Dear Kelly, How delightful to hear from you. I'm glad to hear that y'all are aware of the 'Coat of Arms' hoax, forewarned is forearmed <grin>. My daughter designed her own Coat of Arms in high school and had great fun with the design; she still has it in a frame somewhere. In college, I completed a deep study of the granting of 'Coat of Arms' or family crests, so I have to smile when I see one over someone's fireplace. Bless their hearts. It's a wonderful idea for the Medarias cousins to design their own arms, can't wait to see it. Be sure to add a cow to the arms since Domingo was reputed to be a cattle farmer! While everyone else was raising tobacco at that time in America, Domingo was feeding everyone. Brilliant ancestor that he was. Keep up the great work! Your cousin, Odessa Higdon-Crenshaw, Shreve, Alabama Great Great Great Granddaughter of Domingo Medearis "kellcin@mindspring.com" <kellcin@mindspring.com> wrote: Thanks for the info on the ARMs... We have had a little fun with it on the web site, discussing the great Halberts Hoax and others. We are collecting all of the various COA's that people have purchased over the years. My mother bought ours back in the 1970's. We discourage anyone from thinking that we actually have a COA, but we did decide to design our own and offer it up to all of our cousins. We haven't finished it yet, but we are waiting to tie down our actual ancestry with absolute certainty. Glad you found us, look forward to hearing from you again soon, Kelly Madaris, The Madaris, Medearis, Medaris, McDaris, McDearis, Medaries & McDaries Family Tree Home Page http://www.mindspring.com/~kellcin/index.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: Odessa Higdon-Crenshaw To: kellcin@mindspring.com Sent: 1/7/2007 8:44:11 AM Subject: Coats of Arms Dear Brian and Cindy, Thank you for all your wonderful research and hard work on the Mederias pages, thank you very much. In reference to the Coat of Arms page: http://www.mindspring.com/~kellcin/arms.htm It is a common misconception that families have a 'coat of arms'. This is greedily promoted by companies out for your money. Only The English College of Arms can grant a coat of arms. If your ancestor had a coat of arms, you would not be entitled to display it as your own--it's one to a customer, like fingerprints. The College of Arms is the official repository of the coats of arms and pedigrees of English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Commonwealth families and their descendants. For any person to have a right to a coat of arms they must either have had it granted to them or be descended in the legitimate male line from a person to whom arms were granted or confirmed in the past. There is no such thing as a 'Coat of Arms' for a surname (like SMITH or JONES). Many people of the same surname will often be entitled to completely DIFFERENT coats of arms, and many of that surname will be entitled to no coat of arms. Coats of arms belong to INDIVIDUALS--one can't simply *borrow* it to display on their wall or on a coffee mug. Coats of Arms have been and still are granted by Letters Patent from the senior heralds, the Kings of Arms at The English College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, London, England. A right to arms can only be established by the registration in the official records of the College of Arms of a pedigree showing direct male line descent from an ancestor already appearing therein as entitled to arms, or by making application through the College of Arms for a grant of arms. Grants are made to corporations as well as to individuals. This is a costly and lengthy process. It is a popular misconception that the word 'crest' describes a whole coat of arms or any heraldic device. It does not. A crest is a specific part of a full achievement of arms: the three-dimensional object placed on top of the helm. An added bit about wearing a clan tartan or clan badge: the College of Arms can not tell you what your clan badge is. The first point to note is that the apparently quite widespread, but new, belief that everyone has a clan, and can wear some specific tartan or display a clan badge, is quite erroneous. Only those of Scottish descent can be associated with a clan in any way. The clan system is an entirely Scottish phenomenon, and consists of a few groups of families, centered on old and historically prominent families, with other associated families (some of the same name as the principal lineage, but many not). To count as a clan, with a chief, these groups need to be recognized as such by the chief Scottish herald, the Lord Lyon King of Arms. This leads on to the second point, which is that it is Lord Lyon, and NOT the English College of Arms, who has authority and responsibility over matters relating to clans. Sincerely, Odessa Higdon-Crenshaw Great Great Great Granddaughter of Domingo Medearis --------------------------------- 8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick in no time with theYahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut.