My family name has been confused, with griswood, griswell, etc of
danish desent. I am griswold of english desent. My father had the twin
dragons, circled by grey hounds, as a coat of arms. Griswold meant
Moorish dragon, or dragon of the moore's find it please. This is
important because my wife lost my documents, that my father gave me.
Wayne Griswold |
Request for Question Clarification by
justaskscott-ga
on
25 Dec 2002 21:20 PST
Hello griswold-ga,
I am confused as to the question or questions that you wish us to
answer.
The title of the question asks, "can you find my true family surname?
as I already know what it is." If you know what your true family
surname is, what do you need us to find? Do you need proof that your
family surname is Griswold and not Griswood, Griswell, etc? Do you
need proof that you are of English descent and not Norwegian descent?
If you need proof of one or both of these things, how should we prove
it? (I assume that we would need some information about your
ancestors -- names, places of birth, dates of birth, etc. -- so that
we can trace them back to the Griswold family of England.)
In the text of the question, you say "Griswold meant Moorish dragon,
or dragon of the moore's find it please." When you say "find it
please", what is the thing you want us to find? Do you want proof
that "Griswold" meant "Moorish dragon"? Do need to find the coat of
arms? Or do you need some information that was in the documents your
father gave you -- and if so, what?
Any clarification and relevant information that you can provide might
be helpful to the Researchers.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
justaskscott-ga
on
25 Dec 2002 21:20 PST
Sorry, I meant "Danish descent", not "Norwegian descent".
|
Clarification of Question by
griswold-ga
on
25 Dec 2002 22:21 PST
I would like to find my old family crest. The one my father found in
the 1960s and that I described in my original question.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
ragingacademic-ga
on
25 Dec 2002 22:56 PST
Dear griswold -
Some preliminary research has elicited two different coat of arms for
"Griswold" - they are both quite different from each other, but
neither match your description of hounds and dragons. One includes
hounds - but not dragons; the other includes neither. I have no doubt
one of these is incorrect, but according to the information I have
found both do hail from England.
I understand you are recalling the coat of arms from memory. Could it
be that what you recall as dragons were something else? What color
were they?
thanks,
ragingacademic
|
Request for Question Clarification by
expertlaw-ga
on
26 Dec 2002 01:06 PST
To expand on ragingacademic's observation, the Griswold family tree is
sufficiently extensive that there will be a significant number of
"coats of arms" associated with the various branches. It is likely
that some will only be available through off-line reference sources.
Thus, to the extent that you can provide as many details as possible
about color and design, you will be more likely to get the coat of
arms you remember, or one very close in design to the one you
remember.
|
Clarification of Question by
griswold-ga
on
26 Dec 2002 06:28 PST
Can you get for me, the family crest image. like the documents my wife
lost, It would be twin pillars on each side with dragons wrapped
around the pillars, with a center peice that contains grey hounds,
with the logo at the bottom of moorish dragon?
|
Request for Question Clarification by
ragingacademic-ga
on
26 Dec 2002 15:49 PST
griswold -
hello again. I've just come back from the library, where I searched
nine or ten different reference books that do nothing but list family
names and describe their heralds or coats of arms. I am sorry to
report that "Griswold" is in none of them - including a couple that
focus specifically on the British Isles (Burke's, for example).
If the coat of arms your father had came down through maternal
descent, the family name may be different. Do you know what your
grandmother's maiden name was?
thanks,
ragingacademic
|
Clarification of Question by
griswold-ga
on
26 Dec 2002 18:11 PST
I was thinking over one of your comments about the College of Arms in
the UK, and if they are the most credible source for family documents,
coats of arms and records for surnames originating in England I
request that you search their database for any official documents
including family crests for any Griswold. There may be many variations
but I am looking for the one that maches my description from memory
the most. I am willing to pay any search fee they might require, the
cost for reproduction of those documents in addition the initial
reward I offered.
|
I have found other explanations for the derivation of the name:
"the family name appears in various guises, such as Greswold,
Grissolde, Gryssould; John de Greswalde appears of record in 1288;
William de Grosewold in 1349."
"family name may very well have been originally Greysweald, derived
from the Icelandic grey, signifying "dog" or "greyhound," plus the
common Anglo-Saxon weald, or wold, signifying "woods." Hence the arms
and crest of the family who lived in a woods and raised the favorite
kind of dogs for royalty."
"Research shows that family names in this area of England [Kenilworth,
Solihull] were more commonly related to "place" rather than in the
east of England where they were more commonly related to occupations.
From PLACE NAMES OF WARWICKSHIRE, we find the following speculation:
the Old English word for gravel is "Greosn." The word "Wold" meant
forest or woodland... The name implies that the family lived in a
gravelly place in the forest of Arden."
"Graywood, from the Old High German gris "grey" and Angio Saxon weald
"forest"
Pigyard, from Scandinavian gris "pig" and wold "enclosure""
"the Nordic or Anglo-Saxon word for "pig" which is... it probably
referred to wild boars or pigs in the woods. Since occupations are one
of the principal origins for family names (Smith, Cooper, etc),
perhaps the first Griswold was a hunter of wild boar."
http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~fgris/name.html
I have not found any links between Griswold, dragons and the Moorish
culture. |
You may also wanna try
http://heraldry.ansteorra.org:80/OandA/index.html
It's not easy to use, but it is by far the most useful database I
found so far. It contains three Griswold, a number of double dragons,
and a number greyhounds, unfortunatly I couldn't find the exact
combination you were looking for.
"Aldric Haldane of Griswold
Per pale argent and purpure, six billets in chevron inverted and a
bordure
embattled counterchanged."
"Erland Griswold
Vert, a sea-lion erect regardant and on a chief invected Or three
chalices
vert."
"Ingram Talbot Hildebrand Griswold
Per bend sinister azure and sable, a phoenix, head to sinister, argent
issuant from flames proper between in bend sinister two mullets of six
points
elongated to base Or."
In case this helps, here is another coat of arms that is related to
you.
"Argent a fesse gules between two greyhounds courant sable"
[GRESWOLDE]
http://freespace.virgin.net/rah.williams/STSHERR.htm
Steph
PS: I recommend you try the College of Arms yourself. They look
legitimate, but I can't be sure. It's better if you do it yourself
since you have more information on the subject than anyone else and I
wouldn't be surprised if they refused to talk to anyone else. If this
works and since I am not a paid researcher, you will have saved
yourself $200 (minus the 50 cent listing fee). If the College of Arms
demands too much money, come back and tell us what happened, we may be
able to find some cheaper competitors. In either case, whether your
quest was successful, or unsuccessful, come back to this page and tell
us what happened -- it would be interesting to know in case someone
else needs to find their own coat of arms.
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/enquiries.htm |
