Last updated September 16, 2026. These Terms and Conditions (the “Terms”) are a contract between you and Official Family Crest. By ordering from this site, creating an account, paying an invoice, or otherwise using the site, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not order and do not use the site.
Official Family Crest is operated by Internet Venture Holdings LLC, 1309 Coffeen Avenue, STE 1200, Sheridan, WY 82801 US. Official Family Crest is a trade name for a private commercial workshop. The word “Official” in the name is branding. It does not mean that we are a government office, a college of arms, a court of heralds, a genealogical authority, or any public registry. We have no power to grant, confirm, register, or certify arms, titles, nobility, lineage, citizenship, or inheritance.
You are buying decorative artwork and related household goods. Prints, frames, parchment, bookplates, mugs, slates, and any similar item we sell are souvenirs, gifts, and display pieces. They are artistic products. They are not legal documents. They are not certified copies of an official record. They are not proof of ancestry. They are not a coat of arms, crest, badge, or pedigree that any government, court, college of arms, clan society, or employer must accept.
A piece may look formal. Wax, seals, ribbons, gothic type, Latin mottos, and the words “family crest” or “coat of arms” on a product are decoration. They do not turn the piece into a grant, letters patent, a birth record, or any other official paper.
Heraldry as sold on the open market is often a mix of research, copying, reconstruction, and invention. We may consult published books, websites, rolls, and popular “surname crest” lists. Those sources are frequently incomplete, contradictory, copied from one another, or invented in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for tourists and mail-order shops. We may also draw a new, reconstructed, composite, or frankly fanciful design when a record is thin, missing, disputed, or never existed.
You understand and agree that a crest we prepare can be original art, loosely inspired art, a decorative variation on a published motif, or an imagined device in a heraldic style. “Fantasy” in this sense means artwork. It does not mean we are selling a real grant that we have hidden from you. If a design is beautiful, specific, or old-looking, that still does not make it historically yours.
We may use ordinary research tools and software, including automated search and image tools, when we look up a name or prepare art. Use of those tools does not make the result official, complete, or accurate.
In England and Wales, the College of Arms grants arms to a person and that person’s descendants under that office’s rules. A last name is not a grant. In Scotland, the Court of the Lord Lyon regulates arms, and unauthorized use of arms can be a legal matter there. In Ireland and elsewhere, heraldic practice also attaches arms to people and proved lines, not to every person who shares a spelling.
The United States has no government office that grants or registers a private family coat of arms. The U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry designs emblems for federal and military use, not for private surnames. Private societies may keep rolls or give advice. They are not this company, and a purchase from us is not an entry on their rolls.
Millions of people share common names. Two households named Miller, Kelly, or Patel do not own one shield together. A design we associate with a name you typed is not a finding that you descend from any particular person, clan, sept, village, or armiger.
We do not perform certified genealogical research. We do not prove descent. We do not award knighthoods, lordships, clan membership, tribal membership, coats for official use, or the right to display arms in a country that regulates that display. Do not file our artwork with a court, a vital-records office, an immigration file, a land office, a school, a licensing board, or any other authority as evidence. Do not tell a third party that the piece is an official family document. If you do, you do so at your own risk.
Local law varies. You are responsible for whether hanging, wearing, importing, or publishing a decorative crest is allowed where you live. We do not warrant that a design is unused, unique, or free of someone else’s claim.
To the fullest extent the law allows, we provide research notes, artwork, product copy, and blog essays AS IS. We do not warrant that a name, origin, motto, blazon, map, date, or story is correct, complete, or the only possible reading. Colors, animals, and charges may be simplified for print. Two orders for the same surname may receive different art. We may refuse a name, a motto, or a custom request.
Catalog photographs are house specimens. They show how a product looks. They are not the crest of every buyer.
You must be at least 18 years old to place an order. You are responsible for the spelling of the name and any other text you submit, and for having the right to use that name and text. Do not send us another person’s private data unless you are allowed to. If you ask us to copy a drawing you upload, you warrant that you may do so.
A display of a price is an invitation to order, not a binding offer until we accept the order. We may correct errors, refuse or cancel an order, or limit quantity. Taxes, shipping, and the total due are shown or confirmed at purchase or on the invoice we send. Payment processors handle card data. A charge may appear on a bank statement under a descriptor we publish at checkout.
Many items are made after you order. Production and ship dates are estimates. Carriers can delay a package. Risk of loss passes when we deliver the goods to the carrier, except where the law says otherwise.
Refunds, replacements, and damaged-in-transit claims follow the Refund Policy. Because artwork is made for a name you chose, we may decline a return that is based on a change of mind about the name, the historical story, or the fact that the piece is artistic rather than official. That limitation is part of the bargain. Nothing in these Terms takes away remedies the law says you cannot waive.
The site, catalog, text, photographs, and our drawings belong to us or to our licensors. You may not copy the catalog for resale, scrape the site, or use our art to brand your own goods. When you pay for a piece, you receive that physical item (or the digital file we expressly deliver) for personal display. You do not buy the copyright in the design unless a separate writing says so. You may not register the design as a trademark, a coat of arms, or an official emblem.
Do not use the site to break the law, to harass anyone, or to claim a false official status. We may suspend access or cancel an order if we believe these Terms were violated.
How we handle personal information is described in the Privacy Policy. If you ask for SMS notices, the SMS Policy also applies.
To the fullest extent the law allows, Official Family Crest and its operator, owners, and contractors are not liable for lost profits, lost data, emotional distress, reputational harm, or any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, even if we were told they were possible. This includes a claim that a design was inaccurate, invented, offensive, already in use, or unsuitable as a family record.
Our total liability for any claim arising out of an order or the site is limited to the amount you paid us for that order. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limits. In those places, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted.
You will defend and indemnify us against claims that arise from your misuse of a product, your presentation of our artwork as an official or legal document, your submitted text or uploads, or your breach of these Terms, except to the extent a claim is caused by our willful misconduct.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. You and we agree that the state and federal courts sitting in Sheridan County, Wyoming, are the exclusive venue for a court action, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. You will bring a claim only in your individual capacity, not as a plaintiff or class member in a class, collective, or representative proceeding, to the extent the law allows that waiver.
If a court finds one part of these Terms unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. These Terms, together with the order you place and the policies they name, are the entire agreement on the subject. A failure to enforce a part is not a waiver. We may update these Terms by posting a new version on this page. The version in effect when you place an order applies to that order.
Write to support@officialfamilycrest.com or use the Contact Us page. Include an order number if you have one.
Official Family Crest is operated by Internet Venture Holdings LLC, 1309 Coffeen Avenue, STE 1200, Sheridan, WY 82801 US.