Hello Jean Winslow: You asked how does one know if a certain coat of arms is the correct one. I guess the question you have to ask yourself is, the correct one for what? Even if you can trace you family history back to the person mentioned in the citation, that in itself doesn't mean that somehow that crest is the "family coat of arms". For one thing, most grants of arms were not inheritable, and when they were, they were usually passed on to the eldest son. In short, people almost always know if they have a true family crest or coat of arms, usually because people were always addressing their father as "Lord Smith" or "Graf von Richtoven" insteady of "Hey, Joe". That's not to say that grants of arms aren't genealogical interesting or important; clearly they are. And they do make a nice starting off point for designing a personal "family crest" for decorative purposes. Anyway, to answer your implied question, the citations for most grants of arms in German speaking countries can be looked up in a series of reference works called Siebmacher Wappenbu"cher. These books, some of which date back centuries, have been republished in indexed collections, and indexes themselves published as multiple volumes. They will say who was given the grant of arms, what it was for, and describe the crest in heraldic terms. If you are fortunate enough to live near a big city or university with a large library, you should be able to at least look up the citation for the original grant of arms and see who it was for. Cheers, Mark J. L. Lesmeister, who is probably no relation whatsover to the Nicolaus Lesmeister who was given a title and grant of arms by the Emperor in 1491. -----Original Message----- From: Jean Winslow [mailto:jean@san.rr.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 1999 4:42 PM To: TRIER-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [TRIER-ROOTS-L] Coats of Arms Dear Sirs: I received a description of a family shiedl or coat of arms from a distant relative. The source apparently was from an old historical Book of Arms in 1650 Vol. 4, page 140. How certain, when information comes from an unknown source, that this is really the correct one? The family name was Pecker in Germany and apparently the Peckers are numerous in the Province of Saxony. However, my Great Grandfather Pecker or Peiker was born in Stendal, Germany. I have scoured internet shields and coats of arms to no avail. Any information known by a subscriber would be greatly appreciated. Jean Winslow ==== TRIER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== Greatest Christmas Gift Ever! Support RootsWeb! Help provide FREE genealogical resources on the Internet: http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html