IDTG

“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