Coat-of-Arms
Although one would like point to a picture or sketch on the wall and say that there is our family coat-of-arms, not many people are legally entitled to do this. Despite that the fact that companies will "research" your family name and produce a coat-of-arms for a nominal fee. It does not mean you are entitled to use it or even that you are related to the line. It is more likely that you have purchased a good feeling and made someone else a bit richer.
How is a real coat-of-arms granted? Ideally you are quartered. Quartering is proving your pedigree has all eight of your grandparents' parents of noble/royal birth. By the late 1800's this was a very difficult thing to do in Europe. Another method was to show that you were a direct line male descendant of an individual granted a coat-of-arms. If I were granted a coat-of-arms only my male heirs (children) and not my brothers and sisters are entitled to claim ownership of that coat-of-arms.
If in doing genealogical research, discovering a coat-of-arms in the family (even by illegitimate birth) makes further research becomes a lot easier. Because of the need originally to prove quartering there exists records (proof of pedigree) that can go back generations upon generations. It is not uncommon to trace a royal lines back to the 10th century or even as far back as the 4th century. The trick is to hit a royal line.
An individual can be granted a coat-of-arms also by virtue of services and good works, as is the case with the Hartlaub family, which will be discussed later. It is worth the effort to locate the coat-of-arms with your surname and note where the owner came from. This is a clue in genealogical research as beginning point to focus ones efforts. This is especially true if one does not know anything about an individual before coming to America. There is an old, but excellent, series of six volumes to start with. The "General Illustrated Armorial" by Victor and Henri Rolland who used Johannes Baptist Rietstrap's collection of coat-of-arms. The volumes are alphabetically arranged by surname. The book was published in the latter half of the 1800's. There is a copy in the Hesburgh Library on the Notre Dame campus. Unfortunately, the illustrations are in black and white with a hatching code to represent the colors of the metals used.
THE REINHART COAT-OF-ARMS
The shield on the left is commonly accepted as belonging to a relative somewhere in the deep past. However, in fact, it is probably not even remotely connected to the family. When a researcher was hired to locate the coat-of-arms neither he nor were nor any of the American Reinharts knew the spelling of the surname had been changed from Reinhard to Reinhart just prior to immigrating to America in 1833. Upon closer inspection the location associated with it is Winterhur which is about 30 miles west of Erfurt and 75 miles northeast of Frankfurt.
We now know, thanks to Tim Reinhart, that Niedernberg is the town from which the Reinharts came. Other Reinharts, of various spellings listed by Rietstrap are as follows:
There are only three shields that indicate a Bavarian origin. One appears to have three stars of David on it and if that implies Jewish it makes for some interesting history for this Catholic family. At this time there appears to be no link to Peter Reinhart and a common ancestor with a coat-of-arms.
However, his wife Maria Anna Hartlaub does appear to have a common ancestor with the Hartlaubs from Hammelburg and Schweinfurt. Johan (b. 01JAN1597 d. 1652 ) and his brother Herman (no dates) Hartlaub, the sons of Ambrosius Hartlaub (d. 1607), mayor of Hammelburg, applied for and were granted a coat-of-arms in 1641. The common link goes back to the 1400's. This branch of the Hartlaubs is known to have moved from Niedernberg to Schweinfurt and then Hammelburg. It might be noted that the Hartlaubs moved and settled in many areas of Germany so that there are other possibilities of common ancestors. Reitstrap shows the following possibilities:
It would be quite nice to locate an authentic coat-of-arms. In the case of Peter Reinhard and Maria Anna Hartlaub their descendants do not have any rights or claim to a coat-of-arms.
Manfred Hartlaub has
a very nice color representation of the Hartlaub coat-of-arms on the web-page.
As a side note the name Clement appears in the Reinhard family tree. Clement or Klement is the oldest recorded name in Niedernberg, dating back to 1325. There is only one listed in by Reitstrap as coming from Germany and that is a rather complex shield. One would expect a simple design. The simpler the design the more esteemed and older. The shield of a subsequent generation tended to incorporate many of the essential features of their predecessors while adding their own unique qualities.
THE HARTMAN FAMILY
The Hartmann family doesn't necessarily have a claim to a coat-of-arms but rather the house in which family members were born and raised bears two shields on the cornerstone. One is of Heinrich von Mörle and the other of unknown origin at this time. The Rietstrap collection Volume 4 shows the von Mörle shield. Reitstrap indicates that the shield was red and silver with a gold (yellow) rose in the middle However, a Sarrod, Germany history of the village states that top of the shield was red and the bottom half was white (often denotes silver) on one side and black on the other with a five pedaled yellow rose in the middle. It is impossible to tell in a stone carving what the colors of a shield are but from Sourabe in Germany there is a red and silver shield associated with the name Thurn that looks like the second shield on the cornerstone.
Reitstrap also indicates that the von Mörle shield is from Franconia. There is a coat-of-arms for Hartmann from the Franconia. Another shield from Rotterdam with a somewhat similar design utilizing the point, stars and black. If anyone has further information about these coats-of-arms please contact us.
RUPERT
BADER
Rupert Bader, was from Germany and that is virtually all we know about his origins. His wife's family was from Koblenz. However, there is nothing to indicate that Rupert came from there also. Two coats-of-arms are listed in the Volume 1 that may apply.
If anyone has Bader in their family line from the Frankfurt, Germany area we would like to compare notes with you.
THE MATHIAS FAMILY
There are many coat-of-arms bearing the name of Mathias and its derivative spellings but none appear to come from Luxembourg. One of the more amusing Mathias shields comes from France has three die on it. The 13th Apostle, Mathias, was chosen by lot to replace Judas. If this is the intent, one has to wonder why the die total 15 instead of 13.
There are several other names in Lewis Mathias' line that have a coat-of-arms but the only one that came from Luxembourg is Stoultgen. We would like to share information with anyone that has an ancestor with the surname Stoultgen.
THE GRZYBOWSKI FAMILY
We would also like to gather information on the Grzybowski origins in Poland.
Albert George Grzybowski (b. 1870 - d. 1921) came from Gasiorowo, Poland.
There are Colleges of Arms that maintain the integrity of national and international rights to ownership and use a coat-of-arms. They make sure the design is not already in use and that the integrity of this honor is upheld. Even though a pedigree is not a required to be granted a coat-of-arms (Many corporate bodies, local governments and professional associations are granted arms as well as individuals whose life or work has been a benefit to the community.), probably the most fun can be had designing ones own coat-of-arms and self proclaiming it to the world as the official coat-of-arms of ...