Thank you for "Advice Please re Family Crest verification"

Thank you very much to everyone who replied to my request for advice and
information.

I will print off everyone's reply, hand it to my friend and he can do what
he wants with the information. You may hear from us again.

He is only after some type of recognition of the family name, of which he is
very proud, for his grandchildren, and he is collating this information
together before he too much older and forgets. His family are well known
for dairy farming in the area where he lives.

His family originated from the UK many moons ago and his ancestry looks
great. He has original family documents, medals, photos, diaries and letters
from his ancestors in the UK and in Australia spanning well over 100 years,
which I have documented into his family history from his handwritten family
history which he has been putting together for a number of years.

myths...

If one has a "crest" used in the past, it may or may not have been
from arms held by an armigerous member of the family.

I made contact with a line of my grandfather's family that descends
from a young man that joined his wife's loyalist family in Canada in
the late 18C. They have a copy of the emblem on his signet ring, a
falcon's head (if I remember correctly), and assumed it was the
"family crest".

Two distinct coats of arms are listed for persons with that family
name in medieval rolls, and members of "our" family have (rightly or
wrongly) since the early 19C used one of them - it appears on 4 19C
memorial tablets, two shields in a decorative frieze from the 1870s,
and a mid 19C bench covered in shields showing marriages to do with a
small estate.

But the falcon is not the crest used on any of them, and it seems to
me that the 18C young man just chose a signet ring that pleased him.
(Which is interesting of itself, his choices being worth
remembering.)

nemo...

It is quite possible, then, that someone in his family was entitled to
bear arms and that you could identify this person. And that he could
obtain a grant of these arms if he can prove his descent in the male
line, or a version of them if not. Any UK citizen can obtain a perfectly
legitimate achievement of arms from the College of Heralds - but it is
EXPENSIVE!!!
I've no idea what happens in the case of Autralians, though :-(

John (Bournemouth).

Thank you all once again, I know he will read every response about our
request.