SmartCopy Profile Update Disabled: pre-1600

Hi Ed
Enabling smart copy for pre 1600 is a minefield as it will open the door to many users uploading duplicate unsourced profiles that someone has to go and cleanup.

If you are wanting to load up images of shields / emblems to profiles you need to
1. Make sure that the shield is the correct shield / emblems
2. Make sure that the person was entitled to use that shield / emblems
3. Add sources to Geni regarding their entitlement etc.

Thanks
Leanne

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms

n the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland, an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms. In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son; wives and daughters could also bear arms modified to indicate their relation to the current holder of the arms. Undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time. Other descendants of the original bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference: usually a colour change or the addition of a distinguishing charge. One such charge is the label, which in British usage (outside the Royal Family) is now always the mark of an heir apparent or (in Scotland) an heir presumptive. Because of their importance in identification, particularly in seals on legal documents, the use of arms was strictly regulated; few countries continue in this today. This has been carried out by heralds and the study of coats of arms is therefore called "heraldry". In time, the use of arms spread from military entities to educational institutes, and other establishments.[6]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_heraldry

Heraldry in England is heavily regulated by the College of Arms, who issue the arms. A person can be issued the arms themselves, but the college fields many requests from people attempting to demonstrate descent from an armigerous (arms-bearing) person;[43] a person descended in the male line (or through heraldic heiresses) from such an ancestor may be reissued that ancestor's arms (with differencing marks if necessary to distinguish from senior-line cousins). To that end, the college is involved in genealogy and the many pedigrees (family trees) in their records, although not open to the public, have official status. Anyone may register a pedigree with the college, where they are carefully internally audited and require official proofs before being altered.

The trick is making sure you have the right crest for the right person.

There are a lot of internet sites who wants to sell you a family crest - and whilst these are very lovely - in probability it is not the correct one.

For example Margery Weekes has no parents listed - it is unlikely that she herself was awarded a crest but possible that she inherited the right to use it from her father BUT without knowing who her father was then it is hard to attribute a crest to her.

The source of the crest depicted in the link originated from https://www.thetreemaker.com/family-coat-c/cooke/england.html which contains the following notice

Important Information about the Family Coat of Arms / Crest

Many people are of the mistaken belief that a particular family coat of arms / crest is theirs just because their surname is the same or they come from the same country. This is not always true. For example the surname “SMITH” has over 100 different coat-of-arms for that surname. There can be multiple coat-of-arms for a particular surname from the same country or from different countries. The makeup of a coat of arms depends on many other factors as well. It can depend on which country and what year the coat of arms was made, along with who had it made, and how boastful they were, and what alliances the family had at the time the coat of arms was made, and these are just a few of the reasons that affect a coat of arms.

Always keep in mind that your surname can be derived from several origins; for example the occupation of a person. Like the surname “SMITH” could be from the occupation of a black smith, tin smith, and silver smith and so on. Or the surname can be from the place a person came from, or even a description of a person, along with several other origin types. We use the oldest coat of arms or surname history that is in our records. This does not mean it is the only coat of arms or surname history out there and there may be other origins for this surname then just the countries list.

The only way to be certain of your family heritage is to have your family line researched by a professional genealogist, which is a service we do not perform. Although research in the origin of a surname is a service we do offer and that service is discussed here. If you have a particular coat of arms that you would like us to match, then email the picture to us and we'll take a look. On orders with surname histories and Coat of Arms, we ask that you give us 2 to 4 weeks for those busy times of the year.