A (Possible) Success Story Via Heraldry

[t@nya]

This isn't, strictly, a success story (yet!), but I'm so existed at getting another line of enquiry for my 16th/17th Allen family that I just had to share it.

Today, in the midst of having another look at my early Allen data (hoping to find a clue or line of enquiry I had missed), I was idly doing another google search for my distant uncle Arthur Allen (emigrant to Virginia in the 17th) when I came across a scanned book or magazine I had seen before, but hadn't really taken in at the time. This book (Virginia Heraldica) stated that he held these arms:

Arms: Per chevron gules and ermine, in chief two lions' heads
erased or.
Crest: A horse's head.

It also stated that:

The arms of the Virginia family are the same as those of the
Derbyshire, StafTordshire and London families, with the excep-
tion of the crest, which in the English arms has the "horse's head
issuing from a ducal coronet."

I have no idea how accurate this is, of course, but I have sent an enquiry email to the College of Arms to try and find out if Arthur Allen was granted the arms in question and, if so, what the circumstances were, and possibly information on the other holders of similar arms, though I think that this will be much more difficult to find without more to go on (ie, exactly names, dates, and places)

But if this does pan out, who knows how many clues and information I will be able to uncover?

[t@nya]

I just googled the description of the arms and I found a least a few of the men who held the version of the arms with the ducal coronet. I really hope this pans out...

[Waitabit]

I really hope so with you t@nya, always so exciting to get a new lead & another angle to follow up.

[t@nya]

I really hope so with you t@nya, always so exciting to get a new lead & another angle to follow up.

Thanks

It is indeed.

I'm forcing myself not to start tracing those other people, until I hear back from the College of Arms and can (hopefully) confirm that Arthur Allen was a) entitled to bear them, and b) inherited them.

Until then, I'll keep plugging away with the facts and ancestors/relatives I am sure of.

[t@nya]

Drat, looks like he wasn't entitled to those arms (bad Arthur Allen, bad, bad!).

Not really disappointed, since I suspected as much; mostly glad that I can cross that off my list of stuff to check out.