In the Middle Ages, anybody could adopt heraldic devices, and the majority of blazons were produced by their imagination. All that was required was not to use coats of arms already beared by another person or family. Heraldry was never, historically, reserved to nobility. In Switzerland, heraldry is very common.

You see here many of the chests of arms of families allied to mine, many of them from the area of Neuchâtel. If you have more of these, or if the shown arms do not correspond to what is used in your own family, send me new pictures and heraldic descriptions. The quality does not need to be good, as I will redraw the arms anyway. There are often many variations of the crests in the books that I consulted; in many cases I selected the "most probable" version.

Click the yellow envelope at the bottom of the page to send me a message.

And click any of the arms on the page to see it in a larger size, with comments about the origin of the family and the blazoning of the corresponding crest (these in French only). If the names are underlined, they are links to the name index of the genealogy pages.

You will also find the French blazoning (heraldic description) of all these arms and its source in a separate page;
click  Blasonnement.

I have drawn each individual picture in vectorial (SVG) format.