O Connor from Mayo family crest

[heywood]

Oh dear! Looking around the two names seem to be interchangeable when purchasing one of these items - presumably made for the USA market as you would say.
Our gift, I have to say,  was quite cheap. It was a small wooden square with an overlay ([perhaps varnished paper) with our family name, motto and picture of  the family crest/coat of arms  . We were very pleased as was my father.
The ones I have seen more lately, are mounted on wooden blocks and more elaborate.
Perhaps I am referring to an emblem as benchurian states who doesn't seem at all bothered by what I thought was a bit of harsh treatment so I apologise for appearing judgmental.   

[behindthefrogs]

I use the Edlin Coat of Arms as my avatar.  This was used by the Edlin family, who are probably my wife's ancestors in the 16th century, and was taken by a branch of that family to Maryland USA based on an unproven pedigree.  They used it for many years but in the 1960s the College of Arms granted their direct descendent a similar Coat of Arms with differences derived from other branches of the family.  Whether there is any survivor entitled to the original I am not sure.

[Sinann]

I worked in a glass shop which made "family crest" mirrors.
People loved them, there was no research what so ever simply a book of names with shields, if your name was in it great, if not there was a place we could contact for the shield and if that didn't prove fruitful people often just made one up.
Mostly the were bought as wedding presents, so two shields with the ivy around it, helmet on top with crest and at the bottom a scroll where the motto should go but we but the name there and between the two the date of the wedding and the couples names.
No one cared if it was official or not the just wanted a pretty gift and it paid a lot of wages.
There was no attempt to scam anyone, we didn't know any more about Heraldry than the customers did and didn't pretend we did, we were just giving people what they wanted.
I like to look a bit more into things I'm doing so I did a small bit of reading about heraldry over the years and would drop the fact that these "crest" didn't belong to everyone with that surname automatically (when the boss wasn't around) to the customer but not one person cared.
So if you ever get one of these gifts either on mirror or the metal ones on wood don't assume any research went into it.
It's like vampires, zombies and dressing up as something recognizable at Halloween, you can tell people until your blue in the face they have nothing to do with it but they just don't want to know.
Doesn't mean they shouldn't still be told though, so keep up the good work.

[iluleah]

If I was being harsh then I would have said
 
I was brought up to know that stealing someone else's property and  then pretending it is your is called stealing and is not something you do, regardless of how pretty it looks on someone's wall  and regardless of if you know others who have stolen someone else's Arms, it is no justification.....the fact it is not a house or car or someone's mobile phone makes no difference, theft is theft.

[heywood]

Maybe though for some people, it gives a sense of belonging to a defined group and that is what is important to them. They would not think of themselves as taking part in an illicit act but a member of a shared heritage because they don't understand the finer points as you do. Thanks for the input-quite interesting. 

[Sinann]

People haven't a clue that it's stealing. They don't understand that someone earned it, they think each family has one and when books and charts are sold all over the place giving them this impression it's understandable.
That's why it's important that forums like this exist.

[iluleah]

People haven't a clue that it's stealing. They don't understand that someone earned it, they think each family has one and when books and charts are sold all over the place giving them this impression it's understandable.
That's why it's important that forums like this exist.

I completely agree with you many people don't know and are being conned by scam traders who perpetuate this theft and lack of respect of other countries Heraldry laws. We can all be ignorant of lots of things and we can all be educated about those things or continue to pretend.