[Heralds] Heraldry to represent familial relationships

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

Wilim wrote:
> I've heard of being able to represent 'Son of' heraldically but is
> there any common way a relationship such as 'Nephew' might have
> been/was represented?

No common way.

In fact, there wasn't a standard way to represent "son of" either,
really.  The whole system of label, crescent, mullet, annulet,
fleur-de-lys, rose, cross moline, octofoil (AElfwyn's mnemonic: "The
sun, the moon, and the stars -- a big nothing.  Flora rose cross and
ate foil") is as a system late-period English.  Scotland has a
different system, involving at least bordures.

Generally, you could say in period "I'm related to in some way" by
doing a mark of cadency of some sort.  Generally, things that are one
CD in SCA terms was used as a mark of cadency in period.  _Simple
Heraldry Cheerfully Illustrated_ has a wonder page (of course; it's a
wonderful book) showing various cadency changes for various branches
of the Hay family: changing the field tincture, changing the tinctures
of the three escutcheons, and so on.  A bend overall (usually gules)
was a pretty common cadency step that didn't make it into the English
or Scottish systems.

Daniel de Lincolia
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