The International Association of Amateur Heralds

Is not to register, just to record? or is there a difference?

Yes there is. And I think that is a brilliant pick up on your part. I register my arms so they are protected with XYZ heraldic authority (IAAH). Other authorities decide they will accept the IAAH registrations so maybe they (should?) record them so when they register or grant arms there is no confusion/duplication. I think that is what Burke's/Armorial Register International Register of Arms http://www.armorial-register.net/ is attempting to become. I don't know if they charge a fee to record though.

The IAAH is not a heraldic authority. Anyway, there is a long tradition of heralds and others publishing the arms of others, without presumably, their consent.

Ryan Shuflin wrote:The IAAH is not a heraldic authority. Anyway, there is a long tradition of heralds and others publishing the arms of others, without presumably, their consent.

If arms are intended as a form of identification, which I presume to be true since most authorities follow a one-to-one guideline, then why shouldn't someone's arms be recorded? It only helps to reinforce that "These are MY arms, just as this is MY name."

I see no problem with recording corporate arms since it helps to show that those arms represent that corporation; for example, until recently I did not know Stanford University had arms for the University as a whole and also for each of the schools. I now know what Stanford's arms are.

I find this whole discussion baffling, every time it comes up.

Where would we be as heraldists if it were illegal or unethical or whatever for third parties to record arms without the bearer's permission? (And by the way to register something is the same as recording it, from Latin regerere, "to enter or record.") Does anyone think John and Bernard Burke or their predecessors went out and got permission from all the thousands of people whose arms they put in their armorials? Siebmacher or Rietstap? In the American context, Crozier or Bolton?

This is what we do, like birdwatchers recording the birds they see.