ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS

Adrian Ailes - Origins of the Heralds’ Visitations in England
Most people date these to 1530, the date of the first royal commission to the heralds to go on visitation, but there were visitations before that and more importantly official writs of aid (i.e. local officials to provide support) for earlier visitations in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. These have not been studied, nor the reasons why the king and central government (rather than the heralds) were interested in finding out who was entitled to arms and where they lived.

Ronny Andersen - The origin and evolution of the arms of Peter Schumacher Griffenfeld – a case study
The story of the rise and fall of Peter Schumacher Griffenfeld (1635-1699), the son of a wine merchant who rose to the highest offices of the kingdom and ended his life as state prisoner, is a fascinating tale reflecting the social mobility in the Danish-Norwegian absolute monarchy of the late 17th century. Through the course of his life Peter Schumacher Griffenfeld used different coats of arms, relating to his social status.

Jan T. Anema - The Murrays of Falahill, officers in the army of the Dutch Republic

Stoyan Antonov - The System of Personal Arms of the Bulgarian Royal House(the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Dynasty)
The main conclusion is that during the reign of Ferdinand I (1887-1918) a proper dynastic heraldry was established, and eventually with the arms of King Simeon II the pattern was completed. The system was based on marshalling of the arms of Bulgaria and ancestral arms (from both paternal and maternal lines), rank crowns, and shield or lozenge. The main concepts indicated with this system encompassed domain (title), ancestry, gender and primogeniture, which were a reflection of the hierarchy and the order of succession to the throne. In this way, the heir did not inherit the arms of his father.

Henric Åsklund – The register of burgher arms of the Swedish National Heraldry Office 1934-1936 and the successors it inspired
During 1934-1936 the Swedish National Heraldry Office kept a register of burgher arms. Submitted coats of arms were reviewed and if found acceptable entered into the Roll of Arms. Upon registration, a certificate was issued granting that the coat of arms was in accordance with the rules of heraldry and that it was not in conflict with any known existing coats of arms. An artist was commissioned to draw the coat of arms in a template. The registration was discontinued in 1936 after 23 coats of arms had been accepted. Additionally, five coats of arms for companies were registered in 1936-1937. There appears to have been several reasons for why the registration ceased.

Richard Baker - The Cutt Memorial at Swavesey
Analysing the remarkable heraldic display on the 17th century memorial to Lady Anne Cutt (nee Kempe) at Swavesey, Cambridgeshire, to identify her diverse family origins.

Nils Bartholdy - The Semantic Evolution of the Danish Royal Coat of Arms
The meaning of three of the fields in the Danish Royal coat of arms evolved in an imaginative direction: the three lions, since the end of the 12th century were beyond question the arms of Denmark; the wyvern, since 1440 the arms of the “King of the Wends” and earlier, in the 14th century, the arms of the duchy of Lolland; the lion above nine hearts, since 1449 the arms of the “King of the Goths” and earlier, in the 13th and 14th century, connected with counts and dukes of Halland.

Shannon Combs-Bennett - Westward Ho! Following a Family Migration Across America
Westward expansion and manifest destiny were integral to the thinking and way of life during the 19th century. As more land was acquired by the United States Government they created incentives for the population to move to greener pastures.

Claus Bertnsen - Evolution of Ecclesiastical Heraldry in Sweden
It is well known that the Church started employing heraldry fairly early, and Sweden was no exemption to this. After the reformation (approx. 1520-1600 A.D. in Sweden) the use of heraldry in the Church lessened, as the clergy, and civil servants overall relied more on signatures as forms of identification instead of seals.

Claire Boudreau and Darrel Kennedy – Building the Canadian system – from there to here and to…..where
With heraldic authority being expressed as a “Law of Arms” this paper will begin with a constitutional interpretation of the historical basis prior to 1988 for there being a system of
Canadian heraldry which is related to European concepts, but different from them. It will incorporate a working definition of “Laws of Arms” applicable to the Canadian polity.

D’Arcy Boulton -The Origins and Evolution of the Practice of Multiple Quartering in England to 1603
This paper will examine the origins and evolution in England (especially among the peers of the realm and the knights of the Order of the Garter) of the practice of marshalling more than four distinct coats of arms on the same field by some form of quartering.

John A. Cleary - Informers and Records: what may we know about the history of informing in legacy cases of the 1880s?
Two landmark decisions of the Information Commissioner (2011, 2015) have effectively sealed indefinitely surviving records concerning informers to the Metropolitan Police (MP) Special Branch involved with Irish unrest of the 1880s, despite the events concerned now being almost 130 years in the past.

Audrey Collins - A Scottish farmer’s ride through England
Andrew Blaikie was in his early 60s, when he left his Roxburghshire farm and journeyed on horseback through England in 1804. He wanted to visit a son he had not seen for several years, to see London, and to meet the king. He achieved all three, and kept a diary as he went.

Carl-Thomas von Christierson - The Funeral Escutcheons with Ancestral Arms in Finland
The funeral escutcheons of Finland represent “Origins and Evolutions” on several levels including historic, genealogical, artistic and social. They form an integrated part of the burial tradition around the Baltic Sea closely relating to the baroque era and Sweden’s development as a great power. Presenting personal and ancestral coats of arms was an important aspect of “Pompa Funebris”, or the “Pomp and Circumstances” accompanying the laying to rest of a nobleman.

Howard Connell – The Evolution of the triskelion from a pre-heraldic symbol to an icon of national identity
The paper will explore the pre-heraldic use of the triskelion, together with its use on seals of other items as the arms of the Kings and Lords of Man from the 13th to the 18th centuries, and after 1765 its connection as an emblem of the Lordship of Man under the British Crown.

Mark Dennis – The Crown of Scotland: Evolution of the Image
The premier emblem of sovereignty, the icon of ultimate secular authority, is the Crown. The Honours of Scotland are her Crown, Sword and Sceptre, all depicted in the Scottish Royal crest, and they have played a central and turbulent role in the history of the nation.

Ana-Felicia Diaconu - Continuity and Innovation in the Romanian Civic Heraldry over the centuries
Continuity is one of the main features of the Romanian territorial heraldry, as well as of the wide-ranging state’s heraldry. The fact that it belongs to communities and not to individuals, referring mostly to the memorable events which have been fixed into the collective memory, is one of the explanations generally available that lead to this stability. Despite this aspect, there have been moments when innovations at the level of escutcheons have been documented, at both municipal and district level, not only in regard to the charges, but also to the style.

Luc Duerloo – A New Roar for an Old Lion. Recent development in Flemish heraldry
Heraldry cam early to the region we now call Flanders. It was not until the present century, however, that a system was set up to grant arms to persons who do not belong to the nobility. Fifteen years have since elapsed and over 200 letters patent have been issued. It has been the task of the Flemish Heraldic Council to develop an heraldic idiom that reconciles the traditions of the past with the needs of the present.

Bruce Durie – the origins and development of Glasgow’s civic arms
Glasgow started as not much more than a salmon fishing village with an early monastery in the 6th century; a later cathedral from the 12th century with the present building being the fourth on site; a university from the mid-15th century; and an ancient burgh from the 1170s with regality privileges from 1450. Innovation was paramount and Glasgow was one of a small group of towns which improvised the idea of the city in the 19th century building on mercantile trade followed by heavy engineering.

Paul A Fox - From original sin to pagan symbol: the iconography of the snake in art, and its adoption as an heraldic device
Few creatures have been perceived in such contrasting ways as the snake. Both vicious predator , as exemplified by the Visconti serpent, and bringer of healing; both fount of evil and source of all wisdom. As an attribute of the gods Mercury-Apollo and Aesculapius it became an emblem of heralds and physicians, and finally, it came to represent endurance and immortality. The use of the snake found particular favour in Renaissance Italy as ancient knowledge came to be explored and redefined. Literature and cultural exchange subsequently popularised it throughout Europe.

Pedro Javier Castañeda-García - The BRITO family: From the medieval royal courts to a modern democracy in the Canarian island of La Palma
The paper will examine the origin and evolution of the Brito lineage, a Portuguese family that arrived on the Canarian Island of La Palma after the Spanish conquest in 1493. Local protocol documents and nobility records of the Canary Islands and Madeira, as well of those of mainland Portugal and Spain, were consulted to obtain basic data on the Brito family.

Michael Goebl - Die Herolde im Heiligen Römischen Reich vom 16. Jahrhundert bis 1806
An der Wende um 1500 waren Herolde in ganz Europa an allen Fürstenhöfen verbreitet. Sie waren mit verschiedenen Aufgaben befasst: Sie waren Berichterstatter und Chronisten, nahmen an Kriegszügen und an Turnieren teil, überbrachten Botschaften und wurden zur Organisation von Zeremonien herangezogen. Die Entwicklung der Herolde und ihrer Tätigkeit im Heiligen Römischen Reich ist ab dem 16. Jahrhundert im Zusammenhang mit der Entwicklung der staatlichen Verwaltung, der Reichs- und Hofkanzleien und der Hofverwaltungen zu sehen.

Julie Goucher - The Evolution of a One-Name Study or Surname Research
The paper will explain what a One-Name study is and what surname research endeavours to promote. It will look at the catalyst for undertaking the project and how it can lead to the development of this study. The paper will look at the Guild of One-Name Studies and the Anglo Italian Family History Society; how to organise and research a study, data gathering and analysis; the relevance of a DNA project, and the future of such projects.

Andrew Gray - British Funeral Heraldry – Import, Native Style or Hybrid
The most visible feature of British funeral heraldry, the hatchment, shows a clear affinity with its Low Countries’ equivalent, the rouwbord or blason funéraire, and it is generally assumed that the former was inspired by the latter around the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But there was an independent native tradition of portable memorials, traceable back into the middle Tudor period. Throughout the seventeenth century these two kinds of memorial achievements flourished with some hybridisation, until a standard pattern had been established in the eighteenth century.

Graham S Holton and Alasdair F Macdonald - DNA testing as a genealogical tool: past, present and future
After a brief look at how DNA testing has been used in the past, this presentation will examine current practice including Y-chromosome DNA testing using STRs and SNPs and autosomal testing. The use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) tests will be considered and also the limitations of matrilineal DNA testing as far as genealogy is concerned.

Matthew Hovious - DNA and Documents in a 19th Century Kentucky Genealogy
This lecture will look at how family heirlooms, public records and DNA testing can be used to develop a possible solution for a genealogical mystery, and track the origin and evolution of a male-line lineage through changes in surname. An out-of-wedlock birth in a village in 1820 seemed to present an insurmountable brick wall to further tracing a family's male-line ancestry.

Jovan Jonovski - The Sun In The Macedonian Civic Heraldry
In territorial heraldry the armiger’s territory or settlement is closely related to the system of the administrative divisions. In 2013 the number of municipalities in the Republic of Macedonia was 80 plus the City of Skopje. The majority of municipal coat of arms were devised received through competition, resulting in landscape "arms" as was the practice of the socialist period. The most common symbol of municipal coats of arms is the sun.

Clemens Kech - Der Siegeszug der Allgemeinen Deutschen Wappenrolle in Deutschland
Als im Jahre 1971 der Wappen-HEROLD, Deutsche Heraldische Gesellschaft e.V., den ersten Band der Allgemeine Deutsche Wappenrolle (ADW) herausbrachte, begann damit ein Siegeszug, der sich bis heute fortsetzt. Seither hat sich die ADW zu einer der wichtigsten heraldischen Institutionen im deutschsprachigen Raum entwickelt. Ihr Stellenwert lässt sich allein daran ermessen, dass die mittlerweile 21 Bände umfassende Reihe mit ihren über 7.100 registrierten Wappen heute in allen Staats- und Landesbibliotheken sowie in Staats- und Hauptstaatsarchiven der Bundesrepublik Deutschland einsehbar sind.

Henric Klackenberg - The way of the griffin: from duke of Pomerania to Swedish truck
The griffin is a fabulous monster, half eagle and half lion, known since prehistoric times in oriental art and cherished by heraldry during the Middle Ages. It is generally believed that it came to Christian Europe as a consequence of the crusades. From early 13th century and onwards we find the griffin as an heraldic emblem in the seals of the dukes of Pomerania on the southern shore of the Baltic. The aim with this lecture will be to follow the way of the griffin from 13th century Pomerania via Denmark to Sweden of today, where the griffin is a well- known international trade mark for SAAB cars and Scania trucks.

Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard - From Norse gods to Scots clan chiefs: Second thoughts on Moncreiffe's theory of the origin of 'The Galley of the Isles
Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk (1919-1985) suggested in a number of works that the black galley found in so many coat-of-arms among the descendants of Somerled, King of the Isles, could be a symbol derived from an original Germanic/Norse goddess whose symbol supposedly was a ship, and that the link was a supposed descent of Somerled and his wife from the Ynglingar dynasty of Sweden. The paper will critically examine the suggested explanation from both heraldic, genealogical and archaeological evidence and to find that it is very weak.

Pierre Le Clercq - Origine et évolution d’une famille d’Auxerre, de René Martineau à France Gall
De 1552 à 1916, l’une des familles les plus en vue d’Auxerre était la famille Martineau. Issue d’un médecin nommé René Martineau, né en 1516 à Pontvallain, dans le Maine, étudiant en médecine de 1537 à 1549 à l’université de Bologne, en Italie, puis marié en 1554 à Auxerre, en Bourgogne, cette famille bourgeoise a vite évolué en abandonnant très tôt la médecine pour s’illustrer d’abord, aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, dans le domaine de la justice provinciale, puis, au XIXe siècle, dans l’armée.

Alberto Lembo - Pourquoi le crancelin dans les armoiries de la famille da Porto de Vicence?
La famille des comtes da Porto est une des plus anciennes et puissantes de la noblesse féodale de Vicence. En origine elle portait “D’azur à la fasce entée d’argent” (J. B. Rietstap, ARMORIAL GÉNERAL). Mais depuis la moitié du XVI siècle on trouve sur le tombeaux de quelques unes de ses membres le crancelin de sinople, brochant en bande sur le burelé d’or et de sable. Pourquoi?...

Rodrigo Lopez-Portillo y Lancaster- Jones - Mexico’s presence at the Coat of Arms of the 1st Viscount Cowdray, the Engineer of the Empire
From the 19th-century Yorkshire brick-making firm which Weetman Pearson (created first Viscount Cowdray in 1917) transformed into a huge international construction business and subsequently diversified conglomerate through the launch of "Mexican Eagle Oil", whose rich discoveries in 1910 initiated one of the great early oil booms in history, Pearson’s life could be a portrait of the typical business hero from the pages of “Self-Help” by the Scottish author Samuel Smiles (1812–1904).

Ian G Macdonald - 500 Years – Total Family History
A comprehensive study of the Mewburn family of north-east England has been conducted. They belong to the ‘middling sort’ and this paper deals with the challenges associated with the study of such a group. By tracing all members of a single family over the period covered by our principal sources of records it becomes possible to explore the evolution of the middling sort.

Tahitia McCabe - Identifying Americans resident in Scotland during the 19th century: the evolution of a research project
There were a total of 2,572 individuals of American birth listed in the 1881 Scottish census, the greatest number shown for any non-Irish or non-British national group. Much has been published about Scots living in North America but there is a lack of research on Americans in Scotland.

Joseph McMillan - From Personal to Provincial Arms: Heraldry and Colonial Identity in British North America
Europe is full of arms of dominion that trace their lineage back to the personal bearings of medieval kings and princes. In the 17th and18th centuries, this process was replicated in three of the 13 British colonies that would eventually comprise the USA. Over the course of as few as 40 years, the personal arms of Calvert (proprietors of Maryland) and Penn (proprietors of Pennsylvania and Delaware) came to be seen by Marylanders, Pennsylvanians, and Delawareans as the arms of their respective provinces, symbols of their own collective identity as much as of the proprietors.

Göran Mörner - Swedo-Scottish family as shown in painted copper plates – a journey from Sweden to Scotland and back to Sweden
The brilliant display of heraldic shields in the Swedo-Scottish Section, bearing the names of many of the proudest families of Scotland, as well as patents of nobility, genealogical trees, portraits, and other memorials, give testimony to the place which Scotsmen hold in the affections of Sweden and the important influence they have exercised in the military and commercial annals of that country.

Michel Popoff - Héraldique d'État et héraldique territoriale : origines et évolution - le cas de la Russie et de la Biélorussie"

Marta Gomes dos Santos – The origins and evolution of civic heraldry in medieval Portugal
The aim of this presention will be to analyse the origin and evolution of coats of arms used by town in medieval Portugal. The work is part of Doctoral research project based on source gathering and its subsequent study considering mostly seals but also carvings of arms, pictures and descriptions of arms between the 13th and 16th centuries. It will discuss how political, geographical, religious and even legendary beliefs are intertwined which lead to a symbol which embodies the collectivity of the town.

Jenny Swanson -The 1841 fishermen of Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland: did they follow ancestors into a hereditary occupation?
Scholars have frequently stated that, in Scotland, fishing was a hereditary occupation. However, this may be over-simplistic. By c.1790-92, only 12 fishers remained in the parish of Pittenweem: the 1841 census showed 75. By chance, family history research revealed that one of these 75 men had no recent, direct fisher-ancestry.

Herbert Stoyan – The Protogiornale as a genealogical source for patricians of Venice
The Protogiornale is a yearly overview of state affairs and matters of Venice. It contains in unique condensed manner an overview about the members of the Grand Council and gives a minimumof family relations. Over the years it enables partially a reconstruction of family relations. In can help to check the Barbaro-volumes on Venetian genealogy.

Martin Sunnqvist - Coats-of-arms of Royal Swedish Dukes 1500-2015
Since 1772 members of the Swedish Royal family have been granted titular duchies among the historical provinces of Sweden. The right to choose a duchy for a prince, and, since 1980, for a princess who is heir to the throne lies with the King. Central and important provinces with majestic heraldic symbols have been chosen to a greater extent than smaller and more peripheral provinces with less majestic symbols. The coat-of-arms of the duchy is represented in the personal arms of the duke or duchess.

Rolf Sutter - Springtime of Heraldry
Wolfram von Eschenbach is one of the most eminent German medieval epicist. In his masterwork PARZIVAL (1190 - 1220) he reveals himself as a master of heraldry and genealogy. No other epic of the courtly German era equals this giant romance (28.000 verses) containing descriptions of coat of arms and genealogical relationships. This paper will examine the functions of the coat of arms and answer interesting questions about the content of the arms and their meaning.

Attila István Szekeres - The evolution of the Szekler community's coat of arms from the origins until it became the symbol of the Romanian largest minority, the Hungarian community's autonomy movement
During the 12th and the 13th centuries, the Szekler (Hungarian: Székely) Community was colonized by the Hungarian kings in the South-Eastern part of Transylvania, in a compact territory, Szeklerland (Terra Siculorum). The heraldic literature mentions an old (15th century) and a new Szekler coat of arms. The second shows a sun-face on the right, and a crescent moon on the left in an azure field. The National Assembly of Transylvania legitimated the “stamp of the Szekler nation” (as Transylvanian estate) in 1659.

Michel Teillard d’Eyry - Une famille transocéanique,France,Royaume-Uni,Amérique vers 1540-2016,les Bacot (a transoceanic family,France,United Kingdom,America,about 1540-2016,the Bacot’s)
A l’origine de l’intérêt pour la famille BACOT, une famille de la bourgeoisie industrielle et financière française, il y a la description de la situation religieuse très troublée, voire violente, qu’a connue la France au cours des 16° et 17° siècles. En effet, comme beaucoup des représentants de cette bourgeoisie active et évoluée au plan des idées, les premiers éléments de cette famille qu’on retrouve dans le milieu du 16°s dans la ville de Tours (ville alors d’environ 150.000 habitants) étaient protestants.

Steven Thiry - From Lineage to Sovereignty? Mary Stuarts Armorial Claim to the English Throne in the ‘War of the Insignia’, 1559-61
The importance of symbolic imagery in the construction of rulers’ authority is well known. In combination with genealogical assertions and other titles of pretense, the public display of heraldry could provoke severe political conflicts. As a result, early modern rulers were very anxious to safeguard a monopoly on their armorial signs. The usurpation of armorial bearings undermined the very essence of rule. One of the most famous episodes of this kind concerns the subversive use of the arms of England in the name of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Marc Tremblay - Origines et évolution des patronymes au Québec (Canada) depuis le 17e siècle
Les patronymes sont souvent employés en démographie historique, en anthropologie évolutive ou en génétique des populations. Parmi les hypothèses sous-jacentes communes à ce type d’études, il y a celle concernant l’origine unique de chaque patronyme mais aussi celle qui suppose la stabilité orthographique des patronymes au sein d’une même population. Pour diverses raisons, notamment celles qui se rapportent à la distance linguistique entre les nouveaux arrivants et la société d’accueil, un même patronyme peut subir plusieurs ransformations à travers le temps.

Valeria Vanesio - Proofs of nobility of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta: an international institution through its papers
This PhD paper will investigate the archival history of the Order between XVI and XIX centuries. It is mainly focused on the documents required for the admission into the Order, preserved in the Magistral Archives in Rome: some of these documents are genealogical trees and coats of arms presented by the applicants to certificate 200 years of nobility (Italian families).

Nicolas Vernot – Heraldry and magic: the issue of apotropaic and propitiatory functions of coats of arms
When considering the origin and meaning of coats of arms the focus is generally placed on practical and social concerns with heraldry being a way to identify and distinguish one person or family. However, during the Middle Ages and the early modern period armigerous were also people eager to call for divine protection to escape from evil forces. Banners sporting saints’effigies or attributes, war cries enlisting God’s help, blades engraved with charms all testify to such propitiatory functions and apotropaic practices were quite common.

Robert Watt - Watts and the oak tree
The paper will explore all the arms on record in the Court of the Lord Lyon, both in the Public Register and in documents preceding 1672, which were borne by individuals of the surname Watt. The Majority of these feature some version of the Oak tree, often Vert, often rising from a mount Vert. The aim is to discover, using these records, supplemented by documents in the Scottish national library, whether any reason for linking this surname to the tree can be found and to what degree, if any , the bearers of these arms are related in blood.

Adam Żurek - Der Ursprung und die Entwicklung der Wappen der Bischöfe, Diözesen und Domkapitel der Kirchenprovinzen Gnesen und Lemberg (bis zum Ende des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts)
Im Jahr 1000 wurde die Erzdiözese von Gnesen gegründet. Die zweite wurde 1375 in Halicz errichtet und zog kurz darauf nach Lemberg um. Als Folge der politischen Veränderungen im dreizehnten und vierzehnten Jahrhundert waren die Bistümer Lebus und Breslau außerhalb des Königreichs Polen, aber sie sind in Bezug auf die Kirchenprovinz von Gnesen geblieben. Die Bildung des bischöflichen Wappens fällt in das dreizehnte und vierzehnte Jahrhundert. Mit Ausnahme der Diözesen Lebus und Breslau (bereits an das Reich gehörend).Sie produzieren keine Bistümerwappen im Sinne der westeuropäischen Wappenkunde.