|
You recently asked the Academy about locating the Coat of Arms for McDermott. The problem with this is that, since many MacDermott's probably carried arms at some time, there is no single Coat of Arms of McDermott.
Arms are property. The first person to carry a coat of arms passes that coat to his descendants, who pass it on to theirs, and so on. Different countries have used different rules for the transmission of heraldry. Traditionally the right to bear arms has been transmitted through the male line only. In some places, all sons of an armiger (someone who bears arms) inherit the arms; in others only the oldest male inherits the arms and all other sons must change the arms in some way to show that they are a junior member of the family. (British law was recently changed to allow women to inherit arms, but this is such a recent change that it will not affect genealogical research).
Thus, finding arms attributed to your surname does not mean that they are the Arms of Your Family; it means that someone with your last name once had the right to carry them. The same surname is often borne by unrelated people, so there are often several sets of arms associated with a name.
However, if you are interested in what set of arms were carried by a particular MacDermott, you may want to look for "An Ordinary of Arms Contained in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland", by Sir James Balfour Paul. This is a listing of various arms granted to Scottish gentlemen and ladies before 1893. It may be in your local library, and, if not, should be available through inter-library loan.
Rouland Carre, Barry Gabriel, and Lindorm contributed to this letter.
We hope this has been helpful.
In Service,
Margaret Mcphe