Many people who go in search of their origin often do so because they have the illusion, hope or indication to descent of a famous person or nobility. Whole groups of people want and/or can demonstrate that they are descended from Charlemagne; there are even special news groups for Charlemagne.
Sometimes, indeed someone has a noble family, but most of the time that is not the case. In our own family it was rumored in the past that we came from Polish lower gentry or even purporting from gypsies. To date, we do not go beyond a Johannes Löder yet, tailor and soldier, who was born in about 1622 and was buried in Braunfels, Germany on November 2, 1708. In short, no gypsies, no nobility, no Polish descent.
Another reason why people begin genealogy or research on the history of their family is hoping to get behind a family coat of arms. In The Netherlands, each citizen is free to take or use a family coat of arms as long as one does not act negligently with respect to others who already carry a particular family coat of arms. In other words, using a family coat of arms from a family with only the same family name is NOT allowed. You must be descended from the bearer.
In The Netherlands there are more civilian - (45,000) than noble weapons or family coat of arms (600). The law in The Netherlands by conducting a family coat of arms can be called a common law. Which means that one should not use an existing family coat of arms, unless it can be shown that one is in the line of the person who carried the weapon first.
The adoption and implementation of a family coat of arms of any existent family is punishable (by law) under the Civil Code (Article 6: 162, formerly Article 1401) as being an unlawful act.
There are in the time I do research on our family since 1995 only been two moments where an alleged Lether family coat of arms came up. A family member brought in a weapon containing many Greek columns (there was no family name mentioned) and a second was my late father who thought -according to his remembrance- that it would have looked as the one at the left side. He did not remember any colors. Years later to brighten up this weapon it was changed a bit by exchanging one rose (or lily) and one mill by a lion of the town of the cities of Brummen (The Netherlands) and the Nassau countries (Germany) places where our family is coming from. It was colored too (middle), but later it worked out totally wrong colors.
Those lions and colors were applied by a relative without -like me- having any knowledge of heraldry. In this case, according to the experts, this is a so-called fantasy weapon. The weapon is indeed beautifully colored, but t are not heraldic colors and there is no proof that one of our ancestors used such a family coat of arms. When you seriously doing genealogy and want a weapon or thinks that you have found one, such a weapon should meet all the heraldic requirements.
Around 2015 I moved -and there is a fence in front of the main door in which one can see the initials of a previous owner, even another reason to do some heraldic research.
So, it seemed like a good time to consult a heraldist in the conversation. That was the late Hans Nagtegaal of Heraldic Office Nagtegaal in Delft, who was employed previously by the Dutch Central Bureau of Genealogy (CBG) in The Hague. He was before he died self-employed and still worked as a free lancer for the CBG, but also for the Dutch Supreme Council for Nobility. Someone who knows his business.
He studied the above family coat of arms (middle) and told me it is a fantasy weapon. Moreover, a four divided weapon was not allowed, at least not in our case. A quartered family coat of arms is only possible or permitted when the pedigrees of parents/ grandparents of both sides can be submitted. I can not since I am researching the Lether side only. Now, with the ancestors we’ve found so far, I have not found a weapon and thus dashed my hopes of a four divided weapon with a mill, lily/rose, drum and scissors. Hans Nagtegaal also studied a part of our family history and he could find no reason for the use of mill and the rose or lily. Advisory, he said that it is a heraldic use to incorporate into a family coat of arms the profession or occupations of the owners or ancestors.
That stands out from this list of professions are the first profession, tailor and after-wards that they had to do with drums. This has inspired Hans and after 3 drafts he came up with a now by me as an applicant approved result.
Well, looking at the first generations of our family, we see:
I Johannes Löder - tailor and soldier
IIa Johannes Löder - soldier-drummer
IIb Martin (us) Löder / Leder - soldier-drummer
IIc Georg Daniël Löder / Loether – organ player in Greifenstein, Nassau, Germany
IIc2 Johann Henrich Loeder - musician and former assistant city piper
IIIa Martin Löder - drummer
IIIb Caesar Christian Christoph Löder / Läder / Leder – at the various baptizing -descriptions of his children, he is called oboist 1735 + 1737, court musician and footman in 1741, court and city musician 1742, musician 1742 + 1744, city musician in 1746, 1749, 1750 , 1753, 1767; Thurner (?) and musician in 1750 in Weilburg.
IVa Georg Henrich Löder - garrison drummer
and finally the first Löder who comes to the Netherlands and is the forefather of the Dutch and American Lether's:
IVb Heinrich Daniël Loeder / Lother / Leether / Lether – day laborer
It is very customary in heraldry to also describe a family coat of arms; it is called emblazon. If one does not have a picture by hand you could mention this. A heraldic educated person immediately knows how our crest looks like.
The description of our family coat of arms reads:
Weapon: cross-sectioned diagonally
A: two in blue gold drums with red rims, silver skins and black ropes.
B: in gold an open blue scissors.
Crest sign: a splayed golden lion, tongued red and nailed, holding an upturned leafy branch with four fruits, all green, in its right upraised claw.
Covers/Tarpaulins: blue, lined with gold.
A weapon consists of a hereditary or essentially immutable, colored insignia on a shield. This shield can then be dressed up with a shield cover in the form of a helmet, sheet, and family coat of arms.
We see in the family coat of arms a tailor's or sartorial scissors and two drums. I also wanted some sort of recognition for Brummen and Nassau using the lions. Heraldically a good solution has been found. On the helmet a Nassau lion in his claw a reverse leafy branch with four fruits, keeps everything in green, being the link with Brummen.
Finally, there was some discussion about the spelling of our last name with one 'e' and two 'e's. He finds the solution not so nice. Both names were not an option. He advised me to put the name of the applicant under the arms and in the text of its certificate of authenticity that the carriers named Leether are also allowed to use this weapon. I did not like that for that part of our family, reason why I've chosen for this solution.
Back to emblazon. In heraldry there are two conceptions of color. In the narrow sense, the colors are the four dark colors: azure, vert, sable, and throat. This is in contrast to the metals and the pelt works. In this sense a color is called an email. In the broad sense, the colors are the emails, the metal, and the skin work together. In this sense one color is called a tincture. The names of the colors and by Silvester Petra Sancta in his "system" prescribed its display in a black and white drawing:
Emails:
- azure or stain (blue, horizontal display via shading)
- throat (red display with vertical shading)
- vert (green, display via diagonal hatching top left - right)
- sable (black disply in solid black or horizontal and vertical shading)
Metal or infusions:
• or (gold or yellow, reproduction by means of dots)
• argent (silver or white display in plain white)
Fur Works:
• ermine (white with black tail tips)
• vair (squirrel fur, drawn as silver and azure, as shown)
Variations thereof:
• ermine gold (gold with black tail points)
• against ermine (black with silver tail points)
• against gold ermine
• countervail (silver and azure swapped)
• pile vair
In addition, institutions would include even the following colors:
• purple (shown as: diagonal hatching left - top right)
• orange (shown as: as for red plus gold, so vertical shading, interspersed with dots)
• brown (shown as: vertical shading plus diagonal hatching left - top right).
These colors come in arms, but do not belong to the heraldic colors.
Conventions
Good readability from a distance by the herald is the starting point for the design of a weapon. For that golden important rule:
• the basic colors (azure, throat, saber, and vert) must not touch each other in a weapon while no color on color
• not combination of colors from the same species: a metal may not be combined with a metal, an email with an email. It is e.g. not right to place a lily of 'or' on a field of 'argent'.
With the concept of a weapon there are golden previously important rules. Unmarried women and widows were using in the Netherlands and Germany in a diamond-shaped shield.
The next step was the weapons registry, the actual filing of the weapon in a public place so that others can see it. The copyright is in effect and provides protection. It also prevents that the same or nearly the same family coat of arms will be designed. Registration is done in the Heraldic Databases of the Heraldic Office Nagtegaal, the Dutch Central Bureau for Genealogy and WaZamar Heraldic Arms registers in The Netherlands. With registration I receive a certificate that not only states who the client or owner is, for whom it was designed but also what persons are allowed to carry this family coat of arms.
Translation:
Weapon certificate
The weapon underneath is included in the Heraldic database of the Dutch Central Bureau of Genealogy.
This weapon was designed in 2015 by HK, Nagtegaal.
Registered at the request of Frank Daniel Peter Martinus Lether, born The Hague, The Netherlands May 4, 1946, residing in Bunschoten-Spakenburg, The Netherlands son of Peter Daniel Lether and Clasina Martinus Pepers, for Heinrich Daniel Loeder (Lother, Leether, Lether), born Nassau Weilburg (Hessen, Germany) January 7, 1749, died Spankeren, The Netherlands April 11, 1807 and its name bearing offspring. He married Brummen, The Netherlands October 25, 1789 with Aelberdina Reijs, baptized Brummen November 7, 1756.
Almost everyone who -like me- is a descended of Johannes Löder and Heinrich Daniël Loeder / Löther / Leether / Lether hereby have permission to use this family weapon (unchanged). Do with it what you want. Print it. List it in, use it as bookplates, on your letterhead or put it in a signet ring. I have a ring and cufflinks and since short even wine glasses with the family coat of arms on it. Or maybe a door mat.
