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Online Course: Introduction to Heraldry for Genealogists

Wednesdays, November 3, 10, and 17 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST
Presented by Joseph McMillan and Nathaniel Lane Taylor, FASG
Cost: $85
 

Heraldry is an ancient and compelling visual expression of personal and family identity. Heraldry can also be a useful lens through which to view or research family history.

In this three-week course, you will gain a systematic historical, visual, and textual introduction to heraldry and a coat of arms; a familiarity with the most important types of heraldic art, artifacts, and evidence coming from different heraldic traditions; and specific research tools and methods for evaluating heraldic evidence in the context of family history.

Instructors Joseph McMillan and Nathaniel Taylor are members of the Committee on Heraldry of NEHGS, a group of specialist staff and volunteers concerned with the study of heraldry since 1864.

This course includes three 90-minute classes; exclusive access to handouts and recordings of each presentation; and in-depth Q&A sessions with the instructors.

November 3 - Class 1: What is Heraldry?

Heraldry is a unique traditional visual system of expressing personal and family identity. We will begin with the history, vocabulary, and fundamental visual building blocks of a coat of arms, including a special focus on the ways in which a coat of arms can signify genealogical relationships like marriage and descent.

November 10 - Class 2: The Geography and Diversity of Heraldry

Heraldry evolved differently in different European cultures. In the United States, we are surrounded not only by British heraldry, our inheritance from the mother country of the Thirteen Colonies, but other heraldic traditions in our diverse colonial or more recent ancestry. We will survey and identify fundamental differences as well as shared elements between British, non-British, and uniquely American heraldry.

November 17 - Class 3: Using a Coat of Arms in Genealogy

Is a coat of arms evidence for a particular ancestral connection? It depends! In this class you will learn to use different resources to assess the genealogical value of heraldry found in connection with genealogical research, as well as the steps to identify a coat of arms found “in the wild.”
 

About the Instructors:

Joseph McMillan, AIH, is a retired senior civil servant with the Department of Defense and past president of the American Heraldry Society. He has published extensively on subjects related to heraldry, flags, and orders, and decorations with a focus on the use of coats of arms in the North American colonies and the early period following independence. He has a special interest in the linkages among political and social evolution and the use of heraldic devices. He was elected an associate member of the Académie Internationale d’Héraldique in 2016 and joined the NEHGS Committee on Heraldry in 2017.

Dr. Nathaniel Taylor, FASG is the Editor and Publisher of The American Genealogist and a specialist in Medieval Europe. He taught medieval and modern history at Harvard and elsewhere for fifteen years, including the social, political, and military origins of heraldry at the time of the Crusades. His genealogical research spans from medieval Spain, France, and Britain to colonial New England and Virginia. He has been on the NEHGS Committee on Heraldry since 2006, and is now its Registrar. He was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists in 2011.​

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