Anyone with the surname Stephenson?

Question:

Anyone with the surname Stephenson?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Beware of coat of arms peddlers. There is not such thing as a family crest.

There are no laws in the United States regarding heraldry and there are companies that sell them based only on your surname without documented proof you are entitled to one.

A person is free to display one if they wish but it is like putting up a picture of a famous person with their surname and claiming him as their direct ancestor whether they know he is or not.

Many coats of arms have the same name. Lewis for instance has about 200 which means 200 different individuals were granted one. Not eveyone with the surname Lewis is any way related to any of the 200 granted a coat of arms, much less be a direct male descendant.

Wendy gave you a very good answer. Not everyone with the same surname come from the same root. There was a time when people did not have surnames and they took the name of the town, castle, lake etc they lived close to, or the name of their occupation, or their names indicated they were the son of someone. Sons of Stephen became Stephenson. However, you can imagine there was more than one Stephen than had sons.