IDTG

The 8.8M_w earthquake that hit Chile on February 27th, 2010 was the 7th most powerful ever recorded! It was almost 800 times more powerful (in terms of energy expended) than the one that hit Haiti!

The devastation is huge and the loss of life is in the hundreds. The power outages and food shortage is compounded by the numerous aftershocks, some reaching even a 6.9!

Thankfully, my family is good and my thoughts go out to all other Chileans.

To tie this in to heraldry, here is a previous article on the heraldry of Chile.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should have heard about the devastating 7.0 M_w earthquake that hit Haiti on the night of January 12, 2010.

In response to this, the College of Arms has made the very admirable move to send money collected from the sale of the book “The Armorial of Haiti” to those in need in that island country. Clive Cheesman, Rouge Dragon of the College of Arms made the following posting on January 13 in rec.heraldry:

In response to the calamitous earthquake that struck Haiti yesterday evening, the College of Arms has decided that all proceeds arising from future sales of The Armorial of Haiti: Symbols of Nobility in the Reign of Henry Christophe (ISBN 978-09506980-2-1) will be donated to the relief effort.

The book is an edition, with commentary, of an extraordinary heraldic manuscript created in Haiti in the second decade of the nineteenth century and now held in the College of Arms. It was published by the College in 2007 and is available on-line for 45 pounds sterling (plus despatch costs) at http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Haiti.htm and through amazon.co.uk. Production costs for the book have been met, and all sums received by the College over and above normal packing and postage costs will be held for the benefit of a recognised charity working towards the international relief effort, the charity to be selected on the basis of official advice.

I would urge those who have not yet acquired a copy of this book to consider doing so, and to mention it to others who may be interested either in New World heraldry, in Caribbean history or specifically in the politics and culture of Haiti. Doing so will raise money directly for the relief of the nation that produced this unusual and fascinating artefact.

If you have already purchased a copy of the book, or as an alternative to doing so now, please consider donating directly to the effort to the relief campaign through a charity of your choice.

Clive Cheesman
Rouge Dragon
College of Arms
Queen Victoria Street
London
EC4V 4BT

After over a month of dealing with moving to a new house, the gross incompetence of some people and companies, I’m finally back up and running with an Internet connection from home!

The experience of the move and dealing with so many fools would fill an ordinary blog but, since this is a heraldry themed blog, let’s just say that the coat of arms for this would have a field semy of heads erased….

The good news is that I now own the home I live in and, hopefully, will not have to deal with moving for several years!

“IDTG” are the initialis of “ISCHYS DIA TIS GNOSEOS”, the transliteration of the motto of my Coat of Arms in Greek “ΙΣΧΥΣ ΔΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΓΝΩΣΕΩΣ”. It means “power through knowledge” and it has been my guide from a very young age – always trying to learn more, widen my field of knowledge and, in the process, enlarge my personal library of books.

Kimon Andreou

Through this blog I plan to share my thoughts on issues of heraldic, genealogical and historical interest. Though I would like to think I can become as prolific a blogger as to be able to produce a substantive blog entry every day, the pragmatist in me knows that I’ll be more likely to post about once or twice a week after the first couple of weeks go by….

Since this is the very first post of the blog, I’d like to set the tone by introducing myself.

My name is Kimon Andreou and have always been interested in history. Over the past few years, I developed an interest in genealogy and about a year ago, heraldry.

Through the years, my interest in history has changed from antiquity, to the classical period to early modern to current events to medieval history (in that order). In addition to the time period, my geographical interests have shifted from Greece, to Europe to the Americas to Egypt to Africa to Asia, etc. I expect my area of interest to change again, to what, nobody knows yet

My interest in genealogy comes from my curiosity to find out more about my ancestry. Like most, I’ve heard stories about my great-great-…-grandfather who was some important person, or our family’s relationship to someone famous. I always treated them as stories but, one day I decided to see if any of it was true. This led me down a very exciting path of discovery that has not yet reached its end.

From genealogy sprang my interest in heraldry. I discovered ancestral arms from my mother’s side but, nothing from my father’s side. Since I did not want to use arms that didn’t belong to me, I decided to assume arms of my own. The thought and research I put into devising my own arms developed a great passion for the art/science of heraldry that has opened new avenues of exploration to me.

I intend to share my thoughts, discoveries and frustrations as time goes by.

Thank you for reading

Kimon