[Etienne Hamel]

Hi gentlemen, i know its not really about weapons or armors but im trying to know more about my familly but can't find anything before my ancestor Francois Hamel who lived in avresmenil ,normandie in the 16th or 17th century his birth was in 1599.

if anyone can find anything before 1599 it would be awesome because i don't know much about my familly and want to know everything there is to know...

oh! before i forget here's my familly crest.

[Daniel Michaelsson]

[Alfonso Asensio]

Actually I think you may get a surprising amount of people with their own family crest, perhaps due to the branching out and multiplying of certain families. In some monuments here in Spain you can see the most common of family names with very authentic looking, few-centuries old crest engraved in an old wall. Here is mine and must be real since we even have a little town called after us, San Asensio (actually that is not entirely truth as both could also have follow a parallel evolution from the corruption of the Latin word “ascensio” –rise-. But I prefer the have-a-town-named-after-you version)

[Etienne Hamel]

Daniel, it is the real crest of my family.
the thing is that my ancestor francois had four childrens but two came to canada (jean and charles) in 1656.

it is weird because i can only trace evidence of the existence of my family in the 16 century but nothing before...

still trying to find more but would be better to find some text of the period to find more info.

is it possible that the family name came only in the early renaissance because normally it would be easier to find am i right?

[Jean Le-Palud]

[Jonathan Blair]

Armorial Crests aren't a family thing per se, but are given to one person in a family. Typically, a child could assume the crest, but only with permission from his (or her) country's college of arms and only after the death of the previous owner. If the parent is awarded an armorial crest, and the child is later awarded an armorial crest, the two crests need not be similar. Often though, they are similar, but they must vary by at least one significant point. Each armorial crest is treated as a copyrighted image in that country, and use of such without permission can be, under certain circumstances, pursued legally.

[Etienne Hamel]

I know jean and i found interesting to find it come from artois all i know is that francois was in normandy when half of his children departed for canada in 1656 he was married in rouen i think...