[Namron] non sca related topic.

[Jacq Ball]

In the SCA you can't have a unicorn on your arms right? Unless you do. In
the short history of the SCA, the rules have changed. Maybe I'm wrong about
the unicorn: the rules are complicated and they change sometimes. Outside of
the SCA, arms have been granted by many different heraldic colleges over
many centuries. Before you make a statement about the rules governing the
granting of arms, you probably have to say which heraldic college and on
what date.

A good place to start is the English College of Arms.

Notice this page, which I will excerpt:
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/About/08.htm
"On 10 March 1439 William Bruges, Garter King of Arms, granted arms to the
Worshipful Company of Drapers, a London guild. Grants have been made
continuously since then to livery companies, merchant companies, civic
bodies, charities and hospitals. "

Here's a nice link showing a period document with the Medici family arms:
http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/early_books/pix/provenance/medici/medici.htm

So yes, families and even corporations have had arms.

The English did not have a monopoly on the granting of arms. Here's an
interesting article about how the Italians formed a more modern heraldic
college to unifiy the various heraldic colleges that existed prior to
Italian unification:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consulta_Araldica. That's just Italy.

Fraud and charlatanism have existed regarding coats of arms for centuries.
As others have suggested, much of what you will find online is of dubious
veracity. I used the Medici arms as an example because you can hardly walk
down an Italian street without seeing them. I knew I could find those in a
few seconds with a Google search. Most families are not so prominent and
will take a lot of hard work to find anything, assuming anything exists.
Unlike the SCA, there is no single authoritative college for "mundane" arms.
If you're lucky, the sources you need will be in a language you understand.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas. Good luck.
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