Image: Family tree showing Hendrik VAN WESSEL - vanwessel.org © 2019

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Burke's Peerage Wessel...

Description. Shield: Chief with yellow (possibly white) ermine at the top 1/3 and 3 golden fleur de lis on a red field below. "GU. THREE FLEUR-DE-LIS OR, A CHIEF ERM" (better description always welcome).

Wessel ? (1)

Wapen Jacobus van Wessel

Sources: (Dutch sources have not been translated)

  1. 'Burke's Peerage World Book of Wessels' A compilation of public information by Halbert's Family Heritage (USA) in 1995 (pag. 2.11) + separate colour printed version. This book lists of addresses of WESSELs (NOT VAN WESSELs) world wide and a basic introduction to history, genealogy and heraldry. Although the address lists have helped many people to find family members all over the world its is useless as a source for serious genealogical or heraldic data. (see below).
    The publishers of Burke's went into liquidation around 1995/6, leaving two more or less intangible items to be continued by others. The first of these, the name and logo, were acquired by a partnership that planned to exploit the Burke's reputation through licensing the use of the name to other enterprises. The most public and controversial result of this has been the appearance of the "family histories" produced by Halbert's Family Heritage in the form of, for example, The Burke's Peerage World Book of Dafts. These contain some introductory pages of general history, a few pages of heraldry that are superficial, pretentious and inaccurate, and a very large number of pages of names and addresses extracted from telephone directories. This reappearance of the once revered name of "Burke's Peerage" inflamed the tempers of many family historians, and a flood of e-mail complaints were uploaded onto bulletin boards. The BBC Watchdog television programme also publicised the anger the Halbert's operation has aroused. (Source: Baronage website) Please take care!

Comments: If you were ever approached by 'Burke's Peerage' this is what you would have received as the coat of arms of 'Wessel'. No references are given for the source or who first used/registered it. (CTvW) See also notes above.

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