Family crest meanings???

Question:

Family crest meanings???

on my crest there is a ducal crown w/ red wings on top of it what does that mean?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I don't want to let you down.

There is no such thing as a family crest. A crest was added to a coat of arms for a noble deed. Then about the Elizabethan period all coats ot arms had crests.

They were given to an individual who passed it on to his eldest son down the line.

There are no laws regarding heraldry in the United States. You are free to display one if you wish but if you have no documented proof that you are entitled to it, it is like putting up a picture of a famous person with your surname and claiming him as your ancestor whether you know he is or not.

Also not everyone with the same surname comes from the same root. There was a time that people did not have surnames.

They took the name of the town they were from or the castle they lived close to. A person can mistakenly think just because they have a name of the castle their ancestors lived close to that they are part of the noble family that owned the castle.

Surnames many times indicate descendancy. Jack had sons and his sons became Jackson but there was more than one Jack that had sons and the Jacks weren't all related.

Sam lived on a hill and became Sam Hill but Tom, no relation to Sam, also lived on a hill and he became Tom Hill.

There were occupational names, smith, jones, miller, fisher, barber, carpenter, clark(clerk) etc.

There are companies in the United States that peddle coats of arms without any documented proof that they belong to the persons buying them.
They are all over the internet.
I understand some will do a family history and "link'"you to a noble family.