How do I prove my lineage to an individual from England who has a coat-of-arms?
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ANSWERS: 2
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Question your family in order to find out the name, birth and death dates and area of your great-grandfather. Then use Ancestry.com to find his birth record and from that find his father etc until you find a likely candidate for the "first" of your line in the US. Then try the Ellis Island website to research immigration records from around the time you think your antecedent arrived in the US. The Ellis Island record should show where in England they left from and their previous address in England. Armed with this you can then search UK census and BMD records (at Ancestry.co.uk) to track down the records of that persons father, grandfather etc. Eventually, if you are connected to the English family you think you are you should find a link to them there. Note however, families do not have coats of arms, only INDIVIDUALS have coats of arms. It does not follow that if you find a connection with this family that you will be entitled to bear the same arms.
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The only way is to trace backwards from yourself, establishing proof of each generation and its links to the previous by birth marriage and (if possible) death records, until you arrive at that person. However, just because that person held arms, does not entitle you to bear them. Arms are granted to an individual, not to a family. To obtain a coat of arms, you must apply to the College of Arms, proving that you are descended (usually in the male line) from a person who bore arms. Then you might be granted a variant of that person's arms. Might. Remember, there are probably hundreds of people with the same or similar descent. I am descended from most of the nobles of England and most of the royalty of Europe, but have no rights to arms, as my descent is through the female in almost every instance.
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