This is one of my occasional messages aimed at helping beginners to genealogy and family history to avoid those pitfalls and traps which are so prevelant in our hobby, especially for novices who are just starting out on the trail. I was trawling the web today and was appalled to see that those websites that purport to sell you the so-called "history of your surname", your "family coat of arms", and all kinds of other rubbish like mugs, t-shirts, key-rings and other products with your supposed "coat of arms" on them appear to be burgeoning. They would seem to have moved out of shopping malls and market stalls and onto the Internet. I was saddened earlier this year that they even seem to have been allowed into the big history fair at Olympia as well and no doubt they are found at other family history fairs around the country. I expect the organisers would say they are happy to take their money but in my opinion they shouldn't be allowed into any serious genealogical gathering. Anyone who has any genealogical experience at all will know that these people are charlatans cashing in on what has become a highly popular and lucrative hobby and the gullible beginner may fall for some of the things they offer. I have written about them a number of times on mailing lists and in the family history press and I call them "bucket shop genealogists". You only have to read some of the "surname meanings" and alleged origins to see how ludicrous some of them are. It doesn't matter what name you enter, it almost always tell you that it is Norman and came with William the Conqueror or that it goes back even further to Anglo-Saxon barons. Of course, your supposed "ancestors" were always lords of the manor with a family seat! According to these bucket shops, there weren't any ordinary people around in those days. They are simplying playing on peopl's gullibility and snobbery. Be aware also that there is no such thing as a "family coat of arms" or a coat of arms for a particular surname. Heraldry is a complicated subject but in general arms were/are granted only to a particular individual and direct heirs in the male line (with a few exceptions) and they had to be differenced. Just because there may be a coat of arms for your surname it doesn't mean that anyone of that name can use them !!! Please be aware that this is important and could even lead to legal problems if you use arms illicitly. You might also notice that the coats of arms appear pretty similar, with virtually identical backgrounds, and are clearly devised by modern artists with no regard whatsoever to the originals. To give an example, I found at one particular website - no names, no pack drill but it's a very large and well-known one - a supposed "Stockdill coat of arms". I know for an absolute fact that there has never been anyone of my name who had arms (I checked with the college of Arms), there are arms for Stockdale, yes, but none of them had any anything to do with me. So please, please beware, you beginners out there! If you simply want something pretty to hang on your dining room wall, then OK, but don't expect the information you get to be necessarily accurate. As always, there is only one way of devising a history of your surname, which is to do your own research very carefully and don't buy one from one of these websites. Good luck! -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE