HERALDIC CRESTS are an interesting area of research. Crests were typically transferred from oldest son to oldest son in Europe.
Americans buy up tartans, crests, and other motifs of kinship in clans and in aristocratic houses, but once the person whose lineage granted them such status has GIVEN UP THEIR AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP, they no longer may officially have a title or assume the use of these legally!
Finding the crest for a family with your surname, or perhaps one that would have been transmitted to your family if they had not left Europe is still great fun for the genealogist!
