RootsChat.Com
Some Special Interests => Heraldry Crests and Coats of Arms => Topic started by: Bigmamashouse on Saturday 17 September 11 03:42 BST (UK)
-
Posted is a picture of a hand made byrne crest - I believe. Wondering if anyone has one the same apparently it was made for a byrne family reunion many years ago and was given to me by my aunty.
-
Well, first, to be pedantic, "crest" refers to the Mermaid that sits on the helm ("helmet").
A coat of arms is awarded to an individual and may be passed to down through his male descendants - they do not belong to just anyone who happen to have that surname.
In theory, no one else should have those arms.
The coat of arms as pictured here I'm guessing was simply lifted out of Burke's by the person who made it - a very common commercial practice. This may mean a number of people with the same surname apparently have the same arms even if the arms have never been granted to their specific family.
I'm sure there are examples, but it's rarer still for two people with different, unrelated, surnames to have the same arms, as even people selling commercial products with "your" coat of arms avoid this, while the College of Arms that designs the "official" arms for an individual exists in part to avoid just this sort of thing (in theory).
If your family was indeed granted a coat of arms, you'd probably have known about it.
According to Burke's (1884), these arms were granted to the O'Byrnes family from Co. Wicklow in Ireland - similar arms were apparently still in use in 1884.
Of course, I'd be delighted for you should you tell me that you've traced your ancestry to the O'Byrnes of Co. Wicklow!
-
That is so interesting thankyou. I live in australia and my Aunty went to Ireland with my grandma and they were given this crest. It would have been around 1960-70's.
Thankyou once again
-
Hate to shatter more of your illusions, and it's difficult to be 100% certain from a photograph, but looks more like a bought one than something homemade.
-
Awww it gets worse oh well its been the most posts Ive ever had to my byrne family from dublin at least thats something who are they????? :D
-
Hi there my name is byrne and your crest looks the same as mine I have byrnes on both sides some from wicklow but none with an O
-
I too have only bynre no "O" . What are some of the names of your aunts and uncles and grand or great granparents? do you have a family tree?
-
This is the Byrne entry from Burke's General Armory. Many of these commercial companies just pick the oldest entry for any given surname.
-
Wondering if anyone has one the same apparently it was made for a byrne family reunion many years ago and was given to our family...I'm living in Portugal and here, I have my cousins and aunts/uncles and (grand)parents - BYRNE; I will always be proud of our family and I would like to know the other side of the ;)