Our Motto : Pride, dignity, integrity.

Our Coat of Arms

The charges are decorations or symbols used on a shield.  Here they represent our ancestor

and his posterity that is, we his descendants.

 

The book and the quill remind us that our ancestor’s father, grandfather, and great grandfather were notaries and that he was a trained notary himself. These objects also represent the descendants who were famous writers and those who presently are well-known writers, artists, teachers, lawyers and notaries.

 

The golden wheat sheaf symbolizes the deep attachment to the land and the labour of love demonstrated by all descendants past and present who cultivate it.

 

The cogwheels underline the genius and inventiveness of all the descendants who have been successful and are successful in business and industry.

 

The Furs

The two most common furs used in heraldry are ERMINE and VAIR. Ermine is a stoat or a weasel, brown in summer, but almost completely white in winter except for the very end of its tail which is black. So, on a crest, ermine is black on white. Vair is a kind of squirrel. On a crest it is silver or white. Cinderella is known to have been wearing ‘glass’ slippers at the ball! How could she dance wearing glass slippers? Ever wonder why? Here is the secret: The story was originally written in French and Cinderella was wearing slippers made of vair, not VERRE. Same pronunciation in French but not the same meaning and in English, ‘vair’ is squirrel fur whereas ‘verre’ is glass. Translator’s note about a translator’s mistake!

 

The crest of the Dukes of Brittany bears the motto «Plutôt mourir que d’être souillé» (To die rather than be soiled). The crest was ‘all ermine’. One day, Anne Duchess of Brittany, saw an ermine encircled by hunters. Legend has it that the ermine chose death rather than escaping by crossing a puddle of mud because it would have soiled its immaculate fur coat.

 

In heraldry, black specks on white, or silver, background represent ermine. In our coat-of-arms, we have taken the liberty of using golden specks like on the top part of the crest of Huelgoat, the homeland of our ancestor.

 

Tinctures are Colours

In heraldry, colours are called tinctures: there are five principal colours:  azure is blue, gules is red, sinople is green, sable is black, and purpure is purple.

 

For our crest we chose azure, (blue) and gules (red).

 

BLUE known as azure stands for curiosity, knowledge, fidelity, faithfulness, and a passion for justice.

 

RED known as gules stands for courage, creativeness, social commitment, vivacity, ardour, fortitude and love.

 

BLUE / azure reminds us that our ancestor was a learned man, with a passion for justice; always ready to do his utmost to ‘capture all manner of thieves’. (See his letter to the Governor of New France)

 

Enamels

The term Enamels refers to the colours used in a crest.

There are three categories: metals, tinctures, and furs.

 

Metals

Metals used in heraldry are OR, that is gold or yellow; ‘OR’ is the French word for gold; and ARGENT, that is silver or white; ‘ARGENT’ is the French word for silver.

 

GOLD symbolizes honour, pride, prestige, tenacity, generosity, perseverance and boldness.

 

SILVER symbolizes knowledge and wisdom.

 

In Huelgoat, the Le Bihan family was most ‘honorable’. Urbain-François’ father claimed that he took great care to instil in his children the exemplary integrity inherent in the family, even ‘hereditary in his family’, to use his own words.

 

It was on a matter of honour that our ancestor left Brittany, but within a very short time, through boldness and tenacity, he won the consideration and respect of all his new compatriots from the lowest to the highest in the land.

 

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Texts drawn from the booklet : Les armoiries de l'Association des familles Kirouac inc., written by Hélène Kirouac.