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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4719057, member: 110350&quot;]Oh, dear.&nbsp; I didn&#039;t mean to leave an inaccurate impression. I don&#039;t want to digress for too long, but I&#039;m afraid that there were no aristocrats in my family, in Alsace or elsewhere.&nbsp; My family is Jews all the way down.&nbsp; Just like the turtles.&nbsp; And there were no Jewish aristocrats in France, or anywhere else in Christendom. (Not counting any converts who may have been ennobled.)&nbsp; In fact, never mind being aristocrats; under Louis XIV and ever since the explusions of the late 14th century, no Jews were even allowed to live in France except in Alsace (acquired in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia), and the area of Nice and Villefranche-de-Conflent. (Lorraine and the area of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin allowed Jews but didn&#039;t belong to France at the time.)</p><p><br /></p><p>As for my 6th great-grandfather, having a coat of arms didn&#039;t make one an aristocrat.&nbsp; It was something merchants could buy if they had enough money. The fact that out of all the affluent Jews in Alsace, my ancestor Abraham &quot;the Red&quot; Brunschwig (who lived in the town of Cernay in Haut-Rhin) was one of only a very small number who did so, is why I said that he must have been pretentious. So I mentioned the whole thing only to point out its absurdity, not to boast of aristocratic lineage! See Ingold, Denis,</p><p><i>Histoire de la Communauté Juive de Cernay</i>, in A<i>nnuaire de la Société d&#039;Histoire des Régions de Thann-Guebwiller, Tome XVIII</i> (1990-1992), pp. 27-34 at p. 29:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Vers 1700, Abraham Brunschwig était un des Cernéens les plus aisés de la ville apparemment, pusiqu&#039;il se vit attributer, sans doute d&#039;office moyennant finance, des armoiries par l&#039;héraldiste royal D&#039;Hozier: &#039;De gueules à six besants d&#039;argent, troix, deux et un.&#039;&nbsp; (Armorial de la Généralité d&#039;Alsace, No 225).&nbsp; Les &#039;besants&#039; (ancienne monnaie) qui meublaient son blason étaient sans doute une fine allusion à ses activités de prêteur sur gages.&quot; See also <i>Armorial Général de France</i>, <i>vol. 1, Haute et Basse Alsace</i> (1696), at p. 511, illustrating in color the arms of &quot;Abraham Bronsvich, Juif.&quot;&nbsp; (Armorial général de France par Charles d&#039;Hozier (1696-XVIIIe siècle), Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Département des manuscrits, français, Ms 32228 à 32262, available at <a href="http://www.chateauversailles-recherche.fr/francais/ressources-documentaires/corpus-electroniques/sources-manuscrites/armorial-general-de-france-par.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.chateauversailles-recherche.fr/francais/ressources-documentaires/corpus-electroniques/sources-manuscrites/armorial-general-de-france-par.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.chateauversailles-recherche.fr/francais/ressources-documentaires/corpus-electroniques/sources-manuscrites/armorial-general-de-france-par.html</a>, with link to vol. 1 at <a href="http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1105860/f2.item" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1105860/f2.item" rel="nofollow">http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1105860/f2.item</a> -- 1er volume : Haute et basse Alsace (Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Département des manuscrits, Français, Ms 32228; identifier ark:/12148/bpt6k1105860).)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>In other words, as the Ingold article suggests, those round objects on my 6th-great-grandfather&#039;s coat of arms were actually silver coins! </b>Perhaps I should adopt it myself. . . .</p><p><br /></p><p>Oh, and thanks for the flattering comments.&nbsp; Deserved or not![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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