Please note that most of the features discussed here can only be used by subscribers. Visitors are limited to exact name searches only, so why not become a subscriber?

Either leave them out altogether, if they do not bear much of an impact on the search, or use the equal sign (=) to replace the part(s) you are not sure of.

If you know for sure that certain terms do not appear in the name or blazon you're searching, don't just leave it out of the search but force the search engine to exclude results that contain these terms. This applies in particular to tinctures. It will really cut down the number of results returned.

Especially with name searches it really helps to replace common suffixes or prefixes of names with the equal sign, as these especially were spelled in a variety of ways throughout the ages -- such as Penninc, Pennink and Penninck, or Jansen, Janson, Jansz and Janszoon. Penn= and Jans= would catch all these varieties.

Especially endings may often vary between e, é, and ée.

English heraldry uses many French terms, but not all are the same as used in French heraldry. This often leads to confusion.

The French term for the red tincture is gueules, the English is gules.

The French term for the green tincture is sinople, the English is vert. Vert does indeed mean green in French, but in French heraldry the old term sinople is used, despite the fact that sinople is really a reddish-brown color. You can read more about the possible why of this usage here.

When searching for common charges, such as lion gueules, lion sable, trèfle de sinople, fusil de la Toison d'Or, etc., enter them as a phrase -- between quotation marks. This will drastically reduce the number of search results.

All abbreviations that are commonly found in printed versions of Rietstap's Armorial Général have been expanded to whole words in this online version. Subscribers can check the Abbreviation List to find out what they are and what they mean.