret argent	Label of Points Vert label of four points argent

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