[ANSTHRLD] Question for all

[Alisone McCay]

You have been very helpful with this.  Thank you.  It is just something he
has made known to me many a time and it is generally with certain areas of
the world like Asia and the areas that use to be behind the "Iron Curtain"
of present day.  I understand as heralds we are to help educate those
submitting but ourselves to ensure as much accurate information is out
there.  It is to a point I think with this contact he is going to write an
article about at least his particular area of the world (and highly
encouraged to use resources for documentation).  He is I think wanting to
encourage other people to write about other areas like Mongolia and so
forth.  Would these articles if reviewed by others and deemed a good source
worth putting up for other heralds to look at as well?  If no other reason
then documentation for names, etc.?

On 6/8/07, kobrien at texas.net <kobrien at texas.net> wrote:
>
> Q> I have recently been contacted by a SCAdian from the East Kingdom.  He
> has
> > numerous times complained about the college of heralds and wondered how
> we
> > went about verifying resources for documentation, what was even looked
> for
> > in submitting a name, etc.  Now he has given me horror stories of people
> > told to grab names that are not Western European (think more of Chinese,
> > Japanese, etc) from like novels that are like porn novels from around
> that
> > time period and heralds not accepting family records with the names they
> > desire plainly there.
>
> The problem with misinformation about what should be used as documentation
> is
> something I've seen before.  I've mostly seen it in areas where there is
> not
> good communication up and down the heraldic food chain.  By that, I mean
> that
> there is information passed up and down the path:
>
> Local <-> Kingdom <-> Laurel
>
> You tend to see this type of misinformation when there is a breakdown, in
> this chain.  In the first kingdom I lived in, the kingdom level did an
> exceedingly poor job of conveying information from Laurel (particularly
> LoAR
> rulings) down to locals.  Heck, they basically didn't do it at all so the
> locals didn't know that some books had gone onto the "don't use" list.
>
> Since that time, I've also seen this type of breakdown when a
> kingdom-level
> staff regularly doesn't read LoARs (yes, it happens - not here thanks
> goodness, but I won't get nasty here and name kingdoms...)
>
> I've also seen this type of problem in general in extremely rural areas
> that
> tend to have communication breakdowns with their kingdom.  Those cases
> tend
> to be across the board, not just in heraldry.  In those cases, you tend to
> see it also in exchequer, seneschal, etc. stuff.
>
> Another issue I've seen in some kingdoms is that one household ends up
> dominating the heraldic staff in the kingdom and actively (whether
> intentional or not) spreads misinformation.
>
> In the case of the person you're in contact with, I don't know where the
> breakdown is.  It may be as simple as the herald he is most in contact
> with
> is full of something and it ain't knowledge...
>
>
>
> > I am curious if this is common among the colleges or is this a work in
> > progress to correct?  And on a side note...where would I submit articles
> > on names from other regions in the world for review and so forth?
>
> The web has really helped resolve a lot of the problems your contact is
> seeing.  Re: web resources for SCA names, I recommend the Medieval Names
> Archive (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names) for the place to start when
> researching your name.  For heralds trying to learn what's registerabl and
> what's not, past rulings, etc., I recommend they hit the precedents page
> on
> the Laurel website (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/precedents/).  In
> particular, the Compiled Name Precedents
> (
> http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/precedents/CompiledNamePrecedents/index.ht
> ml) is a good place to start.  Right now, I've got it updated through the
> end
> of Shauna's tenure (wait... I see the latest update hasn't been posted
> yet.
> I'll ping Codex).  As soon as the precedents are finished for Francois II,
> I'll add those to the CNP as well.
>
> One other thing.  You mentioned in particular the situation where family
> records are rejected as documentation.  That depends on the type of family
> records.  Rulings regarding that situation can be found at:
>
> http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/precedents/CompiledNamePrecedents/Documenta
> tion.html#Genealogy
>
> Does this answer your questions?  Are there others I can help with?
>
> Mari
>
>
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