What is the Downing family crest ?

Question:

What is the Downing family crest ?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: In the United States there are no laws regarding heraldry. There are a lot of companies that peddle coats of arms. All they care about is your surname.

Coats of arms had crest added to them for some noble deed to the crown. Now starting about the Elizabethan period all coats of arms issued had crest. A coat of arms that does not have crest is usually one of older origin, unless it is a case like I know of where the crest was removed by the crown due to theft.

Now much of the Anglo Saxon population of the American South have coats of arms in their family trees, including people of humble means. That doesn't mean that they belong to members of those families. Actually though some people in the South actually have the ones brought over by the ancestors from England. They don't display them. They usually have them tucked away in a closet or the attic. Afterall they can't buy groceries with them.

Back in the early 40s, I visited a family where the father and the children were using theirs for a dart board.

You have to realize not everyone with the same name is any way related.

For instance O'Brien means the descendants of Brian. However, not all O'Briens are descended from the great Brian Boru. You see there was more than one Brian that had descendants.

You can do a search on the internet under heraldry or coats of arms or crests and you can find galore people who are more than willing to sell you a coat of arms with your family name. But if they claim it belongs to you or has anything to do with your family unless you can search your roots and prove it does, they are just charlatans.
However don't trust their searches.