Heraldry Used In Tree Climbing (3)

Symbols played an important part in all this heraldry stuff.  Upon each shield was placed a symbol which often was a self selected image of the person who carried the shield.   For the JONES surname, exploring these symbols to see if there were any common use was an early process.  The following figure shows the results of my study that contained 123 coat of arms for the JONES surname.  All would have been in use before 1850.  Each primary charge (symbol) was analyzed and organized as shown.  The "lion" represented the most common symbol among this group at 45%. 

One can follow the results shown in this figure which found a single lion in a standing position (called lion rampant) to be the most common symbol.  Other symbols as found are depicted with a cross/pheons (pheon = the barbed head of a dart or arrow) at 13%.  A variety of other symbols including swords/arrows, birds, boar's heads, Nag's head, Stags, Wolves, and of course the Bull.

Lessons From The Wall (II) Sounds to Symbols

Schooling during the late 1950s and early 1960s produced a belief that words were to be spelled correctly.  You were given a list of "spelling words"...told to memorize them...and then, you were given a test to rewrite them exactly as they were given to you.  This lead me to believe that there was only one way to spell a word.

This principle would of course apply to surnames.   A family would spell their surname only one way.  A different spelling of this same surname would mean a different unrelated family.  Thus, early in my tree climbing adventure, there was this understanding that surnames [at least of the same family group] would always be spelled the same way....not!

Lesson (II)

Surnames of the same family can be spelled all sorts of ways.

For example, the surname "Taliaferro".   This family was connected to my Jones family very early in the days of colonial Virginia.  During the records of 1623 - 1666, no such spelling occurred.  It was not until 1666 - 1695 did this name first appear among the pages.  For years this made me believe that the Taliaferro family arrived Virginia after 1666...not!

Sounds to symbols changed my understanding.  A surname was first pronounced, then written down by the one recording the record.  For "Taliaferro" it was first spelled "Tolliver" (1661), then "Talifer", then "Taliafro", then "Tallifro", then "Talifro", the "Tallifer", then "Taliafero", before it was ever spelled "Taliaferro". 

Understanding this aspect of genealogy helped me get around a few brick walls.  Sounds become symbols (words) written down to help locate some of those elusive family members.  You may find your surname is spelled (recorded) all sorts of ways.