Click Here to return to the Pace Home Page

The Pace coat of arms on the Pace Network is used as a symbol only.  It came from the Pace Society.  At this point, I do not know to whom it was issued, but it is one authentic Pace coat of arms.  The following information, from the GenForum listed on the Pace Page, is also relevant.  Note that the writer first takes a very firm stand then revises it.

From Bryce Stevens:

There is no " Family" coat of arms. Arms are granted to individuals by right of patent, and may be legally used only by that individual. They are not inherited, and are not for use by other family members. A son or heir may have a similar coat of arms granted individually, but coats of arms are privately held property, a much misunderstood concept in the US. These companies that offer to research or provide "your family" coat of arms are playing on the general American naivete regarding arms, and are no more reliable than the same companies which sell wholesale "family histories." You may obtain a personal coat of arms by application to the proper offices in certain European countries. Arms are not recognized in the US, nor their right to be copyrighted. That is why these sham companies can get away with selling "family" coats of arms.

Posted by Bryce Stevens on January 07, 1998 at 21:45:11:

In Reply to: Re: coat of arms posted by nancy marsh on January 04, 1998 at 18:00:55:

Since a crest is a part of a coat of arms, one may not exist independently of the arms. However, a coat of arms may exist without a crest. For information on coats-of-arms and their crests of Wales, you may write to the English College of Ams. For Scots, write to the Lord Lyon. Irish - Chief Herald of Ireland. North Ireland - to the Norroy and Ulster King of Arms at the College of Arms. I'm afraid my reference does not give the complete addresses, but that should not be too hard to find on the net. Pine's "The Genealogists Encyclopedia" goes into some detail about arms, etc., and it appears from what he wrote that if you can prove direct descent from someone who was granted arms, then you may display those arms. So I must apologize for the dead-end nature of my first statement, on 1-1-98. What seems to tick the Brits off, though, is the assumption that anyone who has the same last name has automatic use of their arms. Pine suggests that as citizens of a state which does not grant arms, we may assume arms of our own devising, and goes on to say much better to work out your own arms than to assume one merely because the last names are the same. Burke's Peerage is another good place to search: good examples are illustrated there, showing how the Plantagenets and others bore arms which were very similar to one another's, yet with slight changes made for each generation, or for each son of a generation. Hope this helps at all! Really, in the US, we can do anything we want about arms, but those countries which "really have" them are pretty fussy about how they're used.

The following info from Bill Pace:

Subj: Pace Family Coat of Arms Date: 98-06-04 14:15:01 EDT From: whpacejr@flash.net (Bill Pace) To: royjNOSPAM@webster.edu (Remove the NOSPAM)

Roy,

When I was stationed in England in 1992-1993 (USAF RAF Chicksands in Bedford, England) I bought a "family name history" from the Historical Research Center (HRC). What I received from the HRC was a document that gives a history of the Pace family name and a drawing of what is supposed to be a Pace coat of arms.

On the bottom of the document with the family name history is a description of a"Blazon of Arms" which reads as follows:

BLAZON OF ARMS: Or, on a cross quarterly azure and gules, a bird between a lion passant in chief, two squirrels sejant in fess, and an annulet in base, all of the field.

Oddly enough, the description doen't match the drawing HRC sold me, but it does resemble the image you display at the top of the Pace Network homepage. I used the description above to create my own version of the "Blazon of Arms" which I display in the upper left of my personal homepage. On the upper right hand corner of my homepage is a recreation of the picture that came with the Family Name History from HRC.

I don't know why the picture HRC sent me does not match the description of the Blazon of Arms that came with the HRC Family Name History. I queried HRC via E-mail over a year ago and never did get a response from them.

By the way, I do not consider the Family Name History or the picture of the coat of arms to be "historical". I merely bought them for amusement.

Regards, Bill

Important links:

I wrote a beautiful song for the 50th wedding anniversary of my in-laws 20 years ago. It is now available on CD and I havae set up several Internet sites to sell it. Go to any of the following:

Golden Love site at http://goldenlove.att.net
Golden Love site on SchnakeNet http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love site on Pace Network http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love on FortuneCity http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/cern/1343/  or http://www.nav.to/compu-tutor1

Rick Schnake has an interesting hobby/part time business. He collects and sells authentic historic signatures on original documents. He has US Presidents and many other historical figures represented. Why not check it out?

Rick's main site

at "http://www.historyinink.com"
Mirror site on Schnakenet at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/HistoryInInk.htm
Mirror site on Pace Network http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/HistoryInInk.htm