Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
One cannot always assume that European/African admixture in America is the result of forced slave relations. There were African "freemen" and "freewomen" that were able to freely marry across racial lines in areas that did not enforce a miscegenation ban. there were also illicit couplings among consenting adults in secret. And there were frontier households that did whatever was necessary to survive without any governing body to intervene. Human ingenuity and passion does always find a way even when the world's ethics are absent and rules topsy-turvy. I have still to confirm the Irish ancestry that my obviously fair-skinned Dad told me many times about. I do, however, have many photos of the family faces with obvious characteristics of African, European, and Native-American. Nature exhibits cause and effect, violent geologic changes leave spectacular vistas, and oceans wear away stone to create new forms. Great heroes and statesmen were the product of abusive families and evil historical circumstances. I love myself and who I am so therefore I have to accept, even admire, the forces, good and bad, that made me. i think all should learn to do the same. I have golden brown skin like a Pakistani, frizzy, super curly hair like a Somali and amber/sea foam hazel eyes like my Celtic ancestors. I'm undeniably American.
On the PBS series, Finding your Roots, there was one black woman who had assumed, as she was black and her known ancestors were black, that they had been slaves. She was astonished to discover that her heritage went back to the 1600's and and Irish indentured woman. She had a child by an African indentured servant. Because status went with the mother, he was freed with her when she finished her time. The son was educated and prospered, even participated in the early slave trade as a merchant.
Her family included people of a variety of professions and success, but there was NO slavery in her past. In that early period especially, race was much less important than status and it wasn't until a dividing line was made for political survival that it was sealed. There are certainly white families with black african roots from this period too, especially as after differences were made it was as much what one looked like as anything else. Nobody could test your dna so if you said you were white and you looked it you were. Pack up, move the family somewhere else, and say white and nobody was going to look up the family history.
One cannot always assume that European/African admixture in America is the result of forced slave relations. There were African "freemen" and "freewomen" that were able to freely marry across racial lines in areas that did not enforce a miscegenation ban. there were also illicit couplings among consenting adults in secret. And there were frontier households that did whatever was necessary to survive without any governing body to intervene. Human ingenuity and passion does always find a way even when the world's ethics are absent and rules topsy-turvy. I have still to confirm the Irish ancestry that my obviously fair-skinned Dad told me many times about. I do, however, have many photos of the family faces with obvious characteristics of African, European, and Native-American. Nature exhibits cause and effect, violent geologic changes leave spectacular vistas, and oceans wear away stone to create new forms. Great heroes and statesmen were the product of abusive families and evil historical circumstances. I love myself and who I am so therefore I have to accept, even admire, the forces, good and bad, that made me. i think all should learn to do the same. I have golden brown skin like a Pakistani, frizzy, super curly hair like a Somali and amber/sea foam hazel eyes like my Celtic ancestors. I'm undeniably American.
My dad's side of the family has no relation to slavery that I know of. There were black people up north and in Canada since the beginnings of this country I guess. They are the type of family that considers themselves "black", but when you look at them you would not think they were. Looking at family records, every white person in his family was married to the black (or mulatto as the records indicated) persons. Our family also has a heavy amount of Native ancestry. My dad's family may look Native, Italian, or whatever else people people think they look like, but they still consider themselves black and we are also undeniably American.
I'll mimic others and say be very careful with those Coat of Arms. So many businesses scam people with those things. Most Europeans were poor back in the day and never qualified for a coat of arms. Also several websites, like House of Names, straight up cross map last names to incorrect countries. People fall for it all the time.
As I have posted before; The Internet showed three different C-o-A for my family name and just for the of it I ordered one because it was cheap. When I received it, it was a template with two opposing quadrants, obviously, had been left blank and filled in after it had been ordered. It was such an obvious scam that I kept it to show people "my" C-o-A, then show them how it had been made .
On the PBS series, Finding your Roots, there was one black woman who had assumed, as she was black and her known ancestors were black, that they had been slaves. She was astonished to discover that her heritage went back to the 1600's and and Irish indentured woman. She had a child by an African indentured servant. Because status went with the mother, he was freed with her when she finished her time. The son was educated and prospered, even participated in the early slave trade as a merchant.
Her family included people of a variety of professions and success, but there was NO slavery in her past. In that early period especially, race was much less important than status and it wasn't until a dividing line was made for political survival that it was sealed. There are certainly white families with black african roots from this period too, especially as after differences were made it was as much what one looked like as anything else. Nobody could test your dna so if you said you were white and you looked it you were. Pack up, move the family somewhere else, and say white and nobody was going to look up the family history.
At least not in the part of her family tree that they explored. They don't have time to cover every single branch.
So now I wonder if it would be odd for a black person to have this emblem of scottish genealogy on a buisness card. I will say that it is definitely attractive/impressive symbol and am not personally offended by it but obviously wouldnt want it to be offensive.
Personally I would find it odd if ANYONE put their coat of arms on a business card unless it was relevant to the kind of business they were in. In general I just don't see a coat of arms as a business credential.
On the other hand, I could see the coat of arms displayed in an interesting way in a home, perhaps grouped with family pictures or with a framed original or copy of personal document related to the coat of arms.
Yesterday I received as a birthday gift the book "Finding Anyone, Anywhere, Anywhen" by Noel Montgomery Elliot. In the section about Coats of Arms he wrote the following paragraph; "It is important to know, however, that there is generally no such thing as a coat of arms or crest for a surname. Coats of arms were granted to individuals, so having the same surname as someone in the past that had a coat of arms does not mean you are a direct descendant of that person."
I did not know this. I had always assumed the C-o-A was awarded to the name but I now see it was for an individual. This is a very interesting and informative book with leads to many Web Sites, and many of them are very focused.
The rules for Scottish heraldry are a bit different, it seems. As Slim notes, the Coat of Arms is reserved for an individual. In Scotland, this is the Clan Chief.
Surnames are recognized by clan crests.
So the OP would not want to use the Coat of Arms for the Chief of the clan for his surname, since he is not the chief.
However, the use of the clan crest would not be inappropriate, in my opinion.
I do think that some research into his family history might be fun, especially if he decided to supplement it with DNA.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
of it I ordered one because it was cheap. When I received it, it was a template with two opposing quadrants, obviously, had been left blank and filled in after it had been ordered. It was such an obvious scam that I kept it to show people "my" 
C-o-A, then show them how it had been made 
.
