The International Association of Amateur Heralds

Hello,

I am a new Belgian member trying to create "speaking" coats of arms for his family. My familyname meaning "the river of the mill" (Molenbeek, in Flemish) since about 300 years, I recently found an ancestor wearing "the mill of the mountain/hill" (Mulenberch in German but always in Flanders). His children used to wear our name as written nowadays. Do I have to see it as an exception or must I "beware"?

All the best,

Charles Melebeck

Post removed.

I am not sure how much help we the IAAH can be with answering your question which is not so much about heraldry as with the origins of your family name, which as I understand it is Flemish. I don't think we have any Belgian members, not active ones anyway. Our learned Secretary is Dutch and may have some insights.

Molenbeek (Millbrook in English) is of course a very common place name in what is now Belgium, there is one in Brussels not far from where I once lived. So I would imagine that it is not impossible that your surname of Melebeck is an archaic form ("Mele" may be related to the English "Mill" and "Beck" is identical with the northern English and Nordic "Beck" (Stream)). If I understand you right, an ancestor assumed that Melebeck derived from "Mulenberch" which I surmise is an archaic form of the German "Muhlenberg". I am no expert by any means in surnames from the low countries, but, if as you believe your family has been Flemish from time immemorial, the balance of probabilities must surely be that Melebeck derives from Molenbeek and not from Muhlenberg a family name not I think found in Flanders but not that uncommon in Germany (and now in the US).

Now it is of course conceivable that "Mele" means something else and not mill, but you would need the advice of an expert in Flemish linguistics to sort that out. I remember being told when I lived in Brussels that Flemish villages only a few kilometres apart once spoke virtually different languages, not just different dialects. If true, it is not unlikely that the word for a mill wasn't "molen" throughout Flanders.

If you want a really professional answer I would suggest you try an expert in Flemish. Have you tried the Catholic University at Leuven? I believe the head of the Linguistics Department is Professor Willy Smedts.

PS: I think when you used the word "wearing" you meant "bearing".

Thank you for this answer, I will first ask the question in the place I study, the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve. In fact the word "Mele", in my familyname, only appears late. The normal spelling during the XVIIth cent. being "Mole", closer to the mill in Flemish then.
Could you perhaps give me your advice on my project? This is supposed to show that my family established itself on the border between Duchy of Brabant (sable and or), and the County of Namur (Or and sable) and that they were blacksmiths....

I apologize for my writting in English, I hadn't done it for a long time

Charles

I had a look in a family name database of the Netherlands and Melebeck does not exist in it.
As for the arms I would suggest something gyronny (gegeerd) wavy (gegolfd) in or and sable. In this all elements are incorporated a windmill, a beek and the colours of Brabant and Namur yet it is a simple design. Mele means apples in Italian so perhaps an apple (or/sable) on one of the wavy bits could be a nice charge.

This begins to look like a formal "Design Assistance Request". Please complete the form (link below) and we'll see what we can do.

http://fs8.formsite.com/secretary/design-request/index.html

Indeed, Mr Green! The only one thing I would like to know, and sorry for asking it, is: is there a cost for such a kind of request? I am still a student and have ipso facto only few financial means, my family members being uninterested by heraldic matters...

No charge!

Done! Thank you.

Having come upon this thread some months after the initial posting, and having not seen any reference to it elsewhere on the forum, I may be giving pointless advice.
I would nonetheless advise Charles to get in touch with the Heraldisch College van de Vlaamse Vereniging voor Familiekunde, which would be the appropriate place to register such a coat of arms.
It has a website at http://users.telenet.be/johan.roelstrae ... ollege.htm
Charles’s design would readily be compared with other entries in the College’s records.
Regards,
Mike