What does it mean when someone creates a coat of arms without heraldic authority

Question:

What does it mean when someone creates a coat of arms without heraldic authority?

the fourteen families of galway did this in the time period around 1477

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: It means they created heraldric honors for themselves when none were granted by the Crown. You may have read around here that only one person was granted a coat of arms and that only his oldest son was eligible to inherit it. Yet people all over the world keep searching for their "family coat of arms"...which doesn't honestly exist. But if you're dishonest, then you can steal someone elses or make up your own...and that's what happened in Galway. They made up their own to give themselves honors that never existed.