Heraldry Helper

Do you know what an allerion is? How about pattes or hawk’s jesses? Here’s a hint: These terms apply to the blazons or descriptions of coats of arms. For those of you who haven’t mastered heraldry lingo, Burke’s Peerage and Gentry has added a free guide to heraldic terms on its website. The glossary contains 600-plus alphabetized definitions.

Once you’ve cracked the coat-of-arms code, search the site’s records collection. Check an alphabetical list of all records, or enter a term in the full-text search field. The advanced search option lets you combine search criteria to find specific data in the records. Results include family name, the current incumbent, start of the lineage and a link to the family home page. If you have a subscription and have logged on to the site, your search results include a link to the full record.

So just what do those terms mentioned above mean? An allerion is an eagle without a beak or feet. Pattes are paws. And, hawk’s jesses are leather thongs that fasten the bells attached to a hawk’s legs.

From the August 2003 issue of Family Tree Magazine. Last updated September 2024.